23 November - Lying again. Read all about it
It’s only a month ago that I pondered rejoining Erith & Thamesmead
Conservative Association, I don’t suppose they would have me but I even mentioned it in a
conversation with Councillor Alex Sawyer, but how could anyone associate
themselves with such a bunch of liars?
According to
the Erith & Thamesmead Conservative’s website the
Belvedere Beach to be
constructed next year is all Conservative candidate Anna Firth’s idea. Well I went to all
her meetings on the subject
(and all the Council meetings too) and had several private discussions with Anna while the Tory axe
was being held over the Splash Park and nothing like The Beach was ever mentioned.
The lies told on that Conservative web page have all the hallmarks of Councillor
Philip Read (Northumberlandheath) and he is quoted on it as saying…
It was unfortunate that the Labour Councillors and the short-sighted
campaign funded and run by their Party did not seek to engage constructively at
the early stages of this process. Instead, they preferred to stand on the
sidelines throwing metaphorical stones.
As a result, they helped nobody and let down those they purport to
represent. The only constructive contribution came from Anna Firth the
Conservative candidate in Erith & Thamesmead at last May’s general election and
now the Conservative Party’s local Parliamentary Spokesperson.
Anna and the Conservative Party put forward the suggestion that has led to
finding a way to develop the park’s potential for year round use rather than for
just two or three months. Some malicious ill-informed idiots would like people
to believe we planned to sell the park. That was a lie peddled whilst we worked
hard to create a playground that will be unique and different with an
educational and developmental bias including areas such as sensory play which is
so important for many children.
So a campaign to save the much loved Splash Park
headed up by Faye Ockleford was short-sighted
and not constructive? Not being constructive was Bexley Council taking a unilateral
decision without consultation to close the Splash Park and not offering any alternative.
Without the public meetings
hastily organised by Faye with the assistance of her local Councillors
there would have been no campaign and no Belvedere Beach. It was Labour Councillor
Daniel Francis who identified most of the funds now diverted to the Beach. It
wasn’t her fault but Anna Firth’s funding ideas came to nothing.
The Belvedere Beach will cost almost exactly the same as a refurbished Splash
Park but will be cheaper to maintain and can be open all year.
It is true that some people feared that Bexley Council would sell one of the
Belvedere playgrounds but apart from that everything Councillor Philip Read says
on the E&T website is a lie and it is disappointing that Anna Firth appears
to be happy to associate herself with them.
The Belvedere Beach should be an unmitigated good news story but the dead hand
of Councillor Read ensures that the excellent proposals put forward by Council
officers are soured by his determination to rewrite history.