4 March (Part 1) - No help there then
The report on the protest campaign at Old Manor Way included the comment that David Evennett MP had not replied to a letter, something that came from the campaign organiser herself.
The
MP’s letter arrived later the same day, not that it was worth the stamp - oh, MPs don’t pay
postage do they? - because he simply dismissed the issue as ‘nothing to do with
me gov’. Presumably he has never checked his own website (see below).
More unexpected by the Old Manor Way campaigners, but not to regular Bexley
council watchers, is that the three ward councillors have held out little hope
of assistance and are anxious to step aside while busily washing their hands.
The councillors have circulated a letter to residents which confirms what was stated at
last week’s cabinet meeting, that we are asked to believe that nothing much has
been done yet on the proposed sale. (Audio clip here.)
Probably the campaigners believed that Bexley councillors are there to help residents,
their Facebook page suggests as much, but that is to totally
misunderstand how Bexley council works.
In
Bexley, the council leader sets the agenda and senior staff are given among the
highest local authority salaries in the country to ensure there is no dissent.
Councillors are not allowed to have minds of their own. In the past four plus
years only two Conservative hands have gone up against any Teresa O’Neill
inspired motion, policy or directive and within a very short time afterwards
both those rebels were no longer councillors.
Bexley’s Conservative councillors are jobsworths pure and simple - even the
relatively decent ones of which there are a few. Even when they are critical of
plans they vote for them. There is absolutely no way that
councillors Hurt, Marriner and Pallen are ever going to help in any meaningful
way on an issue such as this. £56,205 this year between the three of them
ensures undying loyalty to the lady dictator.
Bexley Conservatives lied to the electorate last May when they claimed Bexley was a low tax borough, it is not,
only eight boroughs out of 32 in London charge more.
(Bexley in 24th poorest place). If they allow council tax levels to sink further towards the bottom of the league there is a
danger they will be found out. No councillor can oppose the leader’s ambitions
or risk exposing her as a charlatan. They know just how severe the internal
bullying of those suspected of disloyalty can be.