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News and Comment April 2015

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13 April (Part 1) - The Splash Park is back

Splash Park Well not exactly but the Save the Belvedere Splash Park campaign website has come back to life with a lot of new posts but perhaps not an awful lot of new information.

It is reiterated that cabinet member Alex Sawyer admits that he will take no notice of a petition, Bexley council never has so I suppose it is better that he speaks the truth than arouse false hopes. Nevertheless there is comment that a petition has been allowed for the Old Manor Way playground closure - on the council’s own website no less - where Conservative councillors are feigning support.

There is some adverse comment on the closure campaign being dragged into the political arena by parliamentary candidate Anna Firth but it is hard to see how that can do any harm. Alex Sawyer was on the committee of the Erith & Thamesmead Conservative Association - chairman if I remember correctly - when Anna Firth was selected as their candidate and his wife is still President. Anyone prepared to kick sand in the face of Bexley’s Conservative council can’t be all bad.

The situation remains much the same as it was three months ago. Unless someone can find funds from elsewhere to rebuild the Splash Park, it will close, because Bexley council is not going to dig deep. Its budget is finely balanced and any change of direction will tip them into the abyss. The Conservative cycle is clear. Cut everything possible in the first year of office and hope the pain will be forgotten when the next election comes around three years later. Lying about Bexley having a low council tax rate always helps.

It cannot be said too often that Bexley council is relying on “all the Cabinet’s proposals particularly in respect of savings” to go ahead if the budget is to get anywhere near to making sense, and it has already set the council tax level so there is no realistic alternative to the cuts and extra charges. All this consultation business is the usual sham unless money can be conjured up from external sources.
Budget

 

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