The last Full Council meeting
Last night’s Council meeting was the last before the election and was as close
as many of us are likely to get to an election hustings with the Tories in
particular revealing just how sneaky they can be.
It should prove possible to report fully at the weekend.
Meanwhile we know that 21 Councillors will not be at the next meeting. Some
of us will be hoping that the number is higher than that.
The 21 Councillors not standing for re-election are…
Conservative
Roy Ashmole, Aileen and Brian Beckwith, Ros Downing, Maxine Fothergill, David
Hurt, Rob Leitch, Howard Marriner, Don and Sharon Massey, Colin Tandy, John
Waters and John Wilkninson.
Labour
Derry Begho, Edward Boateng, Alan Deadman, John Husband, Gill MacDonald, Seán
Newman and Abena Oppong-Asare.
UKIP
Chis Beazley.
Most of those I am genuinely sorry to see go; not Fothergill obviously. What is
disappointing to see is that apart from the lying Fothergill all those who
regularly spin and bring Bexley Council into disrepute continue to believe they
are fit for public office.
The answer is in your hands on 3rd May.
The forthcoming election
I know that the Labour candidates here in Belvedere ward are Daniel Francis,
Sally Hinkley and Dave Putson but if I had not taken a look at the nominations
list I would not know who else I am able to vote for. Not a word yet from the Conservatives. I have
their manifesto but no candidate names.
CCTV
When Bexley Council abandoned live CCTV monitoring nearly three years ago
they
admitted the police had no means of monitoring it at that time. However the
implication was that things would improve.
Councillor Craske has said in the Council Chamber and on Twitter that the Police
do now monitor when emergencies arise.
Well yes up to a point. An inside source has revealed that the police can watch
two cameras at any one time. Bexley’s surveillance centre had 48 monitoring screens.
Not surprising. How would the police squeeze the contents of the dedicated
centre into the corner of an office in Arnsberg Way? And if Craske says
something was there ever much chance he would not be deceiving us?
Anonymous communications
I have had several messages about
Teresa O’Neill’s planning application and the
addresses in which she said she has an interest. One referred me to
a planning application for 30 Brunswick Road (†) but as it was made in 2005 I
cannot see how it is relevant. Maybe Mr. Anonymous could tell me what I am missing.
The other refers to Councillor Fothergill repeated planning applications in
which she declared she was not a Councillor. This Mr. Anonymous says she is not
alone and provides a link. Maybe the evidence has been removed since he saw it
but it currently goes to a ‘Page not found’.
† Local copy. Direct links to Bexley's planning applications are not permitted.
Maxine Fothergill
Three weeks after Royal Mail’s tracking facility said that the Chief Constable
of Kent had received my allegation of crime against Councillor Maxine Fothergill
I emailed to ask why I had had no acknowledgement.
A reply came with their standard opening paragraph which is to apologise for
“the slight delay” but I am assured that Fothergill is now being investigated by
the Investigation Management Unit. I have a sneaking suspicion that that is the
official name for the Pending Tray but it is now the second recent allegation to
find itself there.
The complaint against the unfortunate Sergeant who allowed himself to be
suckered by the lying Fothergill is progressing in a normal fashion. At the
suggestion of Kent’s Directorate of Professional Standards the complaint has
been extended to cover the Constable too.
This website
My reference to abandoning the current BiB and providing a slimmed down, less
cluttered and mobile friendly blog provoked offers of help from a number of
readers all of which revolved around switching over to Wordpress.
I don’t think any had taken into account my interest in coding pages the old
fashioned way and the hope that exercising my brain in that way could be the
last defence against dementia.
But many thanks to everyone anyway. The problems caused by dementia (the 98 year
od aunt) are already taking up a great deal of time but that is another story
altogether, but that, the new website and the weeds in the garden might explain
why blogs are infrequent and somewhat superficial at present.