13 March (Part 2) - Another day, another massive deception
When Bexley Conservatives post on Twitter you can be pretty sure that there will be more to it than at first meets the eye.
Their
latest effort adopts a fairly standard format; dig up something from the past which we are
supposed to have long forgotten, claim that the Tories did the right thing and
claim that Labour voted against it.
Put like that it is almost true but as usual fails to tell the whole story.
In 2012 Bexley Council sold a large chunk of land in Slade Green to Redrow
Homes. The site had previously been occupied by the Howbury Centre and arguably,
maybe even certainly, it was in need of a rebuild but with space remaining for
new houses.
The price paid by Redrow was said to be £14 million but it was never
confirmed, it being regarded as commercially sensitive.
A
figure that was made public was £8·6 million. That was what Bexley Council
spent on developing the replacement Howbury Centre. Their
statement is still available on line.
Bexley Council upset many people by transferring management
of the new Howbury Centre from a
voluntary group which had raised a million pounds to keep things running nicely
and handed it to a commercial group with a blemished financial record which promptly
raised nursery costs from £1 to £8 a session.
Bexley Council decided to spend the estimated £5·4 million ‘profit’ on their Tory
heartlands. Labour wanted them to invest it in Slade Green which had provided the wherewithal.
Whether or not that was a good idea one could debate at length but in 2018 that
no longer matters. What matters is that Labour voted against investing £8·6
million in Slade Green only because they wanted to invest £14 million in Slade Green.
Once again Bexley Conservatives are not telling voters the truth. Please tell me when they do.