I probably shouldn’t admit to it but I spend more time reading Twitter than I do
watching TV, I simply fell out of the habit of telly watching and I haven’t
watched any programme regularly for two or more years.
Local Twitter postings are definitely more relevant to my ‘Bonkers’ interests
but I try to resist the temptation to be directly involved. The occasional Like but not too often anything more.
I’ve followed an interesting Twitter conversation between Councillors Danny Hackett
(Labour, Lesnes Abbey) and John Davey (Conservative, Crayford) in recent days on
the subject of affordable homes, a misnomer if ever there was one.
Both Councillors are in favour of affordable homes but John Davey has had his work cut out
explaining why, as a member of the Planning Committee, he has voted in favour of schemes that don’t include any. If
there is a justification for it his 140 characters have been insufficient to make it clear to me.
I find it reminiscent of John Davey telling me that Bexley’s road planning was
“bonkers” - hence the name of this website - when he was Vice-Chairman of the
Transport Committee. Voting for what he doesn’t like again! The power of Teresa O’Neill on her voting fodder eh?
Another big Tweeter is Councillor Peter Craske. He’s twice said that library usage
in Bexley has been increasing while official Council figures indicated the opposite.
I challenged him on his claim as did several Labour Councillors but no answer was forthcoming.
In April I screen grabbed five of Councillor Craske's Tweets that said there were well over 100 parks etc. in Bexley.
It seemed like something worth checking so I went on to Bexley’s pretty but no longer very useful website to look
at the list of addresses. There wasn’t one. There was a list of allotment addresses but nothing for parks.
I wrote to Bexley Council to suggest it was a serious omission. At numerous Council
meetings it has been argued that Bexley has an excess of parks so it is OK to sell some
and if they are such a wonderful asset why not encourage visits with some addresses?
Perhaps Bexley Council agrees because they kindly sent me a list of ‘park’ addresses which I have
reformatted into a PDF list.
If one counts every scrap of land as a park there are eight in Belvedere, ten in
Bexley, eighteen in Bexleyheath, twelve in Crayford, nineteen in Erith, twenty seven in Sidcup and nine in Welling; which makes 103.
Pretty close to Councillor Craske’s 104? Well not really.
My count includes the three that are being sold totally, one which has been
closed for the past two years, it includes recreation grounds separately even
when they are part of bigger parks and counts parks divided by public roads or water courses as two.
So Peter Craske’s claim of 104 parks plus 31 recreation grounds with Lesnes
Abbey, Hall Place and Danson Park on top might generously be presented as around 70 parks and 30
playgrounds, not 138. The man simply cannot tell the truth.
He was at it again today.
Over a million pounds of investment delivered to his own ward over the past ten
years he boasted. Doesn’t come anywhere near what has been pumped into Bexleyheath but nevermind.
The magnificently named Patriotic Cynic asked for some examples…
Both PCs must be known to each other because the inquisitor is addressed as Ian.
£400,000 for a park and the rest on road improvements the Councillor PC said. Is it more Craskian Fake News?
I’m afraid it is.
The road improvements around Halfway Street were delivered under Bexley’s Labour administration way back in 2005.
Is Councillor Peter Craske a great big fibber who finds it difficult to count to ten?.
You bet he is.