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News and Comment July 2015

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30 July (Part 1) - This and that

It’s time to wind down for the end of the month again. With most readers viewing Bonkers in ‘month mode’, adding something important within the last day or two and promptly losing it to the next month has always seemed like a waste to me. Actually there is not anything of great importance lined up for August either.

Bexley council has gone into hibernation mode and there is not another meeting of note until 13th October. Maybe the chairman of Planning might disagree, but apart from Audit and General Purposes there is next to nowt going on in the council chamber.

What is going on while councillors and residents alike take their holidays is another consultation period. And they wonder why so few people participate. Never mind, Bexley council interprets apathy as a lack of objection, and a lack of objection is support.

Park Sales
The month has been dominated by the proposed sell off of Old Farm Park and the possible closure of Belvedere’s Splash Park. Is it Splash Park or Splashpark? The inconsistency in documentation is driving me mad.

Old Farm Park
I don’t give much for Old Farm’s chances of avoiding the bulldozers, there is too much money at stake, the biggest chunk of all the various fire sales.


slaughter oneillCouncillor June Slaughter may have put up some great arguments to save her ward park and exposed the dishonesty within Bexley council but leader Teresa O’Neill (’Orrible Beady Eyes) will be even more determined to have her way. Vindictive? You bet!

And where else will the money come from?

I have remarked before that I thought it was discourteous of the Old Farm people to walk out on the Splash Park debate. This provocative comment posted to the Splash Park’s Facebook page may provide an interesting insight into what they were thinking at the time.
Facebook

Not being negative? Ha! Ha! At the moment I would give more for the Splash Park’s chances than Old Farm’s. Selling Old Farm will put many millions in the coffers. Closing the Splash Park saves ten grand (or was it twenty?) a year and a commercial saviour according to councillor Craske’s formula costs nothing. David Barnes is seriously misguided when he talks of expense. Maybe if he had stayed to listen to the debate…


Belvedere Splash Park
There was a campaign meeting last night attended by community leaders, all three ward councillors, mums and dads, and by the look of them, grandparents too!


TwitterHaving attended Bexley council’s various meetings on the subject I have found it perplexing that they have set down stringent conditions for a business takeover without a single figure attached. They speak of a bond without even defining what they mean by the term let alone a price put on it.

They talk of the need to have something sustainable without once suggesting how long a new facility should be good for. Nothing has been said about the refreshment kiosk and toilet block. Can they be taken over, can they be improved, can they be open all year instead of for only five months, will they allow the park to be shut at night, because at present it is also a short cut from the A206 to Heron Hill?

One would have thought that a council serious about saving the park and allowing only three months to do so would have given out a lot more detail for any business aspiring to keep the water facilities open and I fully expected that information to have been handed to the campaign group, or at least their ward councillors. But no, they hadn’t been given anything at all despite a meeting or two.

One begins to doubt the seriousness of the council’s offer. Their strategy appears to be to make things as difficult as possible for anyone who might stand in their way.

It’s not for me to reveal what the campaigners will do next, keep an eye on their Facebook page for that, but suffice to say there is a plan and their numbers include people with the requisite skills.

No one likes us, we don’t care
Someone who had a meeting with some councillors dropped me an email afterwards. can’t say who, which ones, why or when for obvious reasons, but it included the words, “they really hate you’ to which my reply was the same as it always is, “good”.

I hope it hurts even more that they cannot simply dismiss me as a political opponent. I am a lot closer to David Cameron than any of the current Labour leadership candidates although having seen his performance since May I am very glad that I decided I couldn’t vote for him.


FacebookIt’s not only me that Bexley council doesn’t like. They have, and not for the first time, been asking residents using other social media outlets to lay off the criticism. Joseph Goebbels lives!

Reporting us to the police doesn’t work any more, the cops have got wise to being suckered by false tales of arson and violence, and it provides ammunition for years to come.

But it’s nice to know that somebody loves us.

 

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