12 May (Part 1) - Teresa O’Neill. Guilty as charged
There
was a brilliant letter in yesterday’s News Shopper, I urge you to get a copy if
you can. Peter Shering, the writer has certainly got the measure of council
leader Teresa O’Neill, so much so that there were accusations of someone writing
under a pseudonym at last night’s meeting of the Bonkers team.
Mr. Shering is concerned about the dictatorial aspects of Bexley council, its
quest for absolute control exhibited by “the lengths Cllr O’Neill and her colleagues
are going to [to] cut people out of decisions” and its rigging of its Constitution to
stifle questions and to make questioners “suffer further sanctions”.
(Link to News Shopper letter
added 18th May 2011.)
There are other ways in which Bexley council is circumventing its
responsibilities to democracy and that is not observing the law on Freedom of
Information (FOI) requests. They are supposed to reply within 20 working days.
My colleagues have unanswered FOIs going back as far as last October.
Sometimes Bexley council
doesn’t answer questions accurately,
or gives a totally naive answer as it did over
staff parking privileges. At other times they dodge
giving an answer by saying it would be too expensive to provide it. Their decision
and no appeal process. This is the FOI equivalent of telling a complainer he is
“vexatious” and refusing to talk to him any more or
getting a warning
about behaviour from the mayor and suffering one of Mr. Shering’s “further sanctions”.
All are devices employed by Bexley council to shield itself from scrutiny.
Sending in the police to intimidate residents is another.
I think we have got to the stage where an FOI request on the date of submission
of all currently outstanding FOI requests would be a good move.
Copy of the
News Shopper’s Star Letter added 26th May 2011.