12 August - Another collection of oddments
The Crown v Councillor Cheryl Bacon
It’s a year since the police presented their case against Councillor Cheryl
Bacon and her friends for lying on a massive scale while in Public Office and the
Crown Prosecution Service has been sitting on the file ever since. Mick Barnbrook
made enquiries three weeks ago as a
result of which he has been told that everyone there is on leave until the second week in September.
You’d think if the CPS thought there was no case to answer they’d have
said so ages ago. Maybe that is not so easy when the evidence stacked against Bacon and Co. is so very strong.
Bexley Council sticks by its decision that Councillor Maxine Fothergill brought it into disrepute
Nobody knows exactly what Councillor Maxine Fothergill is supposed to have done
to incur the wrath of Bexley Council. It must be something to do with her property
business but the complainant won’t say what. In fact the complainant didn’t even make a
complaint, not a written one anyway and that is what the law requires. Insiders
report that the complaint on which the Code of Conduct Committee acted was
written by a pseudo Council Officer, viz. one of the so called Independent Persons.
The Independent Person is a member of the Code of Conduct Committee. If the
usually reliable informant is correct it is a clear case of Judge and Jury.
In the absence of any public information about what Councillor Fothergill is
supposed to have done, the only possibility of damaging Bexley Council’s
reputation comes from the Council itself. It is not too unreasonable to assume
that Councillor Fothergill’s misdemeanour, if indeed there was one, was minor in
the extreme and her ‘friends’ were exacting some sort of revenge. If in doubt
always assume that Bexley Council is crooked.
Houses in Multiple Occupation
Fresh from his skirting around
the truth in this week’s News Shopper, Cabinet Member Brad Smith has decided on licensing all HMOs and issued
a Press Release. If you are looking for early relief from the worst sort of
HMOs, forget it. If it happens it will be more than a year away.
Bexley has not got a fly tipping problem - the Council says so
Cabinet
Member Don Massey is
proud of Bexley when showing people around. Does he ever
get around Bexley any more or is he familiar only with the A2 to Rochester?
The pile of rubbish shown here does not exist as far as Bexley Council is
concerned, it’s on private property so it won’t be included in the stats.
The unqualified man
Mr. Barnbrook has challenged Bexley Council about their refusal to say what qualifications their Head of
Legal, Akin Alabi might have which the professional bodies don’t know about. His letter put forward various scenarios…
A. He has obtained his appointment as Head of Legal Services of Bexley Council by means of forged documentation.
B. He has orally misrepresented himself to the Council’s Appointments Committee as being either a qualified solicitor or a
qualified barrister, when that is not the case.
C. He has been appointed as Head of Legal Services in a different name from the one he used to obtain his
professional qualification as a solicitor or barrister.
D. The Council is knowingly and deliberately refusing to supply the information I have requested
in the knowledge that it might implicate members of the Appointments Committee
in a Criminal Conspiracy or Misconduct in Public Office.
If he had any qualifications they would be freely available from either the Law Society or the Bar Council but neither know him.
Bexley Council once again failed to come to Alabi’s defence and is prepared only to say “I am entirely
satisfied that Mr. Alabi is appropriately qualified and experienced and meets the requirements
of the role but is entitled to have his personal information protected”. That
statement comes from Director of Finance Alison Griffin proving that when it
comes to a cover up all the senior officers will swiftly go into mutual self preservation mode.
Bexley
Council’s job description for their Head of Legal says that being either a qualified Solicitor or
Barrister is an essential requirement of the job.
The apology for a Chief Executive Gill Steward has also lost no time in protecting Mr. Alabi. She
has decreed that Mr. John Watson who was the first to discover that Mr. Alabi’s
qualifications, whatever they may be,
did not appear to meet Bexley Council’s
minimum requirement cannot email his concerns to the Council in future. “I am
arranging for your e mail address and any other e mails addresses (sic) that you might create to be blocked.”
Using the ‘vexatious’ rules is what Bexley Council always does when it has lost the argument.
Gill Steward is most definitely a loser.
Facebook
I
have yet to discover the attraction of Facebook but there can be little doubt that it is a
very popular social media platform. Those who use it to follow the local scene may
be interested to learn that there is now a group which celebrates Joseph Bazalgette’s sewer,
or more accurately the public footpath that sits astride it.
The Ridgeway runs from the Crossness pumping station to Plumstead. The group follows in the footsteps of
The Greenway
which is its twin on the other side of the River.
It could have been 1001
Bexley Council is
bragging that there are now 1,000 Neighbourhood Watch
Coordinators in the borough. I wonder how accurate the statistics are. My road
is plastered with Neighbourhood Watch signs and has been for ten or fifteen
years, but there has never been an active watch here.
Last year I was persuaded to take on the role - as if there wasn’t enough to do
already - but I was rejected when it was discovered I ran Bexley is Bonkers.