Bexley
sometimes looks like a hotbed of extremism. The borough was close to being worst in
a survey on smoking while pregnant but is top dog for recycling. I understand
that some areas have issues with untidy bin men but around here you have to look very hard for a problem and you won’t often find one.
The biggest problems come from management. On a per head basis I am provided
with five times as much bin capacity as my immediate neighbour and he is
penalised if his lid isn’t quite shut but on the other side of him Bexley provides
twice as much bin capacity.
However there cannot be much doubt that Bexley is better at recycling than the
only other boroughs of which I have any knowledge. I share my brown bin with a
Bromley resident and the glass jars come from Newham which doesn’t provide a
separate glass recycling service to households.
Bexley Council has issued
a Press Release in which Cabinet Member Peter Craske
justifiably crows about the success of being Number One for recycling. (Where
would we be on fly tipping?)
As I have said before, things are very quiet at the moment. Tonight’s Cabinet Meeting has been
cancelled and there is not another meeting of any type that I’d be inclined to
attend until 18th January next year. Maybe the lectures it is alleged the
Chief Executive has been delivering to staff and Councillors alike to tell them not
to ever speak to anyone outside their Ivory Tower is having an effect.
Most of what you read on BiB comes from well informed readers and not ‘a leak’ in the
normal sense of the word, but those readers must have obtained their information from somewhere.
The most exciting email I received today was this one…
Regarding the new Bexley cash cow gestapo, who appear from nowhere to fine anyone caught dropping a dog end £80.
They are accusing smokers of causing the floods in Crayford by clogging the drains with fag butts.
It is all designed to give maximum humiliation in front of shoppers, by making it look as though a shoplifter has
been nabbed. A lot of people are unaware of the new law, so surely a warning could be given for a first offence,
but that wouldn’t raise as much dosh.
It’s a difficult one isn’t it? If Bexley Council operated in an open and transparent manner
few would argue with what they are doing but predictably they are being sneaky.
I have only seen one of their snoopers so far, lurking deep inside a shop
doorway. Unfortunately at the one time the camera was elsewhere.