30 June (Part 1) - Plod’s plodding pace
It
is more than eleven weeks since someone, presumably a councillor with something to hide and without the
intelligence to work out that his actions would increase the readership massively,
asked Bexleyheath police to get this website closed down under threat of arrest if
I continued with it. Since then I have continued to write about Bexley council and
the police have done nothing. They have also done absolutely nothing about my
complaint that the police were being used by a council bent on clamping down on
open democracy and that the police were helping the cowards to remain anonymous. The
Metropolitan Police’s Directorate of Professional Standards say they are monitoring
the situation which I believe means they have put the file on one side until
something happens. I was promised a phone call seven weeks ago and the DPS
promised the same again last Monday but nothing happens.
It is more than three weeks since I reported a crime, apparently by someone at
Bexley council, to Bexleyheath police and as nothing had been heard after two
weeks (23rd June) I wrote to the Deputy Commander as follows…
I made a report on 8th June of some developments that
indicated a crime carried out by someone closely associated with Bexley Council
and you issued the above crime number. Since then the Chief Executive of the
Council (Will Tuckley) has advised me that he also thinks on the evidence
provided that a crime has been committed and has told me he has also been in
contact with Bexley police, presumably at a senior level.
Part of the evidence indicated that I and a friend had been tracked on a visit
to the Civic Offices and that at least two such visits were ‘blogged’ on a
website within hours of the event in objectionable terms that were detailed on
the 8th June. Mr. Chris Loynes of Bexley Council arranged one of the ‘blogged’
visits so he should be a primary source of information, as should Mr. Tuckley as
the content of the website was deleted immediately after I told him about it.
In the past two weeks it should have been possible to conduct investigations
given the amount of clues and leads provided. I would be grateful if you would
tell me of the progress you have made towards bringing the culprit to justice.
It was my intention to write again today to indicate that
I wasn’t prepared to let the issue of the obscene blog drag on as has
happened with
the Harassment Letter and go to the Independent Police Complaints
Commission next week but while I was in Ashford my colleague Elwyn Bryant who was also named in
the obscene blog sought a
progress report by telephone. Getting hold of the police by telephone is near
impossible which is why I long ago stopped reporting petty crimes and Elwyn was
on and off the phone for two days listening to ringing tone and being bounced
from pillar to post and waiting for call backs that never came. However
eventually an Inspector called and helpfully offered to look at the file in
order to give Elwyn a little feedback. He found the file was marked ‘Restricted’ and
access forbidden so no real information was forthcoming. At least there is one
Inspector who did what he could.
Marking a file ‘Restricted’ may indicate the crime is being taken seriously - or
is it part of a cover-up to protect a guilty party within Bexley council?
The inaction over the Harassment Letter and the refusal to name the accuser does
not augur well, but maybe the new Commander will come to recognise that not all
is well at Bexley council. His officers have been
asked to speak to Martin Peaple
who the council now admit broke no law, they were
called out to protect councillors
from a handful of pensioners, they have been asked to
prevent
motorcyclists entering the Civic Centre because one wanted to wear a V for Vendetta mask and they were told of
an incident involving councillor
Linda Bailey. Almost every week he reads about Bexley council acting stupidly in
the News Shopper, he must wonder what on earth is going on in this rotten borough.
This morning I received a letter from the police…
Your allegation is being investigated by officers
from Bexleyheath police station. As I am sure you can appreciate the nature of
the allegation requires the use of a data specialist. This unfortunately is a
thorough process and can take some time to achieve th ebest evidence.
Although you have not been updated as to the progress of the investigation you
can be assured that when there are matters to be disclosed, you will be contacted.
Yes I can appreciate that the case requires a data specialist so I
suppose patience is called for - but not for ever and not if it turns out to be a
white-wash.