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News and Comment November 2011

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4 November (Part 2) - The net tightens

Proposed Freedom of Information request to Bexley council

Chief Executive Will Tuckley will have received a letter from Mr. Knight of Belvedere on 6th June (delivered by hand) about a hateful blog detailing his visit to the Civic Centre on 20th May 2011. The obscene blog disappeared from the Internet the same day. On 9th June, Mr. Tuckley rightly said “I consider this amounts to an allegation of serious criminal offences” and that “I have referred the matter to the police”. Council Leader Teresa O’Neill received a similar hand delivered letter the same day as Mr. Tuckley.

• Does Mr. Tuckley or Council Leader O’Neill believe their timely actions led to the removal of the obscene blog within hours of them being formally notified of its existence?

• Does Mr. Tuckley or Council Leader O’Neill know the names of those who may have published or caused to be published the obscene blog published in the name of Mr. Knight?


The revelations about the hate crime committed by Bexley council or someone linked to it continue to provide contradictions. If Will Tuckley reported the crime to the police as he claimed to have done on 9th June it shows a remarkable neglect of his duty to not follow up “serious criminal offences” when five months later he had heard nothing about his own report to Bexleyheath police. One of his key job responsibilities as detailed on the council’s website is to “to provide guidance and advice on major or sensitive issues and maintain an organisational culture which promotes high standards of public service”. Is obscene blogging maintaining those high standards?

I must be soft hearted but I feel a little sorry for Borough Commander Stringer. He came from Croydon, London’s premier centre for arson, to sleepy little Bexley where the crime rate is said to be lowest in the capital; and what does he find? Three murders in as many months and dragged into investigating his closest local partner, Bexley council. Faced with making criminal charges against that partner or trying to shunt a pesky little blogger into the long grass, it may have seemed like an easy choice at the time. Now it is all pear-shaped. Complaints to the Information Commissioner, the Met’s Director of Professional Standards, the IPCC and the Met’s top man, Bernard Hogan-Howe. Files marked RESTRICTED and enough contradictory correspondence to sink the proverbial battleship. Additionally this website is visited daily (several times most days) by MPs, the Greater London Authority, Government Departments and the media (†). The new Borough Commander should have chosen his friends more carefully.

As always blogs are supported by documentation. The Site map provides easy access to ‘Documents’. More will be added over coming days.

† Data based on website reports and statistics.

 

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