18 December - A collection of oldies updated
The IPCC and the obscene blog investigation
Just because there is nothing much going on here doesn’t mean I have been
slacking. Yet more correspondence with the Independent Police Complaints
Commission this week prompted a long trawl through the files checking out a few
things. After 30 odd months there is a danger I’ll forget the details.
I noticed that when the IPCC upheld my complaint (18th September 2013) that the Met’s
Department of Professional Standards found no fault with those officers who were determined
to find no evidence in what became known as the Craske affair, I should have been contacted
by them. One letter suggests 15 days might be a reasonable time but I have let
it go three months. It’s the same with the Subject Access Request, six months
have passed with barely a word, just a two month old broken promise to reply within two weeks.
Complaints against councillors
Bexley council’s FOI response about complaints made against councillors in the past three years showed that
only one in 49 had been upheld.
I suggested this might be the deputy mayor who had a run in with an elector in 2010
and was ‘convicted’ rather late in the day, but I was wrong.
It turns out that 100% of complaints made by members of the public in since the end of
2010 have been rejected by Bexley council. The only complaint upheld was by one councillor
against another. This was the “tosser” comment let forth in the heat of
argument at a council meeting in 2011. I don’t propose to regurgitate the names
of the protagonists as it seems to be all rather petty in retrospect, especially
as neither of those concerned are “tossers’.
It seems odd that a councillor can get his knuckles rapped for calling another one a tosser but
deputy leader Colin Campbell can say “crap” at a council meeting with
no fear of retribution. Not
that I care about that, it merely illustrates how precious councillors can be
while residents count for nothing.
Councillor Cheryl Bacon’s Closed Session
Answering questions that might reveal a lie must be difficult; which reminds me,
Will Tuckley replied to
my last email.
No answers of course, and nobody has done anything wrong - except me. I’d like to read
between the lines that Tuckley is not entirely comfortable with having to brazen
out the lies attributed to Cheryl Bacon but I’ll refrain from further comment.
Councillor Gareth Bacon’s closed mind
Another subject which seems to be eluding straight comment is that ridiculously
narrow footpath outside Bedonwell school. The issue was pursued with some
initial success by a concerned parent, Chris Attard, and Bexley council’s attitude
towards child safety and what was said about it a a council meeting played a big
part in interesting him in becoming a councillor. I always suspected that decision would
not help his parent/campaigner role at Bedonwell school and once discussed my fears with him.
Chris’s latest blog entry gives some details about Gareth Bacon reneging
on his promise to make children safer, he seems to have found reasons to put the
scheme on ice. It would be best to read the story on
Chris’s own website as a brief summary
may not do it justice.
Incidentally, Chris’s reference to 30,000 visitors to Bexley is Bonkers each month may give
the wrong impression. The blog gets looked at around 30,000 times a month but an awful lot
of views will be by repeat visitors. My best guess for unique visitors would be more
like 5,000 a month, and some of those are from outside the borough. If you don’t
like how Bexley council operates, please spread the word.
www.bexley-is-bonkers.com is the best link to hand out.