16 November - Belvedere Beach is due to make a Splash. Four more parks sacrificed
The Cabinet had important things to do last night; to approve their own
proposals. Firstly for a new children’s playground in Belvedere to be known as The Beach, then to sell off four more
small parks and finally to take the management of Hall Place back in house after the Heritage Trust ran out of money.
Click image for more pictures of The Belvedere Beach.
As Cabinet meetings go it was a pretty good one, not too much Labour bashing and
not too long. It would seem fair to say that Bexley Council has made the best of a bad job in each case.
Once again the Bexley Buffoon’s directions on the room layout printed in the
Agenda bore no relation to practical reality which puzzled the three members of
the public sitting nearest to me. I’d not seen them before and asked them why
they had come. “To see if Councillors are as evil they seem to be.” I told them
that they are not all evil but some of those present tonight might be.
But the Cabinet was on its best behaviour. Nevertheless the three newcomers were not
at all happy with what they heard. I must be getting immune to it all because,
putting recent history aside, I thought a lot of sense was being talked on both
sides of the political divide. They may have dug themselves into a hole but they
know how to build a half decent ladder.
There will be a formal report later but for entertainment - which probably resonated only
with myself - I had to rely once again on my old friend Councillor Peter Craske.
He twice or maybe even three times referred mournfully to the misinformation that is
the subject of garden fence gossip and on social media.
Of the fate of the existing playground in Belvedere he said it is safe and
all rumours to the contrary are false. “By the way nothing is going to happen to
that playground on the other side of the road despite some of the more ludicrous
claims that are being made. Baffling why people spend so much time and energy
to make up things that are not true, but that’s up to them I guess.”
He is right of course. Whatever possesses people to deliberately spread lies and worse? It makes you wonder who would have written this…
