14 July - The peasants are revolting
Everywhere you look in Bexley you can find people who are unhappy with their Council.
School transport is to be cut again and this time it’s children with Special
Educational Needs who are in the Council’s sights. They are to be consulted but
if that makes a scrap of difference it will be a first.
Wardens in care homes are also under fire. I thought Bexley had already forced them out by
imposing conditions that led to their pay being cut massively, but
some must have survived because
16 more are on their way out.
Also
on its way out is the Registrar’s Office in Sidcup.
Danson House has lost its
grant and closed so the Registrar can move there and Sidcup House can be sold off.
Petitions are becoming more popular, not that any have so far had an impact in
Bexley. Since the Council
refused to accept a 2,219 signature petition to cut
senior salaries in 2011, every petition organiser has seen his or her hopes dashed.
Those aiming to get Bexley Council
to do something about unregulated HMOs have tried their luck with a petition.
3,000 signatures so far.
Also under attack from cuts is
the Danson Youth Trust. It’s a charity which has been working for the
borough for 62 years and already been stripped of most of its Bexley contracts.
Now there is only one left and all the funding for youth services has gone. It too is hoping
a petition will carry some weight. (2,500 signatures in six days.) They have
a Facebook page too.
The very fabric of the borough is being unpicked stitch by stitch.