31 August - The month of the Craske
There’s no doubt about who has been August’s little
Ray of Sunshine, it’s the unappealing councillor Craske. Gaining fewer than 2% of the borough’s votes in 2010,
he has laboured valiantly to overcome his lowly beginnings to achieve 55 mentions here in the past
30 days and impact the lives of nearly every Bexley resident and some beyond its borders. 3,000 plus
people are now paying three times the election date price to have their car occupy a few square feet of
road outside their homes - much the same level of tax as it costs to drive it
anywhere in the country. As we saw at the beginning of the month the increase was
‘justified’ with figures which were totally
false. Not a single one could be substantiated when the council’s accounts were examined and the
staff questioned. One man in the accounts department said when the figures were being examined
“you are questioning my integrity aren’t you” and the honest answer was of course “yes”.
If you find that all the figures have been made up to suit Craske’s revenue raising exercise
you know that integrity has flown out of the window.
Councillor Craske has raised parking charges to the point they are between 25
and 100% more expensive than in the nearest comparable shopping centres, so whatever possessed
him to put his name to a publicity stunt that claimed
Bexley has the lowest parking charges
in South East London? It is so very easily
disproved. Adolph Hitler‘s propaganda minister Goebbels is credited with first
saying “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually
come to believe it”. First Goebbels and now the Bexley gerbil. I just don’t understand
the constant need to lie exhibited by too many Bexley councillors. Political
spinning I can understand but what Bexley does is not clever. Have they achieved
nothing that can’t be sold without lying?
Craske’s arrogantly imposed
‘Pay and Phone’ parking scheme
doesn’t seem to be going down too well either. The majority against it is 9:1 in a
mini-poll conducted by The News Shopper and a resident of Townley
Road who has been keeping his eye on things for me said he has yet to see more than two cars
parked there, when previously it was often packed. The photograph of Townley Road was taken at 13:23 this
afternoon, I didn’t have to wait to get it, there was no one parked there and I left a minute later.
Except where interrupted by residents’ drives the whole road is equipped for Pay and Phone parking.
Another reader responding to Craske getting into bed with Gary Wayne’s Pay by Phone company, BemroseBoothMobile, tells me it is not
just the Daily Mail that has taken him apart for dubious business practices,
The
Times has done its bit too.
Bexley council’s constant need to cover its tracks has attracted the attention
of the Information Commissioner. He has within the last day or two and had some interesting
things to say. One is that Bexley council is unbelievably trying to tell the
Commissioner how he should be doing his job. Can you believe that? Bexley
council claims to know the law better than the Commisssioner! I rather suspect
Bexley will be reluctant to comply with another of the Commissioner’s rulings too. He
has asked for an enormous cat to be allowed out of its bag within the next ten days.
More details should be available before long but that requires Bexley council to comply
with the law; so no guarantees.