15 March (Part 3) - Porkie Pies?
Among
several other ill-judged comments he made on 17th November 2010 was councillor Craske’s assertion
that he would have the Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) in Albert Road, Bexley removed
“tomorrow”; but he didn’t. Nick Dowling asked him why he did nothing. Craske’s
fulsome answer was “One of the St. Mary’s Ward Councillors has carried out a
survey of Albert Road residents, asking them if they support Mr. Dowling’s
campaign to remove the zone”. That’s it; and we pay him £22,650 for intelligent
responses like that! For a start, Nick has never campaigned for removal of any
CPZ, he has campaigned for Craske to provide plausible figures to justify the
price increase. Craske has never got near to doing that, frequently answering
questions that haven’t been asked.
Several questions arise from Craske’s dishonest response…
a) Why does the councillor have to be anonymous? Does he really exist?
b) What questions did he ask, if any, when carrying out this survey?
c) Where is the formal report and conclusions following the survey and what did it say?
Those questions and more are now on Craske’s desk.
One of the things that Craske accused Nick of on 17th November was orchestrating
the residents of Albert Road into making many separate complaints. That is true,
Nick leafleted the entire street and provided a pro-forma complaint. We are
asked to believe that following the survey not one resident of Albert Road thought to say
“Guess what Nick, the council asked if I wanted to keep the parking zone”. It
could be that they are an unfriendly lot and no one could be bothered to tip
Nick off, or it could be Craske’s survey is a figment of his fertile
imagination. History stacks the odds very firmly in one direction.
Note: A Freedom of Information request later confirmed that
there had been no survey.