1 March (Part 1) - A cabinet of woodentops
If you attended Bexley council’s cabinet meeting expecting to see a
low-grade version of a debate between Liam Fox asking for defence equipment and
George Osborne digging his heels in you would be sorely disappointed. It may be
low-grade but there is absolutely no debate. What you get is councillors quoting
chunks of a fat document freely available at this meeting of the Bexley branch
of the Mutual Admiration Society. I lost count of the number of times I heard one say “I
agree with councillor…” or something very like it. Everything had been
cobbled together some while ago and yesterday was just a charade to be
played through because there is a legal requirement to hold a cabinet meeting in
public. It was all over in fewer than 40 minutes. Of interest to those who foot
the bills is that Teresa O’Neill announced that council tax would not rise next
year bringing Bexley into line with all the other London councils which made
their ‘freeze’
announcement several weeks ago and retaining our position among
London’s top taxing councils. Their self-congratulation is undeserved. Bexley
still compares badly with the rest of London in the value for money stakes
Among other announcements was that the price of petrol was high (really?) and
that expenditure on highways would be maintained at current levels. Craske is
therefore at liberty to go on spending vast sums on crazy schemes like those at
Ruxley Corner and
Wickham Lane and return soon afterwards to
pour money into putting his mistakes right.
Queen Mary’s Hospital is to be managed in future by local GPs. Today I failed in my doctor’s lottery to
get an appointment for the third day on the trot. He couldn’t organise a drug-fuelled
party in a pharmacy. Run a hospital? I don’t think so.
The documentation is far more interesting than the meeting. It reveals sweeping
increases in charges, some doubling, many rising between 20 and 25%. If you have
an annual season ticket for a car park get ready for an increase of more than
£100. A comment from whoever looks after such issues (sorry I had my head in the
book at the time and missed it) said that parking revenues are down in the
current year but it’s a blip as a result of December’s snow. Presumably whoever it
was has forgotten that we had a similar snowy period in the previous
December (and January). Did he not consider the downturn
might be caused by resistance to the constant hiking of charges? The supplied
documentation says otherwise and anticipates another ‘blip’ in the coming year.
The public consultation was as everyone knew it would be something of a disaster
partly brought on by apathy. 829 people sent in suggestions which the council
boiled down to about 160 different ones. At the meeting last November
councillor Ball was concerned that
residents would make suggestions that favoured themselves and they would have to
be disregarded - did he really expect residents to do otherwise? However he
needn’t have worried, all but one of the 160 suggestions were dismissed out of
hand. True there were a few that were less than intelligent and a fair number
suggested things that are already happening but the vast majority were tossed
aside. The glaring exception was that libraries should close on an extra day per week.
Naturally that suggestion will be “taken into account and considered”. I shall
probably be torn apart for this but it seems to me to be a pretty good idea.
Libraries could be on a rota for their day off and it should reduce staff costs
a bit. Part of my old job was developing staff rotas and I think it must save
money if flexibly implemented. So that’s it, all that effort and just one
suggestion makes it through the net. It was entirely predictable but it helped
the council with another of their charades.
You may well have been disappointed if you attended expecting a debate but if
you were there only to take up my suggestion of seeing the glowing gnome you will
not have wasted your time. More a traffic light than cabinet member for traffic
he was the colour of tomato juice. Is he blushing with embarrassment or in a
rage knowing his mistakes are all so very public? Maybe something similar
affects councillor Campbell too for he often looked like Craske’s twin. I expect
the thought of a trial coming up for the
alleged paedophile manager of the
Thames Innovation Centre who Campbell supported and maintained in a job after sacking
the whistleblower. I know these people are well versed in under-hand tactics but
having his dirty washing hung out for public view is going to be an unedifying
experience.