29 October (Part 2) - Bexley’s rubbish

Plans are afoot to expand Cory Environmental’s rubbish incinerator in Belvedere and two weeks ago three of their bosses made a short presentation to Bexley Council.

Councillors had a copy of the presentation to browse through but members of the public were afforded no such luxury, instead they must make do with this summary of what was said.

Cory Environmental, it was William Cory and Son when my mother worked for the company in the early years of WWII, has facilities along the river from Wandsworth through to Gravesend and 95% of the waste it moves for London is river borne. (Five tugs and 53 barges.) They process 750,000 tonnes of black bag rubbish in Belvedere each year.

That rubbish generates 525,000 megawatt hours of electricity and leaves behind the byproduct of 200,000 tonnes of construction aggregates.

London as a whole produces around 4,400,000 tonnes of rubbish each year so processing facilities will have to be expanded. Currently about two million tonnes is incinerated and of the rest rather more than half goes to landfill and the remainder is exported to overseas energy facilities.

Despite that London is ranked fourth best of the major European cities for its effective processing of waste but of its eleven landfill sites nine are due for closure by 2025, hence the need for expansion in Belvedere. The new processing facility will be known as the Riverside Energy Park.

It will process another 655,000 tonnes of waste for electricity augmented by a one megawatt solar panel roof and a similar amount will come from anaerobic digestion. Excess power generation will be stored in a 20 megawatt battery. Waste heat will be available to the nearby homes that form part of Bexley’s Growth Strategy. The potential 960 megawatts (the spokesman said megawatts not megawatt hours) of electricity will reach the national grid via a link to the old Littlebrook (Dartford) power station site. The existing facility exports its power to the Barking power station but that route is already at full capacity.

“The majority of [The Environmental Impact Assessment] has come out as non-significant in ecology, drainage, historic environment, transport, noise and vibration, ground conditions and air quality”.

 

24 October - Their hands in your pocket

This evening’s dilemma. The Transport Users’ Sub-Committee and put BiB another day behind or catch up just a little by writing the Hall Place report? The Transport Committee may have won but one can never be sure whether the rail and bus delegates will turn up and without them there is little said that cannot be gleaned from the Agenda.

Messing around with refuse collections was not the only thing of interest at the Places Scrutiny Committee, Bexley is looking to get hold of more of your money and one of their ideas is to charge an entrance fee to get into Hall Place gardens. Not a lot but every little helps and once the idea is established the price can be raised occasionally or maybe introduced elsewhere, the Belvedere Beach is the obvious candidate and it was actually likened to the plans for Hall Place during the presentation.

The presentation was by Deputy Director Toni Ainge who set out the proposals and had a few slides to illustrate some of her points. The aim is to get the whole of Hall Place self financing by 2021 and one idea is to spend £620,000 on a new playground to attract more visitors to the site. No shiny plastic so as to be in keeping with its surroundings.

An entry charge of £1 to £2 is proposed with Bexley residents getting a 50% discount. Are we supposed to carry our passports with us at all times?

The good news is that the car park will become free. Just a few years ago Cabinet Member Craske was hell bent on making it chargeable. The bad news is that children over 18 months old must pay too, take their birth certificates. The Chairman, Melvin Seymour, thought that was simply “wrong”.

Councillor Geraldene Lucia-Hennis (Conservative, Crayford) said she “objected to borough people paying. I don’t object to out of borough people paying, that might be a good idea”. She welcomed the proposals to rearrange the house so that it remains accessible while hosting weddings and similar events.

She made a plea to keep the rockery garden which appears to be under threat. It was reported that different playground contractors had different ideas for working around the rockery or not.

Throughout the meeting it was Councillor Gareth Bacon who asked the most incisive questions.

He thought the £620,000 cost would be “manageable” but he was “interested to know how you make Hall Place self-sustaining going off into the future. The Trust lost too much money. How much money do you need to generate to break even and how confident are you that these proposals are going to do that?”.

Ms. Ainge said that when the Council took Hall Place back in-house it was running about £360,000 per annum of deficit but expenditure has since been reduced by £120,000. Under the new plans income should rise by between £120,000 and £240,000 per annum. At the highest level the deficit would be covered. With what degree of confidence her prediction was made went unstated.

Councillor Bacon wished Ms. Ainge “Good luck with that”.

Councillor Stefano Borella (Labour, Slade Green & Northend) was not “enthused” by charging either and wondered why Bexley residents would not get in free and out of borough visitors charged a bit more.

Councillor Nicola Taylor (Labour, Erith) said the charges might have a negative effect on the shop income but was told that had been factored in.

Councillor June Slaughter (Conservative, Sidcup) said she had “mixed feelings about charging for the gardens, it might put off the casual visitor just looking for a wander around the grounds”.

The Chairman said that whatever decision Cabinet Member Craske took it should come back to the Committee for review after twelve months.

 

23 October (Part 2) - Recycling proposals. Changes are on the way

It wasn’t the first item on the Places Scrutiny Agenda but perhaps it was the most important; Bexley Council thinks it is time to make changes to its successful recycling scheme. Out will go the wind blown boxes and in will come yet more wheelie bins. The existing Serco contact expires at the end of March 2019 which provides an opportunity for fresh ideas.

Deputy Director David Bryce-Smith illustrated his comments with a slide presentation. The options available include setting up a local authority company, bringing the service back in-house and seeking a contractor again. Slide 4 shows what the other London boroughs are doing.

All of what follows are proposals which will be studied by a cross-party sub-Committee and some addresses, such as the 20,000 flats, would require different arrangements as they do now.

If wheelie bins replace collection boxes there will be two more, one for plastic, cartons, glass and tins and the other one for paper and cardboard. Both will change from weekly to fortnightly or even three weekly collection. The food and garden waste services will continue unchanged at weekly and fortnightly intervals respectively but the residual waste could switch to a three week cycle.

In the event of a three week cycle being chosen special provision would be made for nappies and incontinence pads.

Currently about half of the residual waste could be recycled and experience has shown that the glass boxes are almost never full. Glass collection is posing a Health & Safety issue because of the noise it creates when tipped into the collection truck. Mixing it with the plastic and cartons will reduce the noise impact.

A three weekly system would reduce the number of collections annually from 23·5 million to 13 million but each one would take longer. Tipping boxes into a big bin is a lot quicker than hitching a wheelie bin to a hoist. Estimates suggest that a three weekly schedule could increase the recycling rate by 5%.

The final idea is to move to a four (longer) day service which would avoid the Bank Holiday Monday problem and result in better loading of vehicles.At present they tend to return to base at the end of the day with their second load only half full. Such a change is not imminent but needs to be considered over the next three or four years.

Councillor Gareth Bacon (Conservative, Longlands) who was heavily involved in setting up the existing system said he would need to see all the calculations that have led to these proposals and any impact on fly tipping. He said the longer collection day was not introduced ten years ago because of the likely impact on early evening road traffic.

Councillor Val Clark (Conservative, Falconwood & Welling) was concerned about the mixed message being sent to residents. The Council had spent years telling residents to separate paper, glass and plastic and tins and now it is saying it is OK to mix them up. She also thought, probably correctly, that a mixture of one, two and three weekly collections would make it impossible to remember which collection was next due.

Mr. Bryce-Smith said that the separation processes have improved since the present scheme was introduced and reminded Councillor Clark of the H&S issues with collection glass separately.

Councillor Stefano Borella (Labour, Slade Green & Northend) didn’t think a three weekly cycle would be popular. He shared Councillor Clark’s concerns about confusing residents with no longer separating waste and made some suggestions for reorganising the recycling centres. Having made my very first visit to Thames Road depot two weeks ago I very much agree that improvements are needed there.

Chairman Melvin Seymour (Conservative, Crayford) was not enthusiastic about the prospect of a four day week for workers, it was a demanding occupation and that should not be underestimated.

Councillor June Slaughter (Conservative, Sidcup) was critical of the way some residents are still putting more or less everything in the residual (green) bin and do not use their food waste bin. I think she has been poking her nose into some of my neighbours’ bins.

Vice-Chairman Nigel Betts did not agree with his Chairman, he thought a four day week would be an attractive proposition for the operatives but a three week cycle would be confusing and “it would put a lot off people off recycling because everything was just too complicated”.

Councillor Nicola Taylor (Labour, Erith) was another who believed that mixed intervals of up to three weeks would prove confusing and might increase the number of reports of missed bins. “Had those costs been factored in? Two weekly bin collections already cause overflowing and it increases street cleaning costs.”

Wheelie bins present problems for the disabled as they are heavy and more may not be helpful. She did not like the idea of some people having to put an identifiable incontinence bin outside their house. The Chairman thanked her for a good point well made.

Deputy Director Bryce-Smith said that he was not aware that other Councils which had adopted similar systems had seen an increase in the number of missed collections.

The sub-Committee will in due course reach its verdict and one must hope that all the best ideas are adopted.

 

22 October - Bonkers, FM Conway and Greenwich Council. All are well behind schedule

You have heard it all before but there is simply not enough free time at the moment to keep Bonkers going to the standard I would like. I get emails suggesting that I have not got stuck in deeply enough to some stories, I know, I know.

I needed to be away from home Friday to Sunday and too much of today was spent in Newham. I would actually like to finish a DIY job but fat chance. Today for the first time in my life I called in a plumber to change some worn out valves that I installed myself ten years ago and could do again, but where would the time come from?

In the BiB pipeline are reports on Cory Environmental’s plans for their incinerator, the proposals to change the refuse bins and recycling frequencies and to charge to enter Hall Place gardens. Beaten to it by The News Shopper. Ignominy!

I also need to look into what has been happening at a local arts centre where it is alleged that private interests favoured by Bexley Councillors have made a fat profit at Bexley taxpayers’ expense. It might come to nothing, I don’t know, but it seems to be worth a look.

There may also be more to be said about former Chief Executive Gill Steward’s departure. Having to leave because of changed personal circumstances but getting a very similar job in Kingston just weeks later would appear to be odd if not unexpected.

A few new pictures have been added here and there, the Harrow Manorway redevelopment in particular where north of Yarnton Way the project appears to have been at a standstill for several months.

While snapping away last Thursday an FM Conway manager, well he was wearing a suit beneath the yellow outfit, was close by and I took the opportunity to ask why some sections were coming along nicely and others not at all. Utilities failing to move their assets promptly were blamed, Thames Water in particular.

The use of blocks as a road surface was questioned bearing in mind the experience in Woolwich and Bexleyheath.The man was certain that would not happen again. He was pleased to be using some new material imported from Germany and presumably not the cheap stuff which failed in Arnsberg Way.

Better news comes from a yard or two across the borough border in Greenwich. 18 months after it was first mooted Greenwich Council has replaced the gravel and dirt in Wilton Road with a nice buff resin surface. Better late than never.

 

12 October (Part 1) - Their secret is out

In July it was reported here that Bexley Council had purchased 63 Belvedere Road, a property which in effect commands the access to Council Leader Teresa O’Neill’s private park by being adjacent to the existing locked access gate.

As is the norm in Bexley our frequently dishonest Council made sure that the transaction was kept as secret as possible but the speculation must be that Burr Farm Park is being lined up for acquisition by BexleyCo and eventual development.

But not everything can be kept secret for ever and that includes the price at which properties change hands. The Land Registry stores all the details but extracting them costs a small amount of money.

Fortunately Zoopla sometimes does much the same thing. It reveals that Bexley Council paid £638,000 for 63 Belvedere Road which is almost five times the price it last sold for fewer than 20 years ago. Wow, Bexley Council must have been desperate to get their hands on it. The price is about 50% higher than anything else in Belvedere Road.

 

11 October (Part 2) - Rudeness, aggression and claustrophobia

Bexley Council deployed a new weapon against members of the public attending meetings at last Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting; they confined them behind the Gill Steward line in a narrow six foot strip. With the seats to my left occupied by Council employees there to hear themselves lauded over the excellent OFSTED report it was not possible to move around to grab the occasional photograph. I did so only once by exiting via the east side door and reappearing through the west.

The meeting itself was for the most part repetitive in nature with both the OFSTED report and the exemption from Council Tax for under 25s given another airing.

Cabinet Member for Children, Philip Read, varied his OFSTED speech already delivered to two Committees by going beyond extolling the virtues of his staff and boasting that he was “the only elected individual to whom they spoke”.

Councillor Read should and could have gone out in a blaze of reflected glory but instead decided to revert to type by criticising the Labour party opposition. He acknowledged that Councillors Ogundayo (Thamesmead East) and Perfect (Northumberland Heath) had congratulated him “and it is right that they should have done so but neither had thought fit to congratulate this administration on putting in place the policies and people that achieved this result”.

They had “rebuked” the Cabinet in 2014 for “a lack of adequate improvement in the service, you would think that they would now be congratulating us but instead there has been a deafening silence on that front. It must have caused them turmoil trying to find a way to turn Outstanding into something less impressive. It is indicative of the double standards that permeates their party”.

Just what is Philip Read on?

On 3rd October Bonkers placed on record that Philip Read’s Labour shadow had heaped fulsome praise on the OFSTED achievement “just in case Cabinet Member Philip Read tries to claim she didn’t join in at some future date”. Councillor Perfect is on the record saying the achievement was “fantastic”.

One doesn’t have to be a genius to forecast that Philip Read will always try to spin the truth. Only six days and it all comes true.

Little Sir Echo otherwise known as Cabinet Member David Leaf (Conservative, Blendon & Penhill) made similar anti-Labour comments.

Moving on, the Cabinet then approved their own suggestion that under 25 year olds who had been in Council care would not have to pay Council Tax from April next year and that they were no longer pursuing arrears from 2018.

Everyone agreed that this was a thoroughly good idea, children often get financial help from parents and in this case Bexley Council is the Corporate parent. It is not only a good idea, but it will win lots of Brownie Points for next to no money. Estimates are under £40,000 a year.

Next on the Agenda was something entirely new. Something called the Corporate Peer Challenge which gets people in from other local authorities to look at what Bexley does. In this case five people had come from as far afield as Oldham to enjoy the delights of Bexley.

The Conservatives were obviously keen to cherry pick the best bits of the report and boast about them wherever they could.

Maybe it is just me but I found part of it to be hilarious.

The Leader is widely held in very high regard, having been in the role for nearly 10 years. There is strengthening corporate leadership, headed by a Chief Executive who commenced in post just under two years ago and who is held in very high regard both internally and externally.

As soon as the great and the good returned to their homes the Chief Executive was shown the door covered by the Bexley Council cloak of secrecy!

Dig deeper into the Peer Review and more cracks begin to show. I am not alone in suggesting that Scrutiny in Bexley has been a sham, public questions are not welcome, neither are Councillors’ who on occasion have had to take the FOI route to obtain any sort of answer.

Several Cabinet Members found things in the report with which to polish their egos but in truth it was far from universally good.

The independent examiners said…

• They could not find any evidence of any different outcome secured through any Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
• Tens of thousands of hours of officers’ time is taken up annually (by Scrutiny) to achieve nothing.
• Officers throughout the organisation are apprehensive about interacting with Overview and Scrutiny.
•Those asking questions are dealt with in an unacceptable manner. Rudely, aggressively, discourteously or disrespectfully.
• Perceptions are negative and it has very serious implications for the authority and is damaging to its reputation.

Labour Councillor Stefano Borella (Slade Green & Northend) commented on how other nearby boroughs run their Overview and Scrutiny Committees and it would appear from the statistics he quoted that Bexley does indeed do its level best to inhibit legitimate Scrutiny. Councillor Leaf disagreed with him stating for no obvious reason that the electorate too had disagreed last May. The Labour comments are “misplaced”. Deputy Leader Louie French condemned them as “all smoke and mirrors”.

Councillor Melvin Seymour (Conservative, Crayford) objected to the conclusions of the Peer Review but maybe that is because his Committee has been one of the better managed ones.

Labour Leader Daniel Francis (Belvedere), choosing his words carefully, reminded the Cabinet that Members were called “disgraceful names” and Members’ legitimate questions were refused.

So there you have it. An independent Peer Review has concluded that Bexley’s Cabinet is rude, aggressive and disrespectful just as you have read here over the years. To be fair things seem to have improved this year, the smaller Scrutiny Committees do appear to be better behaved but maybe its a deception based on the new seating arrangements preventing members of the public getting a decent view of proceedings.

 

9 October (Part 1) - Drawing a line

If you go down in the woods today…

…you will find that Bexley’s planning officers have been out with their GPS surveying gear and marked out the boundary of the Lesnes Abbey woods and 238 Woolwich Road with a spray painted line. Residents say it goes across the concrete slab and the fence shown in Photo 2.

I imagine Mr. Singh is not best pleased.

See previous report for full details.

Photo later after I have trudged up the hill!

I climbed the hill and the boundary has been marked with metal studs, wooden posts and yellow paint which bisects the fence. Whether it cuts across the concrete slab I could not see without getting right on to it (†) and what looked like one of Singh’s men was at the other end.

Having walked along the high path from the top of New Road I would guess that several boundary fences may have ‘migrated’ over the years.

† A neighbour has since confirmed that the line does cut across the concrete slab to a small extent.

 

7 October - Just what you need on a wet Saturday evening

So you spot on the CCTV that the stair lift is upstairs and the 98 year old is downstairs and using the outside toilet and you phone and ask why. The old girl doesn’t seem to know what a stair lift is. A friend goes in and confirms the chair isn’t working.

Phone Stannah and they say they will go around within an hour or two, can I be there? It’s raining cats and dogs and its a long walk from the station at the other end; curse Bexley Council for campaigning against Ken Livingstone’s bridge. The car is taken from the garage and you find this; blocking my drive to the right and the one behind the camera.

It happens all the time and the 1986 plans show the area as No Parking. It's about time the rule was enforced with a bit of yellow paint.

Fortunately I am getting to know which of my lovely neighbours has visitors who do this sort of thing so some door knocking got the problem fixed quite quickly. No apology.

Everyone who blocks my drive so blatantly gets featured here for posterity.

For the record, Stannah took until past 11 p.m. swapping parts and nothing fixed the chair, so their man eventually took all the new components out and replaced the original ones. It then worked and no one has any idea why. Stand by for another emergency call soon. Shades of Abbey Wood station lifts!

 

4 October (Part 3) - Not for the riff-raff. Council use only

The Knights seem to be a family of engineers. My Great Grandfather spent his life planning and building Indian railways, my Grandfather tinkered with ships’ boilers until a torpedo got him in 1915, my father took Rolls Royce Merlins apart during the war and went on to have a hand in developing Concorde’s engine, me in Telecoms, and my son is into vehicle design. And there it might stop unless my Granddaughter realises her ambition to be an astronaut.

I would not be interested in cars if it was not for my son going on about his work on developing and testing autonomous vehicles, not just cars but lorries in convoy and buses too. He has ordered a Tesla because they are further down the autonomous road than any other manufacturer. They are exclusively electrically powered and his interest has rubbed off on me to some extent.

Bexley Council has shown some interest in electric cars too and is currently asking residents’ opinion on charging infrastructure. Topping up the battery on a long run takes best part of an hour on most cars and is a considerable disincentive to ownership. My son is 144 miles away from Bexley and the only fully electric cars that will go that far in all weathers at motorway speed cost £70,000 and upwards or have a one year waiting list. New models from South Korea.

The current crop of affordable electric cars, Nissan Leaf and KIA Soul are not quite up to it. All too long in the tooth.

Even if you are happy to stop to charge on a 140 mile journey there is a very good chance that you will find the Motorway Services Area chargers out of order. The company that won the monopoly contract to install chargers at MSAs appears to have run out of money and fails to maintain them. Not only that a software issue has prevented them charging BMW and Hyundai electric cars.

So local councils installing chargers in car parks just off major trunk routes looks to be a very good idea (†) and there are government grants available to do it.

If you are thinking of going electric (or already gone) you may be overjoyed to know that Bexley Council has just installed seven chargers. On the other hand you may not.

Looking after itself before residents as usual, every single one of them is for exclusive use of Council employees only. Do any even own proper electric cars as opposed to the ‘plug ins’ that use a traditional combustion engine for going more than a handful of miles?

None of the ‘pool’ cars being charged in the Civic Office’s car park last night were proper electric vehicles, they are Toyotas which as electric cars are pretty much useless in terms of electric range and one day Toyota is going to be in big trouble for publicly stating that it has no intention of producing a non-polluting electric vehicle. They will always rely on fossil fuels to go any real distance.

Yesterday the European Parliament threw an enormous bomb into the motor manufacturers’ arena. Ignoring the pleas of the German manufacturers it said that by 2025 every car manufacturer must be making at least 20% of its output totally pollution free and 40% by 2035. Denmark has gone further and banned combustion engine cars altogether by 2035. In the USA Tesla is already outselling BMW by a considerable margin.

Bearing in mind how long it takes to develop new vehicles Toyota may be in big trouble. They have said they will produce no fully electric cars and the EU has said their production must be 25% zero emissions in only seven years time.

Maybe they are hoping that enormous bomb will be Hydrogen powered, but if you think the electric charging infrastructure is a disaster area don’t put any faith in a hydrogen based salvation. At the last count there were only two places dispensing hydrogen to vehicles in the entire country.

Maybe Bexley will put in a third - for Council use only of course.

† Bexley’s chargers look to be only 7 kilowatt units which is not to MSA standards which are usually 50 kW or higher.

 

4 October (Part 2) - The super talented Councillor Sue Gower

I doubt anyone could honestly say that there is a stand out intellect among Bexley’s Cabinet. We have a couple of political ruffians, Craske and Read, a one time sportsman (John Fuller) before he did for his knee, an apparently shy one who beavers away to good effect away from public view (Brad Smith) and a couple of newbies yet to show their hand. (David Leaf and Louie French). Oh! I nearly forgot, we have Mr. Priti Patel too. (Alex Sawyer.)

What about Teresa O’Neill OBE? Don’t tempt me. Her only talent is self preservation.

The Bexley Conservative who came particularly to my notice at the last election was Sue Gower. That is Sue Gower MBE JP MA PGCE QTLS GDPRP FCIM. I don’t even know what all those initials mean but I can recognise that she is some sort of superwoman. She has connections with all sorts of professional organisations, The Social Care Institute for Excellence, an Adviser to Plymouth University, an Ambassador for the Centre for Exploitation and Online Protection, a Trainer for the National Offender Management Service and for the Home Office, on the Board at the Demelza Children’s Hospice and that’s only about half of her achievements. I think I am going to ask her for lessons in time management.

Will her talents ever be recognised within Bexley Council? I doubt it and unlike some of her new colleagues she was not chosen to take a leading role on any committee or even plant questions designed to polish the Leader’s ego. Probably she is above such shenanigans.

However Sue has been recognised elsewhere. She is shortlisted for Public Servant of the Year 2018.

Bexley’s very own Nicola Horlick. Weird that it’s not been highlighted by Bexley Council but maybe the OBE trumps an MBE? She’s been vindictive enough in the past for that.

 

4 October (Part 1) - There is no stopping Mr. Singh

It looks like someone is getting ready to build another concrete slab at 238 Woolwich Road. The man even gets his own name on the concrete truck!

Photographed 3rd October 2018.

 

3 October - Communities changing fast

There was a Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting last Wednesday chaired by Councillor Caroline Newton. Not for the first time, a few minutes before the meeting was due to start, she left her seat and came around to pass the time of day with me. I’m sure some will say that is a cynical ploy to win favour and ensure a favourable report here whilst those of a kinder disposition will be content to think she is simply a nicer person than some of her colleagues.

Perhaps her reasons for making small talk do not matter very much but surely she demonstrates greater political nous than some of her colleagues who have gone out of their way to be antagonistic. Whatever; the tactic seems to work because I am happy to report that Caroline Newton makes a good chairman of her Committee.

The first item on the Agenda was the recent OFSTED report on Children’s Social Care which gave Bexley a pretty good bill of health. I don’t think we need dwell on it too much, everyone present was full of praise for Director Jacky Tiotto. Her team was described as outstanding, impressive, exceptional and meticulous.

Let me place on the record that fulsome praise also came from Councillor Mabel Ogundayo (Labour, Thamesmead East) just in case Cabinet Member Philip Read tries to claim she didn’t join in at some future date. Councillor Read said he would be aiming for further improvements to Children’s Services.

The OFSTED report is beginning to be old news so the next item on the Agenda held rather more interest for me. Bexley Council had won £819,000 from central government to look into the demographics and ethnicity of the borough. They had engaged the services of a former top man from Experian, the credit rating agency, who had used his experience and software tools to collate a great deal of information on us all.

Some of the data does not come as a great surprise, Thamesmead for example no longer has a majority White British population and the area bordering the Thames from Abbey Wood through to the boundary with Dartford is described as having a fairly large non-White British population with mono-cultural areas. Nigerians are dominant.

East Wickham and Falconwood & Welling are similar but with a slightly higher proportion of White British but it is changing just as fast as the northern outposts are, whilst the south of the borough is exactly as you would imagine where nothing much has changed over the years.

What might not have been guessed is that Bexley overall is moving steadily towards a diminution of the White British population at the 18th fastest rate in the country. 24% non-White British in 2016 and moving up at about 1% per year.

The Council officers were at pains to point out that although the report refers to White British it might be best to not interpret the term too literally, it will also include any other long term settled members of the community.

“The changes potentially flags things for us in terms of community cohesion”.

Another subject up for discussion was the imposition of a £400 school transport charge from next September on the parents of children with Special Educational Needs. The decision has already been taken to discriminate between the majority of school children and the disadvantaged 16 year olds and over. The policy has been much criticised and has run into a number of practical snags.

Cabinet Member John Fuller reminded the Committee that no parent with an SEN child receiving free travel now would be affected, only new applicants would pay. He forecast that no more than 47 people might be affected next year. For an £18,000 saving you might wonder why they bother. The answer will likely be that it is the thin end of a wedge.

Vice-Chairman Richard Diment had with the aid of a sub-Group (Councillors Newton, Gower and Perfect) produced a document which he hoped would answer everyone’s questions “clearly and concisely”.

Councillor Perfect is not a member of the Committee but was in attendance. An hour and five minutes into the meeting, while Cabinet Member John Fuller was speaking she, without warning, interrupted him, something that I have observed several times before. The Chairman asked Councillor Perfect to to desist.

Councillor Fuller’s theme was that some Academies do not cooperate with the Council, they have OFSTED inspections but don’t even bother to tell the Council and there is nothing that can be done about it. Ditto the A Level results, the Council still hasn’t got a clue what they might be.

Six minutes later Councillor Perfect interrupted again but was allowed to get away with it but after another six minutes when Councillor Perfect interrupted the Chairman she was put down quite severely. Two pairs of eyes rolled towards the ceiling, one was Chairman Caroline Newton’s, the other was mine.

 

2 October (Part 2) - Just when I began to believe that Bexley Council may be going straight they resume their crooked ways

At the beginning of this year it was drawn to my attention that on three occasions a Councillor had submitted planning applications in which it was declared that the applicant had no connection with Bexley Council. Michael Barnbrook reported the matter to the police under some obscure and ancient Act (Perjury Act 1911) on 31st January but nothing came of it. The Police are much more interested in hurtful Tweets.

Maybe it wasn’t the crime of the century and it was subsequently discovered that other Councillors suffered from the same degree of forgetfulness, Hare brained one might say. Some might see it as just a minor embarrassment to Bexley Council, nothing more.

It may seem minor to you and me but Bexley Council doesn’t like being found out on anything. What would they do to put a stop to embarrassing mistakes; issue reminders to Councillors perhaps?

No, that would be too easy and far too honest. Instead they have done something that is totally effective but at the same time irredeemably deceitful. They have removed all the completed planning application forms from the their website. Whether Councillors be crooked or forgetful they are now safe from criticism and that is all that matters to a bent Council.

I really was hoping that Bexley Council was more honest now than when I started Bonkers in 2009 but it would appear that I am to be disappointed.

I cannot check every planning application obviously but I have looked at a few old ones at random and it would appear to be an across the board withdrawal, not just Councillors.

 

2 October (Part 1) - Just a spot of landscaping, you won’t mind will you?

It was three weeks ago that Bonkers first started to get reports of devastation being wreaked on some garden trees on the southern fringe of Lesnes Abbey Woods. The address was 238 Woolwich Road.

Those reports said that the house had been purchased in the Spring of 2018 for around £450,000 by an individual who turned out to be the same man who had taken full advantage of planning laws when Ye Olde Leather Bottle was demolished and the site left in such a state that the Health & Safety Executive took an interest in it.

To my regret there never seemed to be a good time to visit Woolwich Road but last Sunday I managed to get around to it. A Sunday was chosen because last time I encountered Mr. Singh he pushed me around a bit and made various threats. I was in luck, Singh was not there but a neighbour was.

From the neighbour’s rear garden the sight is simply unbelievable. Where ancient oak trees once stood there is nothing but a barren landscape but look a little closer and it can be seen that the earth is no more than a couple of inches thick. Beneath it is a slab of concrete estimated to be more than 20 metres square.

How was that allowed to happen under the neighbour’s noses? Easy. The new owner befriended them, said he was going to refurbish the house and move into it with his family, but first he was going to terrace the garden which drops at such an angle as to render it almost unusable. Would the neighbours like any surplus earth to help level their own gardens? Would they like retaining walls erected free, gratis and for nothing? One or two small trees might have to come down.

The neighbours were happy to oblige their new friend.

Work began, the most contentious of it at weekends, and soon the most enormous hole appeared, quickly secured with a high wall and pumped full of concrete from a convoy of rotating carriers not seen in such numbers since Network Rail put in the foundations for their new station a mile to the north.

What happened to the oak trees? They came crashing down one Sunday morning and crashed not only across the immediate neighbour’s garden but the next one too.

On my way from the scene another neighbour came over with further information, this one with first hand knowledge of large civil engineering projects.

Where the concrete slab takes the greatest pressure from the sloping terrain the concrete is about four metres thick, tailing off to something like one metre at the other end. The job could not have cost less than £40,000 I was told and currently the house pictured is close to the point at which there is some danger of it slipping into the pit.

Why would anyone need such a massive slab of concrete in their back garden? No one knows but the civil engineer said it was the sort of slab on which one could build a skyscraper. 

Where the garden meets Lesnes Abbey Woods and one of its many footpaths the retaining wall towers above the heads of any wood walkers. The pictures do not do the scene justice. A fence to mask the wall is under construction and it must be more than 15 feet above the original ground level.

As you may imagine, the neighbours are no longer best friends with Mr. Singh and just as I was myself two years ago have come under threat. They have been led to believe that another concrete slab is planned, maybe even two more and Mr. Singh is very annoyed with them for reporting the situation to Bexley Council, something they deny.

That is because it was me who precipitated that train of events.

When I failed to go to Woolwich Road as quickly as I should have done I instead passed my information to my Belvedere Councillor Sally Hinkley who reacted immediately. She had already noticed the evidence of building work in progress when driving by but had no idea of what lay out of sight. Suitably shocked she told Councillor John Davey about it as the property is in West Heath ward.

As I understand it, it was John Davey who involved the planning officers and reports are that contrary to Mr. Singh’s assertions the work he has carried out is not permitted development and planning permission is required.

How he can put things back to how they were if his application is refused will pose a bit of a problem.

Will Bexley Council prove to be more effective than they were when Ye Olde Leather Bottle was demolished without their knowledge?

 

1 October (Part 3) - The police are ignorant and corrupt. It needs to be said as often as possible

Today the family of PC Keith Palmer who was murdered last year by a Muslim terrorist found out what I have known for more than 20 years. When the police have made serious mistakes, like being involved in the murder of my almost a relative, Daniel Morgan, they will move heaven and earth to cover up and destroy the evidence.

Daniel was a private investigator who had discovered just how deep police corruption was in South East London. Drug dealing, robberies and stitching up their innocent victims, sometimes for reward. Daniel paid the price with an axe in his skull in the car park of the Golden Lion in Sydenham 31 years ago.

Almost all of the Met’s Commissioners have been involved to varying degrees with the subsequent cover up and I cannot wholly exclude the present incumbent.

I still haven't got around to publishing my correspondence with Kent Police and commenting on why I believe them to be another corrupt police force, intent only on covering their own backsides, so meanwhile I give you this. Yet another Metropolitan Police Officer with no knowledge of the law, abusing and injuring an innocent motorist

“The police are not a barrel full of rosy looking fruits poisoned by a few bad apples, they are a huge industrial tank of rotten cider with maybe a few good apples bobbing about waiting to be pulled under by the weight of corruption, unaccountability and incompetence that defines policing in Great Britain today.”

From crimebodge.com.

So corrupt are establishment organisations these days that crimebodge is no longer paid its Youtube fees presumably in an effort to close the author down. Who would have asked Google (Youtube owner) to do that?

 

1 October (Part 2) - It’s got to go

I have spent the past three weeks, on and off, rearranging the shelves and hooks in my garage (and shed) to accommodate a new car which is an almost unbelievable eight inches wider than my previous one,

I think I am going to have to make my first ever trip to a Bexley recycling centre. I have next Wednesday in mind for dumping a car boot full of computer graphics boards, several old routers, a couple of CCTV cameras, an old TV and a professional grade TV monitor which I rescued from a TV studio in the late 1990s. It seems a shame but it has to go.

I am not much looking forward to the trip to Thames Road and I think I understand why some people might take the easy way out.

Across the road from my house some people manage to exist without a conscience. The current problem began about a month or maybe six weeks ago when someone wrenched open the plastics bin and dumped one of those large canvas-like hopper baskets in it that builders use when delivering a cubic metre of sand.

This one may have been full of builder’s rubble and not unnaturally Bexley’s contractor didn’t take it away. It has sunk out of sight now and covered with a variety of other items, some plastic some not.

A neglected recycling bin merely attracts more fly tippers and the bins are now adorned with all sorts of overflowing rubbish and a mattress.

I’m not going to report it, it’s a waste of time, they see my name attached and the report gets tossed aside. That’s what happened last time. However I do have just a little bit of sympathy with Bexley Council. The abuse of the facilities must be a major problem but on the other hand turning their back on it and leaving a heap to fester for weeks on end is no solution either. Sooner or later the rubbish will have to be taken away, so why not do it now?

 

1 October (Part 1) - Things that go bump in the night

Bellegrove Road in Welling and Abbey Road in Belvedere have more in common than both being east west corridors that used to be largely free of accidents; they were both redesigned by Bexley’s Head of Highway Services with a bee in his bonnet about narrow roads and an excess of Keep Left pedestrian refuges.

Both have suffered traffic accidents since they were reconstructed and in Belvedere a group of residents is getting very agitated about the loss of their boundary walls and the risk to their personal safety.

I have no idea if Welling residents have similar fears but maybe at least one of them has.

Fewer than two weeks after his last accident report he has updated me on developments over the past three or four days.

FM Conway came along in the middle of the week and replaced the lighting column destroyed only a matter of days earlier. On Saturday a motorist demolished it.

It’s easy to blame careless motorists but with so many accidents occurring in the same old places, isn’t it time that the Highway Engineer who signs off these schemes shouldered some of the responsibility?