14 June (Part 2) - Fatal clangers
Over
the last few months a trickle of anonymous but alarming messages about Bexley council’s
Emergency Link Line (BELL) have found their way into the Inbox. Anonymous messages are always
difficult to handle because it would be all too easy for a malevolent council to set
me up, but gradually the evidence, such that it was, began to stack up into a
plausible story. On 6th June I felt confident enough about some of it to float
a speculative story,
mainly in the hope of flushing more information out of the woodwork. The tactic
seems to have worked.
I am now absolutely sure that Bexley council was knowingly using substandard
equipment with dangerously depleted staff levels and as a result one (possibly
more) of Bexley’s BELL clients died.
The unfortunate lady was Barbara Baker of 26 Meadows Court - pictured last week - who in April last
year pressed the button on her emergency necklace and got no response from the
Control Room in Bexley’s Civic Offices.
The lady died, two Bexley employees were sacked, and the manager who put them in
an impossible position was left to carry on and arrange the cover up. Management
competence fully up to Bexley council’s usual standard and involving names I
have heard before in similar, but less deadly, circumstances.
A number of named councillors are similarly involved.