6 November - The natives are restless
There
is quite a lot of discontent with the performance of Councillors in and around
Abbey Wood. On the Greenwich side of the border the three Councillors are
severely criticised by everyone, on the Bexley side most people think there is
only one Councillor and that is Danny Hackett. Dig a bit deeper and you will find
he has his critics too.
It is not very surprising to find residents keen to find alternatives.
The idea has a certain amount of logic in Greenwich where a Labour Council is
accused of neglecting its eastern outpost. The regeneration of Wilton Road
achieved very little and was not finished off properly. The gravel strip, always
an extremely stupid idea has been entirely kicked away. None of the trees were
given any protection either with entirely predictable results.
On the Bexley side of the border we have seen how the minority party is
sidelined by ruthless Conservative control, independent thought is simply not
permitted by Leader Teresa O’Neill.
Every improvement to the borough’s North West corner has come from outside agencies, Peabody, the
Heritage Lottery Fund and Network Rail and two of those are not universally popular.
I was asked to be an Independent candidate by the local organisers but declined. Too old and too
cynical. I have seen first hand how Bexley Tories abuse opposition parties and
have obliterated every UKIP initiative.
"
I also saw how much effort
Mick Barnbrook put into Blackfen in 2014 with the
intention of damaging Peter Craske’s ego. He failed thanks to the UKIP surge. As
an Independent parish Councillor in Ramsgate he gets no support even for simple
things like putting pictures of Councillors on their website and providing an ID card for when he visits electors.
The only thing that might send Bexley in a different direction next May is a big
swing to Labour and In Greenwich the reverse would appear to be an impossibility.