2 December (Part 1) - A serious request to cut costs or another Tory trick?
At their
meeting on 23rd July 2014, Bexley Conservatives rejected Seán
Newman’s (Labour) motion to reduce the number of Bexley councillors by a third to 42 and
voted instead for their own amendment to change the number to one chosen by the Boundaries Commission.
Up, down, the same; it didn’t say.
The cynics amongst us might assume that that would be the last anyone would hear
of the only cost cutting exercise not to have been directed at residents until the next set of electoral bribes are trotted out to a gullible electorate;
so a request was made for a copy of any correspondence with the Boundaries
Commission that might have followed the vote.
That correspondence has been made available by Bexley council but whether it is genuine is open to conjecture.
It is not on Bexley council’s headed notepaper nor is it signed. If it is truly
an exact copy of Bexley council’s letter as they claim it to be, the Electoral
Commission will not know who it came from.
It doesn’t even begin to explain what the council is asking for so councillor
Newman’s motion seeking a reduction will be lost on them.
Neither does it get anywhere near explaining that a reduction in the number of
councillors was an election promise. As it is, the Commission is free to come up
with whatever number it decides and Teresa O’Neill is free to have a quiet word
in any ear she thinks might help her get her way.
Click the first image to see the whole of the claimed letter. The electoral promise above
is from the original political leaflet.