18 November (Part 1) - Old Farm Park slips further out of reach
Last
night the inevitable happened. Bexley council’s cabinet took another step towards the disposal
of four open spaces the largest and most contentious being Old Farm Park in Sidcup.
Strangely, two of the seven cabinet members were absent but all the most
ruthless were there. Another surprising absentee was Sidcup councillor Rob
Leitch who was in detention at the school where he is a teacher, however his
Sidcup colleague is more than capable of fighting her corner alone.
The turnout of councillors was higher than normal, nearly half of Conservatives
members were on the back benches and the same went for Labour. UKIP managed a 100% turnout.
I made no effort to count the members of the public but a photograph suggests an
audience of about 40. Most must have been Old Farm Park campaigners because
after the vote there were only five of us left, dwindling to two by the time the
meeting ended soon after ten o’clock. Obviously no one is really interested in
library privatisation which followed parks on the Agenda.
The Old Farm audience was quite vocal at times and meeting chairman Teresa O’Neill didn’t like it, but not as
much as she didn’t like councillor June Slaughter. If looks could kill…
Note: A detailed report on Agenda 5 (Consideration of the
Parks Consultation) should appear later today. Probably much later.