22 June (Part 2) - Bexley, a Council built on lies
What would I do without a constant supply of lies from Bexley’s Tory Council?
Bonkers began when the Council’s Chief Road Engineer Andrew Bashford told me
that Abbey Road in Belvedere was modified (that is made dangerous) in accordance
with a Transport Research Laboratory report, a report my own son had had a hand
in writing and who told me that Andrew Bashford must have simply invented the story.
Why is Bashford still employed by Bexley Council?
The lies continued with the Leader, on the back of Hugh Neal’s
infamous
Pitchforks and Flaming Torches comment, telling her police protectors that I,
not Hugh, planned to burn down the the Town Hall.
Then we had, in all probability, Councillor Peter Craske, blogging
nonsense that
Elwyn Bryant and I engaged in homosexual acts on Council property and
Councillor
Cheryl Bacon made up a story that I and others had rampaged around the Council
Chamber. I managed to get ten written statements from those present that
I hadn’t moved and been totally silent throughout. Cheryl Bacon did not manage
to find anyone at all to support her fantasy.
Without Bexley Council and Bexley Conservative’s lies Bexley is Bonkers would not exist but
the lesson has yet to be learned and Tory lies continue almost daily. Twitter is
gaining popularity as the vehicle of choice. Yesterday Bexley Conservatives were at it again.
Their
message was that any claim that Bexley was planning to switch off its
street lights at or around midnight were all made up and the changeover to
lighting by LED has saved £300,000.
The switch off plan was most definitely not “all made up”, it was among many
official budget plans put forward by the Conservative administration.
Below is an extract from the January 2015 Cabinet Meeting Agenda. It says that a
mix of LED lighting, part time lighting and switching off some street lights
permanently and removing the columns would by this year save £305,000 annually.
A trial in Welling did not go down too well with the public and it is to Cabinet
Member Alex Sawyer’s credit that he abandoned the idea and went along with the
conversion from Sodium to LED lighting only.
But even Alex Sawyer is not entirely truthful. He claims that the initiative is
making Bexley a brighter and safer place to live. Obviously he cannot have read
the lamp specifications.
The sodium lamps were rated at 18,000 Lumens and the LEDs are a relatively dim 8,800. Pretty much
everything Bexley Council says is a lie.
The Conservatives are still claiming there will be a £300,000 saving but that is
almost certainly another lie too. The estimate was based on removing some lights
altogether and except along main roads, turning the others off by 11 p.m. -
subsequently deferred until after midnight following protests.
It is very unlikely that those savings could be achieved by implementing only
half of the plan; it hasn’t stopped the Conservatives claiming otherwise though.
You might be forgiven
for thinking that one big lie would be enough for one day but you would be mistaken.
In a follow up Tweet Bexley Conservatives claimed that they have pumped an extra £90,000
into park maintenance. Maybe they did, but only after they discovered the £230,000
they had taken away was too much and the
dereliction evident in parks everywhere
was only too obvious to every member of the voting public.
Bexley Conservatives are not only consummate liars but as close as one can be to
being cheap crooks and not be incarcerated in a police cell.
I am still hopeful that one day we may be able to put that right.
