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News and Comment May 2014

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21 May - Last minute desperation

TweetFor four years no one was interested in the dilapidated state of Abbey Wood but in the days before an election even the collapse of a fence is important. Where was councillor Kerry Allon when the problem first arose? Ah, yes; he was campaigning against the area having its only supermarket. Obviously a man of the people.

If Bexley council had looked more favourably on plans to build flats behind the Harrow Inn the problem would not have arisen. One suspects that no one at the council was very interested in the area, their ignorance was such that the Harrow Inn was given listed building status more than a year after it was demolished.


Fence CrossrailPhotographs taken at frequent intervals suggest that vandalism (as stated by councillor Allon) was not the principal factor in the demise of the fence, if at all. It’s been falling from the moment it was erected. But one panel is fixed, which is good, even if taken as a whole it remains a big mess.

While in limbo waiting for the election to come and go I scoured this morning’s News Shopper for inspiration. You can tell an election is coming by the hot air escaping from Teresa O’Neill. In today’s copy she thinks Crossrail should take a branch into Bexley - and then she complains when people says she favours the south of the borough.

If Crossrail had naturally terminated in Bexley would she have campaigned for a branch to Abbey Wood? Her idea is pure pie in the sky. The route to Ebbsfleet is already reserved and mapped out. New flats and houses have just been built alongside the existing line in Bexley.

The Shopper’s letters page reveals that residents don’t seem too keen on parks being left unsecured at night but for me the most interesting contribution is from J. Colegate. A ‘plant’ if ever there was one. The name appears whenever Bexley Conservatives need to boost Teresa O’Neill. This time the leader “keeps council tax down (†) and puts residents first”. Labour are “capitalists”. Last time the poor deluded woman was complaining that those who put questions to council are “time wasters”. Teresa thinks so too, hence her plan to stop councillors from asking too many questions and more than halving the opportunity for scrutiny.

Speaking of boosting Teresa O’Neill, the Conservatives put on a three line whip on Monday to get as many of their councillors as possible out in Teresa’s Brampton ward delivering a special leaflet. I’ve not seen a copy but a special leaflet went out in Blackfen and Lamorbey ward too. Perhaps the Tories are running scared of Independents as well as UKIP down there.

In the Blackfen leaflet councillor Peter Craske has the cheek to say he protected school crossing patrols from the cuts. The truth is that immediately after he was elected in 2010, councillor Craske proposed getting rid of all the school crossing patrols. It didn’t happen because of the public backlash but now he claims to be their protector. Tories in Bexley cannot be trusted, especially councillor Peter Craske, the one with an internet connection with a mind of its own.
Patrols
Labour have new leaflets too.

† The Conservatives have not kept council tax down at all, they have kept it at the highest level, compared to other boroughs, that it has ever been. 24th worst out of 32.

 

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