31 March - The chocolate teapot again
The
month has been dominated by the mayor’s
incompetence and dishonesty. She started by
curtailing questions from the public contrary
to her own Standing Orders. She compounded her folly by writing to members of the public about
“parsimonious appreciation” and
recommending instruction books
she didn’t follow herself and she has finished it off by showing off her dictatorial powers and abuse of democracy.
As has been stated many times before, every Bexley resident is allowed to pose
two questions at open council meetings. Few bother to do so but an exception is
Mr. Elwyn Bryant who always submits a question. For his pains he has been
insulted and lied to by councillor Craske and received
similar treatment at the hands of
Council Leader O’Neill on 2nd March; but Mr. Bryant does
not give up easily. He submitted another question for the council meeting
scheduled for 6th April. He did so well before the cut-off date but yesterday
noticed that he had not received the usual acknowledgement, so he gave the
appropriate department a call. He was told that the mayor herself had decided that
Mr. Bryant’s question wouldn’t be accepted. He is just too much of an
embarrassment to the council. What is more, he wasn’t told because that way any
counter-arguments he could make could be ruled out of time. Cunning eh?
Mr. Bryant now knows that questions designed to expose the council’s or the mayor’s
shortcomings are not welcome. I’m sure he will remember that in future.
The dressed up mayor may look like a cuddly pantomime dame but she is in a powerful position
which permits her to readily flout government guidance on running open and
transparent meetings, to watch individual attendees at meetings and admonish them by
letter for not clapping loudly enough and recommend which books they should read.
She is irrational with no respect for residents and puts obstacles in the way of the
public exercising their democratic rights. Mayor Val Clarke is a danger to the proper conduct of public
affairs in the borough.
Chocolate Teapot : © A senior Bexley Conservative party figure.