6 August (Part 2) - Bexley council will ignore your opinion
I
have been taken to task (very gently!) by a lady from Sidcup for my suggestion that participating in the
Parks for Sale consultation is a waste of time.
My reasoning was based on the fact that Bexley council has never, at least not in the five
years I’ve been watching, taken any notice of a consultation.
The people of Belvedere rejected
North Heath style improvements to Nuxley Road in 2007/8 and
£400,000 wasn’t spent there but that is the only example to be found. Last year
Belvedere confounded the experts when the Places Scrutiny committee was told it
had the lowest proportion of empty premises of any shopping centre in the borough.
However the aforesaid lady said not participating in the consultation is playing into Bexley council’s
hands and on reflection she is right.
She is keen to maximise the responses in order to save her local park (Old Farm). My suspicion remains that
Bexley council simply cannot afford not to sell the park. It is the largest item of family silver proposed
for disposal and deliberately crippling the borough’s best chance of a growth spurt and the income it would
have generated ever since coming to power in 2006, has put Bexley’s Conservatives in far worse a position
than might have been the case. Their own stupidity has left them with very few choices.
Teresa O’Neill OBE (Oiling Brampton’s Electorate) has a lot to answer for.
Not to sell the biggest of the parks on offer would be tantamount to scrapping Bexley’s
entire budget strategy. I really cannot see them doing that and inevitably discrediting the new recruit
from Camden - Finance Director Alison Griffin who is the brains behind it.
Nevertheless, although our expectations may be different, I shall in
future back the Sidcup lady’s view that completing the Parks Sale Consultation
is the right thing to do. She may be hoping for a miracle and I will expect to
be able to say yet again that Bexley council has ignored a consultation, but
this time a consultation that has given an overwhelming verdict rather than the
easily dismissed few hundred who usually take part.
The Save Old Farm Park people have produced
a very comprehensive website with a wealth of interesting and useful
information and in particular a lot of guidance on how best to take part in the
consultation. There are loads of things there which I would never have thought
of. It is all rather well done.
Bexley council’s consultation.
The useful guidance is available directly with a click on the mini Save poster above.