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News and Comment June 2012

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16 June - Claim and counterclaim

I still don’t know for sure who is telling porkies down in Bexley Village. News came in yesterday that the taxi office had been open for business until mid-afternoon but it is equally possible that it was just the owner going in and out as he is entitled to do. On the other hand there are rumours that the drivers have been asked to report for work on Monday. Why all this readiness to heap the dirt on one man? Has the name Campbell become so toxic that it will always provoke opprobrium whether justified or not? Is the son being penalized for the sins of the father?

Mark Campbell said at the planning meeting that he had permission to park on nearby land but this is now said to be disputed by the owner. Similarly the plan to erect an extra set of gates is reported to be fiction because there is an established right of way at that point. Supposition or fact?

Ordinarily this subject would not make it on to these pages, it is here only because of the suspicion that the deputy leader of Bexley council might have been planning to pull strings. Who in their right mind would set up a business with high set up costs and advertise for staff with no guarantee of getting permission to operate? Those suspicions remain but there has been no other indication that they are justified. Councillor Colin Campbell has been observed going in an out of the cab office but there has been no hint of involvement at any other level. However a great deal of distrust has manifested itself between the local business fraternity and the Campbell clan. Clearly they are not popular and are being closely monitored for any transgression from the straight and narrow.

TwitterSomething where I feel I am on firmer ground is the claim to open anyway made at the end of the planning meeting. I sought confirmation of it from one of my colleagues immediately after it was said and while making my way home along Broadway someone I had never met before was keen to be sure I had heard the promise to open and repeated the relevant words.

I think it would be madness to open but then, like most people, I do not knowingly break the law. If Bexley Cabs really does open for business it will speak volumes for the standards by which the senior echelons of Bexley council operate. However the associated Twitter comment is correct, it wasn’t Mark Campbell who said it but his alleged business partner. Yesterday’s blog has been amended to make that point more clearly.

 

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