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News and Comment July 2012

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31 July - Bexley Beat. Up or down?

It is still July but apart from the routine licensing and planning meetings there are no significant Bexley council assemblies scheduled before October; as a result it may prove to be a quiet couple of months around these parts.


Council leader Teresa O'NeillTraditionally the passing of another month is marked by a summary of recent news but for July it is very much ‘business as usual’. Another council meeting, another barrow load of arrogance from council leader Teresa O’Neill. Another display of bad temper by mayor Alan Downing.

Various Freedom of Information requests submitted but no useful answers as yet. Mick Barnbrook’s FOI seeking a copy of Will Tuckley’s business diary for May remains unanswered even though it probably exists in electronic form and could be exported at the click of a mouse. However Nicholas Dowling, another Bexley Council Monitoring Group member, asked the same for June and he is far less patient than Mick. You can be sure the Information Commissioner will be on the receiving end of a complaint as soon as the statutory 20 days have expired.

The County Gate issue arose again and exposed the very worst of Bexley council once more. The absentee councillor Peter Craske threatening residents, all the Conservatives jeering a resident for her membership of the Labour Party and absolutely nothing achieved in their six years in power. Entirely typical.

In Bexley Village deputy leader Colin Campbell’s son continues to annoy many of the locals with his ‘illegal’ cab office. The council’s Planning Office website has today listed the submission of an appeal for 57-59 Bexley High Street but I see no direct reference to the Bexley Cabs office. (Case reference 11/00633/EAPPL.)

In Sidcup there is better news to report about the Grootendorsts’ house. A new contractor has fixed the roof and according to Mrs. G. made more progress in his first week than her rogue builder (Chris McGuiness and MAC Construction) did in two months.


Councillor Philip ReadFacebook and Twitter are almost complete mysteries to me, however I have noted Bexley Beat on Facebook which looks at Bexley though spectacles more rose coloured than mine and appears to be a thinly veiled advert for ASDA, but none the worse for that. I look at my MP’s and my ex-councillor’s Twitter feed now and again but probably the most interesting ones are blocked to those like me who are not signed up.

I’m told that councillor Philip Read is a regular commentator on this blog and loves to Tweet his opinion of it. According to those reports I am a BNP supporter and it is flattering to think he sees Bonkers as a thorn in his side and will stoop to any level to discredit it. Well maybe not any level, he never got around to obscene blogging on the Bonkers domain he registered. He left that to one of his mates. For the record the only political party of which I’ve been a member is the Conservatives in the 1980s and early 1990s. David Cameron once commented that “Too many Tweets make a Tw*t”. There can be few better examples than Bexley councillor Philip Read.

Looking to the immediate future Olly Cromwell’s appeal is due in Court next Friday. Councillor Melvin Seymour’s fantasy police statement about dog faeces and letterboxes may yet be exposed as a fabrication but the falsehood has already fooled one judge so any optimism about the outcome may be misplaced. The police had copies of the original Tweets so always knew Seymour statement was wrong but their priority must have been pleasing their masters rather than the truth.

 

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