31 October) - End of month trivia
I don’t propose to make a big effort today as by tomorrow October will be
consigned to the relative obscurity of last month’s news; if I manage to alter
the redirection code correctly.
Subject Access Request
My SAR to the police should have been answered nearly three months ago and a
telephone enquiry as to its progress met with nothing but rudeness from the police. Typical!
Guido Fawkes Blog
It is a little removed from
standard Bonkers’ fare but the political blog at
order-order.com recently carried an article on MPs who claim rent in dubious
circumstances. Local blogger John Kerlen (aka Olly Cromwell) has blogged
how
local MPs may be implicated. In his own inimitable style of course.
Councillor Cheryl Bacon
Bacon’s illegal exclusion of five members of the public from
the Public Realm meeting
last June continues to rumble on. During the month another councillor indicated
dissatisfaction with Bacon and Mick Barnbrook has been invited to see Bexley
council’s chief legal officer, presumably to discuss his concerns. Maybe the
independent standards person thinks that continual lying and the inevitable
consequence of it becoming a police matter is not worth their £2,200 fee.
Whilst this may look encouraging, it has to be said that 24 hours after Mr. Alabi
issued that invitation, his side-kick wrote to tell me that Cheryl Bacon
did nothing wrong because I was shouting my head off. Probably Mrs. Tyler has
ensured that her name will find its way on to a police file marked ‘Misconduct
in Public Office’.
Travel disruption
A personal moan if I may…
Because I can see my nearest bus stop from home plus the wonders of TfL’s on
line bus times I can usually get from my front door to Bexleyheath on a 229 bus
in around 30 minutes. Yesterday it took 63. This was in part because the bus was
late but it certainly wasn’t helped by the fact it diverted at Erith’s stinking
fish roundabout, all the way to Perry Street, more than a mile. Then it came back
on the other side of the dual carriageway and cut along the chicanes of Colyers
Lane, managing to totally bypass the shopping area of Northumberland Heath. The
traders must be very pleased. Bexley council is messing about with the railway
bridge at Queen’s Road.
Three hours later I hitched a lift with a friend from Bexleyheath to Bexley
Village. Chapel Road was closed and we were diverted down a lane so small that
it is not even shown on my 3·5" to the mile map. It exited on to Tower
Road opposite the police station which was gridlocked because of the Broadway
regeneration works in Arnsberg Way. How long is it now that Bexley council has
been bringing traffic to a halt in its main shopping centre? More than a year I think.
That wasn’t the end of the matter. When we got to Bexley village that was closed
too. The only good thing to report is that when I went for my return bus at nine
o’clock only to find the bus stop out of use, I had to walk a quarter of a mile
towards the A2. Half way there I glanced around to see a 229 about to pass me
by and resigned myself to another 15 minute wait.
The bus pulled in at the stop 150 yards away and I silently cursed my luck. However it
became apparent that the bus was in no hurry to leave so I half ran and half stumbled
to it and clambered aboard expressing my thanks. The driver was very kind to a lady who
had mislaid her Oyster Card at Clock Tower too. I think the driver of LX60DVY, who was
relieved by another at the bus garage, deserves some sort of commendation. He was a
black gentleman. Am I allowed to say that any more? A woman has been banned from a
branch of Sainsburys for referring to a delivery driver as a nice black gentleman. Madness!