14 February - Craske is not being truthful
If you’ve read anything about councillor Craske’s plan to triple the cost of a
permit to park within a Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) you will know that as with
many of Bexley council’s operations his justification is based on deception and
lies and like anything built on deception, lies and not a little corruption it will
usually not bear close scrutiny. In the four or five months I’ve been reporting
on developments quite a number of Craske’s lies have been exposed, the
subject was last aired
two weeks ago, and today it is time for more.
Craske said last September
that it costs £36,000 a year to repaint the white
lines around residents’ parking bays which if true would add about £12 to the
cost of every parking permit. However a recent Freedom of Information (FOI)
request asking how much they spend says they don’t know. “Data not held” is the
official answer which is most likely code for nothing at all. My photograph (taken this
afternoon) is of what is left of the white line around a four bay parking spot within a
Bexley CPZ. It can be covered by my camera’s lens cap and the bays are apparent only
because the yellow lines either side of it are still visible. To be absolutely
honest I should add that there are two similar white blobs of paint two or three
car lengths away. If any money was actually spent on white lines you would think
this non-line would have been high on the priority list but I’d put money on my
interpretation of the FOI answer being closer to the truth than Craske’s ‘wet
finger in the air’ assertion.
Craske reckons that 64% of
parking staff accommodation costs are attributable to staff engaged
on CPZ work. The FOI says the true figure is none because no one in the parking
office works exclusively on CPZ work.
Craske said that 3,081 permits were issued in the last year for which figures
are available and that demand is going up putting pressure on the scheme and
causing costs to rise. Economies of scale in Craske’s world? No way! Figures
said to be taken from the council’s website in the previous year show 3,081 to
be a reduction of nearly 800. I should add again for reasons of total
transparency that I did not see that figure myself, it was sent to me by an
interested party, but it probably doesn’t matter whether that report is true or
not. The FOI answer says that the parking office has “no data available” for the
number of permits produced (or visitors’ tickets) for the princely sum of
£49,000. Craske said that computer costs for running the CPZ are about £12,000
a year. If they don’t know how many permits and tickets are issued, pretty
fundamental stuff I would have thought, Craske might as well abandon his
computer database and go back to postcards in a shoe box. My Newham visitors’
ticket is a nice piece of serially numbered card. Only 30 pence for the day too.
No cost at all for the residents. God help them when
Teresa O’Neill starts dishing out her advice to Newham council.
The FOI answer throws light on a few other things too, like library managers
being included in the cost of operating CPZs but today’s blog is quite long
enough already and there is always another day. Meanwhile I hope you will
forgive me if I continue to think that councillor Peter Craske is incapable of telling the truth.