21 October (Part 2) - Bexley in the newspapers
Councillor Gareth Bacon has
an article in today’s Guardian about recycling in London in which he not
unnaturally plugs Bexley’s high ranking among London’s boroughs. In my view he
should be congratulated on achieving a good service without imposing draconian
financial penalties on residents unlike some other councils, most of which if
my newspaper has been reporting in an unbiased fashion, are both Northern and
Labour controlled. I just wish he wouldn’t allow his success to be exaggerated.
Bexley is not making a real
saving of £3 million a year
as they would have us believe, if it was, either the cost would be going down next year or the
income would be going up, but in practice nothing much is changing. Their calculation is deeply flawed.
The News Shopper reports on its website today that Bexley council has held an Awards Ceremony to celebrate a
success in the London in Bloom competition. This is rather odd because when
the Tax Payers’ Alliance asked Bexley council what they were spending on Awards
Ceremonies they replied “from a cursory search no record of attendance at or
hosting of Award Ceremonies was found”. That’s doubly odd then. Didn’t ex-mayor
Val Clark write to some residents for being ‘parsimonious with their appreciation’
when they found the council meeting they thought they were attending was supplanted by an Awards Ceremony?
Why is the truth such a difficult concept for Bexley council?