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.
Councillor
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.
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!
Having 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.
It’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.