31 August (Part 1) - The Bexley Bully
There have been remarkably few leaks of information about the premature
departure of Bexley’s Chief Executive Gill Steward whose last day of service is today, but the fact that Bexley
Council is in lock down mode refusing all questions and Freedom of Information
requests tells you just one thing, the villain of the piece must be Council Leader Teresa O’Neill.
Piecing together the very few comments from inside Bexley Council one can
conclude that the Leader is a world class bully who has to get her own way. The
allegation is that she would not listen to advice from the Chief Executive and
eventually the rows became too heated. Previous more talkative senior officers
have said that the Leader can sack them at any time and that is what appears to have happened in Gill’s case.
Naturally she would have threatened an industrial tribunal the answer to which
would be a hefty bribe wrapped up in yet another gagging order.
Looking back over the past two years there have been occasions that made one
think that the Chief Executive must be acting under duress; why was almost her
first action to pick a fight with Bonkers thereby ensuring her a bad press? She
barely knew who I was and had never even seen me. Much more likely is that the Bexley Bully was behind
the loss of the Press Desk.
Today her period of ‘gardening leave’ comes to an end and her grimacing visage
is about to vanish from the Bonkers banner. The question of the day must be, who
should sit there alongside Teresa the Tyrant?