29 April (Part 2) - Digging the dirt
I
don’t know anything about Labour election candidate Baljeet Singh Gill of Brantwood Avenue Erith or why he
was dragged in front of a court and heavily fined but I do know something about Philip Read of
Myrtle Close Erith and Kerry Allon of School Lane Welling; Conservative
candidates for Northumberland Heath and Lesnes Abbey respectively.
Philip Read first came to my notice when he set up
www.bexley-is-bonkers.com
immediately after I started this website as a .co.uk. When he let the domain die I took
over and in tribute the .com now routes directly to this blog.
Philip’s wife Eva works for Bexley council and is responsible for vetting
questions to council. Potentially at least councillor Read could influence what happens at council meetings.
In 2012
Philip Read imagined a situation for Bexley’s compliant police force and it
landed Crayford resident John Kerlen behind bars for 24 hours. A judge in
Bromley fortunately saw Read’s charges for what they were, balderdash, but the
police kept John in a cell for a further hour or two because that is what you
get when police are subject to “political interference”. John Kerlen has
since moved to Erith.
Philip Read has long been associated with the travel industry and according to
various company registers he has been director of eight all of which have gone bust or
otherwise folded. His business experience allows him to chair Bexley’s Finance Committee meetings.
By contrast, Kerry Allon is quite low key. He famously
campaigned against ASDA
in Belvedere, even organising a petition which was
later discovered to have been
rigged by other shopkeepers, but apart from that he has done nothing. It’s no surprise he has done a runner
to Lesnes Abbey for next month’s election. ASDA has become an enormously popular feature of an area Bexley council always neglects.
Kerry Allon was also present when councillor Cheryl Bacon made the silly mistake of
shutting out the public from her Public Realm meeting
and then went on to
wreck her reputation by
allowing so many lies to be told about it. Kerry Allon seized upon the adjournment to, in his own words, “go out for a fag” and
later refused to confirm, as did some of his colleagues, that no member of the
public misbehaved on that fateful evening. On the other hand he refused to back
Cheryl’s lies, not that that marks him out as anything special, no councillor
has stood by the beleaguered Cheryl Bacon.
When Bexley council was asked via FOI how many Bexley councillors had been
arrested by the police they refused to answer. Maybe councillor Peter Craske has company.