30 May - Praise where praise is due
The annual Mayor making meeting is always a fun evening for friends and
families of Councillors, especially those of the incoming and outgoing Mayors
and their Deputies. Yesterday’s seemed even more so than usual.
The Labour Group went through their customary routine of proposing one of their
own as Mayor but have yet to grasp the fact that generosity and equality is the
preserve of other Councils, not Bexley. It is doubtful that any Conservative was
even listening to the list of virtues possessed by Councillor Stefano Borella which were so
cleverly catalogued by Councillor Joe Ferreira.
The Labour Group’s token effort to appoint a Labour Mayor is nothing but a
charade. Everything is choreographed to perfection beforehand right down to the neatly fitting robes.
Tory disdain for a Labour Mayor did not however stop Labour Leader Daniel Francis from voicing my own view,
that outgoing Mayor Brian Bishop was the best we have seen for a very long time;
not a single awkward moment except perhaps when he muddled a name or two.
Usually some mischievous Councillor will reel off a list of the outgoing Mayor’s
weaknesses and mistakes, frequently not suitable for public broadcast in my
opinion but Councillor Eileen Pallen whose job it was to formally thank
Councillor Bishop for his year of service said that her research had failed to
reveal anything embarrassing at all. A surprise to no one.
The new Mayor Councillor Geraldene Lucia-Hennis was proposed by her
old friend and ward colleague Councillor Seymour (the Photo is from 9th March
2011) and looked resplendent in her scarlet outfit although the prize for
elegance must go to Councillor Richard Diment’s wife who had spent the afternoon
at a Buckingham Palace Garden Party and came down to earth with a bump by having
to sit next to me. A very pleasant lady if I may say so.
Mayor Geraldene Lucia-Hennis showed a side I hadn’t seen before with her
sometimes emotional acceptance speech. She won a well deserved round of prolonged
applause and perhaps a friend on Bonkers.
When the formal business of the meeting commenced all the signs were that she
intends to rival her predecessor’s professionalism.
Bexley’s new Chief Executive Jackie Belton failed to put in an appearance; Finance Director Paul Thorogood ably took her place.
Council Press Release.
29 May - Belvedere and other Roads
No sooner had I repeated my Belvedere Road correspondent’s report on the bungalow which Bexley Council bought for a reported £638,000 than he comes back with an update.
63 Belvedere Road looks like it’s occupied. Small black car in drive and
loads of empty packaging in drive plus an overflowing green wheelie bin which if it was mine wouldn’t get emptied because overfull.
Well that’s nice, at least someone is getting the benefit of all that tax money.
Meanwhile a mile or two to the North, Bexley Council is spending
an awful lot of Network Rail’s money on creating a largely pedestrianised area on the Northern flank of the new railway station.
It’s not going to be suitable for large vehicles is it but if the shops are to be serviced some provision for them will have to be made.
If those parking bays are full the road will have to be blocked.
Just around the corner there is a 6'6" width restrictor with no room to turn around.
Will we get the promised trees?
Gayton Road didn’t.
It seems like half a lifetime since the last Council meeting of note, but tomorrow Bexley Council
will hold a public meeting; nothing very controversial, it’s only the annual festival
of boozing and cake which celebrates the appointment, coronation, inauguration, anointment
even - whatever it’s called - of a new Mayor. It is going
to be Councillor Geraldene Lucia-Hennis so the year ahead may be a lot
more fun than the last one with a Bishop for a Mayor.
The problem with him, that is Councillor Brian Bishop in case you have
forgotten, is that he got through his entire year as Mayor without deviating
from his businesslike, professional and calm oversight of the job, and for a
politician, commendably even handed decisions.
Where’s the entertainment value in that?
Councillor
Lucia-Hennis promises so much more but whether her plans run to table dancers no
one can be certain but we should perhaps expect the unexpected.
No one expected her to
organise a strip show in a pub which did not have an
entertainment licence; but she did. It even attracted the then Mayor Sharon Massey to its front row.
The event was excused by the then Chief Executive who said it “was neither a
formal Council function, nor a Mayoral function” but a Freedom of Information
request showed that to be not entirely true. The event warranted
an entry in the
Mayor’s diary. One might also ask why the Council made no attempt to penalise
the Councillor for a blatant breach of licensing law.
A fun year may indeed lie ahead but I doubt very much that it can be better than 2010/2011. That was
the year of Mayor Clark, Councillor Val Clark that is.
She had little idea of how to control a meeting although it can be said in her
defence that since the coming of webcasting Councillors have been a lot less boisterous
and less of a problem to inadequate Mayors.
Clark’s party trick was to claim that what she was doing in her Chairmanship role
was entirely in accordance with the rulings of The Right Honourable Sir Walter
Citrine in his famed reference book ‘ABC of Chairmanship’.
I had my own copy so I knew that most of what she said was hogwash.
My warmest memory of my formative years in and around the Bexley Council Chamber
was reading a letter Mayor Clark sent to a member of the public. He had sat
unmoved by her praise for someone or other and the letter to his home address
complained about his "parsimonious appreciation".
The degree of silliness on display within Bexley Council may have reached its peak with
the obscenities happily posted on line by a Cabinet Member but five to
ten years ago it was widespread, someone must have decided to clean things up.
Another newcomer on display tomorrow will be
the new Chief Executive Jackie Belton.
The last time we had a new Chief Executive in Bexley she used her
enormous intellect to declare war on the Press and me in particular - she sent
me an email to announce her decision but not the local newspaper reporters. She
decided that withdrawing the limited Press facilities that had been provided at
Council meetings for
many years was the right way to win friends and influence people.
I am quietly confident that we will not see such idiocy again. Life is so much
more pleasant when new grounds for criticism are hard to come by.
25 May - Care, crime and cream
Another Press Release
Bexley Council issued
another Press Release last week - aimed at me possibly.
It is entitled ‘Are you a Bexley Carer?’ and offers to provide useful information
on the borough’s care services. I think I will subscribe to their newsletters, I may learn more
about how to deal with Newham Council.
Incidentally they reneged on their offer to fund respite care for four weeks but
as we only took advantage of it for five nights I am too tired to argue.
Another break in
I was asked to go and look at an attempted break in last week, not the sort of
thing I usually do but it was in my own road.
When I moved to a house opposite Lesnes Abbey in May 1987 I discovered that the area was a hotbed of
crime, My windows had a brick through them when I had only been here for three
days. A couple of months later my fence was burned down in the middle of the
night. I was woken by the noise of a fire engine parked on my front drive and
the police refused to investigate the woman standing 50 yards away with a petrol can in her hand.
Burglars hopping over the railway line from Thamesmead was a regular event and
it was an easy escape route that no one dared to follow.
Then it all quietened down and been reasonably peaceful ever since.
The
latest evidence of a break in looked a little odd to me, it seemed like the damage an
over-enthusiastic squirrel might cause. If it was an attack by a
would-be burglar why use a chisel when a club hammer on the glass might be more effective?
I was later informed that it was the work of a maintenance man looking for wood
rot but he hadn’t bothered to warn any resident.
While there I was reminded of how close to house windows the trains run. No
privacy, no sound deflection.
It wasn’t always like that but Network Rail
removed the conifers in 2015 and
took away the residents’ own larch lap fence and replaced it with a cheap chain
link affair which offers no protection at all.
There were complaints but Network Rail simply ignored the protests.
63 Belvedere Road
Bexley Council bought the bungalow at 63 Belvedere Road
last year; it is right next door to the entrance to
the Council Leader’s own private park and the suspicion was that if
it were to be demolished the park would become a nice little building site for BexleyCo.
The suspicions were allayed just a little when the
entrance was slightly modified last January
but someone living close by who takes a keen interest on developments there says
he has seen absolutely no sign of occupation.
Maybe there are reasons for longer term concerns after all.
Milkshakes
For reasons best known to themselves, milkshakes have become the weapon of
choice for the politically illiterate. It seemed to me that the throwers were
entirely comprised of the sort of morons who are too often attracted to the
Labour Party. That is not intended to be a criticism of the Labour Party which
attracts a lot of good people, it is more commiseration than complaint. I
doubt the level headed majority approve of throwing anything at politicians,
they certainly didn’t when Jeremy Corbyn was egged.
I follow all shades of political opinion on Twitter because it is too easy to
live in a Social Media bubble but when the follower who causes my eyebrows to
shoot upwards almost every day suggested crowd funding the Farage milkshake thrower’s
legal expenses after he was charged with common assault I said something about it.
I shouldn’t have lowered myself to a debate with a supporter of a criminal but
something tipped me over the edge. He didn’t seem to get the fact that aiders
and abetters of crime are very little better than the criminals themselves and
he demanded an apology for me eventually concluding he was dim. To please him I apologised
for participating in a Twitter spat but my views haven’t changed one jot.
To prevent a recurrence I stopped following the two Labour supporters who are the worst offenders
and perhaps an embarrassment to their party.
I was pleased to see that Thamesmead East Councillor Danny Hackett was on my
side, he knows all about being attacked by the extreme left. Just the one attack
for being on the side of the law abiding was enough for me; I’m not sure how Danny survived the onslaught on him.
20 May - Bexley Conservatives. Lying naturally from 2013 through to 2019
This
Tweet looks to be fairly innocuous but it needs to be examined by someone with a long memory.
It claims that Bexley Council expected to save a million pounds by moving into new offices instead of spreading themselves over several sites but instead saved £2 million.
Well done! Congratulations are due.
It is absolutely true that a one million pound saving was the original plan,
it was broadcast over the Council’s display screens before the old offices closed. See the ‘Blue’ image below.
The subject was discussed at a Council meeting in April 2013
However ten months later with an election approaching there was
a need to exaggerate the savings,
Bexley Tories slipped in a figure of £1·5 million
in February 2014. (The ‘Green’ image.) It was thought to be a lie at the time and now Bexley Conservatives have confirmed that it was.
They are not going to use that figure now because saving a million in 2019
looks very much better than saving only half a million.
This Tweet is fairly
self-explanatory. It claims that Bexley Tories were campaigning to move the Northumberland
Heath bus stop as long ago as 2017 when everyone knows that they didn’t do a thing about
the traffic congestion caused by Tesco delivery lorries from the moment the store opened at the end of 2012 until Labour
Councillor Wendy Perfect adopted the six year
old problem and got things moving.
If the Conservatives had been seriously interested in solving the problem they could have signed off a few orders years
ago. They knew it was going to be a problem,
they said so at the planning meeting.
They did nothing until they saw a Labour Councillor taking the initiative.
19 May (Part 2) - Facebook Folly
While I was stuck in East Ham two weeks ago watching an old lady sleeping
there was frequently not a lot to do apart from playing with a laptop. Never
before have I read so many Facebook posts.
It can be an interesting insight into human behaviour. In Bexley there are
apparently hordes of Facebook readers, many of them attached to female names, who are
extremely angry most of the time. The F and C words are part of their everyday
vocabulary. And then there are the busybodies who get hold of the wrong end of
the stick and start some sort of war between their supporters and those with a
little more sense.
One
such bad tempered debate kept me entertained over several hours until the
congenitally argumentative moved on to pastures new. It concerned the roundabout on Upper
Wickham Lane where it meets Oakhampton Crescent.
It is a junction I use every week or so when heading home to Abbey Wood. I get
in the right hand lane as indicated by the road markings and at the start of
Oakhampton Crescent turn left into Lodge Hill.
I’ve never seen anyone make that manoeuvre differently to me however the
aforesaid busybody had video’d a red car doing the same and posted it on video
as an example of how not to do it.
The situation was complicated by the driver of a grey car which followed the
straight ahead lane marked with a straight arrow (bottom left of satellite image) and then
turned right into the path of the red car.
The busybody on a speeding motorcycle said it was the red car driver who got it
all wrong and far too many readers supported him.
The motorcyclist justified his ridiculous interpretation of events by
claiming that the roundabout had four arms and that Lodge Hill was the straight
ahead and the road to Plumstead was a left turn.
If he had paid attention to the road signs (Photo 1) instead of fiddling with his camera
he may have noticed the roundabout sign - Photo 1. It only shows three arms.
If he had approached from a different direction he should have seen the
circles on sticks indicating a roundabout. Lodge Hill is different, it has a Give Way
sign. At ground level it has a white line quite separate from the one at the roundabout.
The speeding motorcyclist was quite obviously wrong in what he said about which
lane should be chosen when heading for Lodge Hill but the worrying thing was that so many people agreed with him.
By his definition he was not only speeding but also in the wrong lane himself!
Entering Lodge Hill never was the easiest of manoeuvres but now I know there are
so many confused drivers using the route I will be extra vigilant. My new car
sounds a warning if someone creeps up on the inside, it was probably an extra worth paying for.
The original
Facebook idiocies may be
read here and a low resolution
copy of the video is below. Low enough to obscure the number plate of the
innocent red car driver and the speedometer of the not so innocent motorcyclist.
The original Facebook video is of higher quality if you want to see number plates.
Andrew Bashford (Bexley’s road designer) should probably read the thread, it contains a few tips on how he might improve an awkward junction. The inside lane shouldn’t extend beyond the road to Plumstead but no one at Bexley Council is bright enough to recognise that. A pot of paint would fix it.
19 May (Part 1) - The Green Man emerges
Fashions change. The 1930s look comes back to Abbey Wood.
One of the contractors told me yesterday that the internal refurbishment of the
Abbey Arms would be completed in the second week of June.
I’ve just realised I didn’t finish the saga of my aunt and the care home, so in brief…
She hated it just as she did when last put in one. I didn’t like it either. The
inmates mainly said nothing so were no company for her and there were some
over-amorous old men on the prowl - and one woman which I discovered for myself!
On my first visit my aunt told me she thought she was lost and would never
see anyone she knew again. “It is a miracle you managed to find me.”
She was so obviously miserable that another plan was called for. I spent two
days reorganising her house. Various small items of furniture to the dump and a
bedroom downstairs.
I got her home again on Thursday afternoon. She has not objected to the new
layout but it will take time for her to get used to it. The confusion remains, some
of it would be funny in different circumstances.
When I last phoned she knew who I was but said I shouldn’t visit because she had to go to work. I persuaded her
it was Saturday and she need not go. By then she thought I was her employer.
Goodness knows how this will end. Maybe some people dump their old folk in a
home and try to forget them, it’s probably the only way they can get their life
back. But hard to do. Probably impossible for me.
Newham Council said they would fund the care home for four weeks to give me time
to make alternative arrangements. She was in the home for five nights. Yesterday
Newham Council notified me of the forthcoming bill.
Pretty much nothing goes right in Newham.
Related blogs
25 April 2019. •
27 April 2019. •
29 April 2019. •
2 May 2019. •
3 May 2019 1st part. •
3 May 2019 2nd part. •
6 May 2019 1st part. •
6 May 2019 2nd part. •
7 May 2019. •
8 May 2019. •
9 May 2019. •
10 May 2019. •
11 May 2019. •
18 May 2019.
The Omnibus Edition.
Normally when you see those two words together on a website it will be
a reference to railway franchises. If it is a local website
it will likely be From The Murky Depths.
However what is less likely to be reported by Mr. Murky is The Probation
Service and Chris Grayling’s involvement with it. Privatised by The Grayling Failure in May 2014 and an unmitigated
disaster over the subsequent five years.
Now it is going back into Public Ownership.
Who could possible have foreseen that?
Well plenty actually. The late Councillor Mike Slaughter listened to Grayling’s plan in
October 2013 and like me thought it was “gobbledegook”. Councillor Alan Downing
admitted to not understanding it.
Councillor Val Clark said that privatisation was “change for changes’ sake”.
Six month’s earlier Bexley Council had invited Rob Clark, a senior Probation
Service employee, to address them and heard him say that in future offenders would merely attend
the probation service premises, put their thumb on a £25,000 print reader to
prove they had been there and turn round and walk out again. No use whatever and
he was not a happy man. Councillors Philip Read, Nigel Betts and Brenda Langstead all thought it looked like a waste of time and money.
It was obvious well before Grayling imposed the mad scheme on his obviously
sceptical staff that it was doomed to fail. Bexley Councillors from both sides of
the political divide could see it coming but not the £100,000 Chris Grayling.
Source blogs.
April 2013.
October 2013.
February 2014.
16 May - Gayton Road, open at last
Yesterday
morning Wilton Road, Gayton Road and Florence Road in Abbey Wood, next door to
the so called Crossrail station, reopened for traffic and the 244 bus reverted to its old route.
If you look at
the first picture on this page you will see Bexley
Council’s notice said that work would start on 1st October and take four months.
October, November, December, January
which is why there are 300 odd photographs in a folder named 02/0101. The 1st February.
The job is not finished yet but it surely cannot be too much longer.
It all looks pretty good, the 15+ promised trees have not materialised and I
doubt they ever will. I will watch closely for movement on the right angle bends
made of blocks sitting on compacted sand. Bus wheels are destructive.
Probably it’s only a matter of time before someone comes dashing down the
station steps and doesn’t notice the road. It seems to be happening already.
My only complaint when there yesterday lunch time
on a brilliant sunny day was the glare coming from the
fresh white paving but chewing gum, beer stains, fag ends and rubber skid marks
will soon fix that.
The gutters on the newly resurfaced Wilton Road are already full of detritus.
One wonders where it comes from because Network Rail and Bexley Council have
contrived to drive all the shoppers away.
15 May - Why, why, why? Yoga, Yellow, Yuck
It’s two weeks before the next Council meeting so Bonkers will have to tread
water while Bexley Councillors take a break. I shall have to learn from that
motor mouth Steve Allen on LBC Radio who prattles on about anything and nothing
for three hours every morning. He spouts inconsequential trivia without audience
input for three whole hours. It's some sort of genius or perhaps insanity, I am not quite sure.
Maybe there is a market for it, when Bonkers went
wildly off topic while I was in
East Ham for most of last week, the site visitors went up and not down. I shall
have to be there again in an hour or two so this short blog may go out
incomplete at first and added to later.
Yoga
There was a brief aside about the Yoga Club that used to operate from the Lesnes
Abbey Lodge, but does so no more. I said I didn’t really know why.
A
reader helpful as ever educated me.
Bexley Council was being completely unreasonable so the club owner upped sticks and found somewhere better.
The problem with people who sit in ivory towers is that they have never done
anything creative in their lives, relying on their dictatorial powers to ride
roughshod over hard working people sometimes for their own personal satisfaction.
The full statement is available by clicking the image and
the Yoga Club’s website is here.
I still struggle with Facebook but for the masochists out there
https://www.facebook.com/AbbeyWoodYoga.
Long term fly tipping
Two
yellow vans were
abandoned opposite my house about ten years ago, it might
be longer. A neighbour who lived in the adjacent flat for eight years and moved
out two years ago told me they were there before he bought the flat.
The ‘creosote’ on the fence behind them has faded almost to invisibility but you
can still see the outline where no one could reach to apply the preservative.
Over the years they have been reported to various Councillors and Council
officers. The Tory Councillors did nothing, the officers said there was nothing
they could do because the vans are not on public land.
My reports fell on deaf ears because of who I am, one of my fly tipping reports
reached Cabinet Member Craske which was probably the kiss of death because it
was allowed to fizzle out.
Councillor Danny Hackett reported the vans which were full of wood and other
combustible materials as a fire hazard. There was some toing and froing but he
kept hitting the same brick wall. Not our land, not our business if an arsonist
sets the adjacent flats on fire.
After the 2018 election Councillor Dave Putson (Labour, Belvedere) took up the cudgels. One of the
vans disappeared about three months ago and now he tells me the other one should go soon.
He has persuaded the Council officers to take action against the land owner.
Well done Dave and the Council officer who saw sense.
Fothergullible
As already reported, former Bexley Councillor and libel expert Maxine Fothergill
was not allowed to stand as a Conservative Councillor in Sevenoaks on 2nd May.
Too many skeletons available to web searches presumably but in the recent rather
strange election Independents did well. Although Sevenoaks bucked the national trend to some extent
it was often a case of anyone but Conservative or Labour. Maxine Fothergill was elected
by the gullible of Fawkham as an Independent.
Maybe the police protection she appears to have enjoyed for many years is
coming to an end, everyone she accused of theft but the police exonerated have
been re-interviewed by the police as witnesses looking for the missing (minimum) hundred grand.
Sevenoaks Councillors.
This is not new news of course and apologies to the informer who let me know about it within hours of the results being declared, spare time has as you know been in short supply recently.
14 May - Newham University Hospital. The Omnibus Edition
It’s a long time since Bonkers has required me to write anything like new php code
- I am no good at it - but this morning I cobbled together a few lines which
grabs all the Newham Hospital related blogs and dumps them into one long web page.
Easier to read but maybe more importantly it can be tailored to attract Google
searches for the hospital rather than being linked to Bexley Council, not that
Google takes much notice of such things any more.
It is here and on the Miscellany Menu too.
I am wondering whether it is hypocritical to retain the tag line of ‘Vindictive’
on Bexley Council pages after setting up the new one devoted to the calamity
caused by Discharge Consultant Doctor Charlotte Pratt, GMC Number 3083318. But she deserves it.
My aunt is desperately unhappy in the respite home where despite having a ten
minute memory span is the intelligent one there.
“I am so glad you found me. I thought I was lost. It’s a miracle you are here.
Are we going home now?” A home incidentally that she didn’t recognise last week.
Now the hunt for something better. It will be relatively inexpensive to turn a
downstairs room into a bedroom and further increase the number of care visits.
Why didn’t I think of that before? I will give that a go.
Looks like the rest of this week is spoken for!
13 May - Andrew Marr’s car crash interview. A ‘Must Watch’
I’m not quite sure when I gave up watching BBC TV, it wasn’t sudden, it just
died a lingering death. Well over a year ago I would think.
BBC Radio listening declined after I bought an Internet
Radio which provided far more choice. Eventually, on BBC, I was reduced to listening only
to The Archers. My Mother had listened to it from the very beginning, 1951 or
1952, so I sort of grew up with it.
My last episode was the one when Brian Aldrich was being taken to Court for
polluting a river and some fictional thug attacked him on the way in. Off it
went straight away and has not been back on since. No idea when that was but a
good few months ago. The Archers addiction is cured.
I don’t even listen to the programme my daughter produces for Radio 4 each week.
She sometimes tells me of the trials and tribulations of getting a programme on
air and I admire her dedication to hard work, long hours and stress very much,
but I still can’t be bothered to listen.
But perhaps I should have watched the Marr
Show, is that what it is called?, this weekend. Nigel Farage is
perhaps a Marmite figure but his interview with Marr demonstrates exactly why
his three week old Brexit Party is topping the polls. The Establishment figures
just do not have a clue what is going on in the country. Rightly or wrongly
Farage dominated the interview and you have to be one of the worst sort of
Remainers to believe it wasn’t him who will benefit from it.
When the opportunity arises I meet up with Mick Barnbrook, Elwyn Bryant and John
Watson, all occasional - ahem, very occasional! - helpers on Bonkers.
Brexit is nearly always on our agenda and opinions vary a little week by week.
We won’t get it, it will be a BRINO Brexit, it will be a WTO Brexit etc.
My view for a long time has been that we will only get Brexit if the Tories are
annihilated at a General Election and Labour is decimated - in the modern sense of the word - and a new
listening party comes to the fore. Maybe I should have put some money on it.
When Andrew Marr next interviews Jeremy Corbyn, will he be questioned on his support for Hamas, Hezbollah, the IRA, anti-Semitism, Venezuela and Marxism whilst ignoring the topic of the day? Or does Marr only attempt to smear those he disagrees with? The BBC at its very best. And they wonder why viewing and listening numbers have been plummeting.
12 May (Part 3) - Danny and me. In and out of trouble
It was in 1969 or 70 that I was featured on the front page of The Daily Mail. A GPO Spokesman said…
I’d been called in by the Public Relations Manager as the supposed expert on
telephone directories after The Daily Mail had got its knickers in a twist about
the plan to computerise their production.
The Daily Mail reporter summarised what I had said and my reply is etched into
my mind. “You know I didn’t say that!” “I know but it is what I am going to print anyway.”
I came into the office next day and someone flung a copy of that nasty little
rag on to my desk. I responded “what a load of bollocks” and the bad language
landed me in a lot of trouble with all the old men in the office, most of whom
didn’t like the idea of me dabbling with those new fangled computers.
I’d have probably got into a lot more serious trouble if the Press Officer
didn’t know exactly what I had said.
In the space of fifty years bollocks and crap and similar words have become much
more commonly used in every day speech but newspapers still habitually asterisk
them and OFCOM won’t let them be used in news programmes.
But
it is OK for the Lib Dems to adopt Bollocks to Brexit for their Euro campaign
slogan? Vince Cable, his Deputy and the Lib Dums themselves really are a load of c**p aren’t they?
I am ashamed to say I voted Liberal (not Lib Dem) once, a friend stood for election to
Aldershot Council and I felt obliged to support him. That’s something I will never do again.
I voted for Danny Hackett (when he was Labour) and now that he has gone
Independent I’d probably vote for him again.
I don’t know what is going through his mind these days; he is a hard man to get
information from. Personally I wish he’d just get on with it and join the
Conservatives. Trouble with that of course is that they are now - with any luck
- on the verge of extinction. I’d be quite worried about that except that they
are not Conservatives any more so who will miss them? (I except the major
personalities on Bexley Council, most of them are proper Conservatives, Alex Sawyer, Blogger Craske, John Davey,
Andy Dourmoush and Philip Read - most of the time. There are more, Teflon Teresa O’Neill too.)
So what is Danny up to? I get the impression he knows he is in a bit of trouble.
Before he took his leap into the unknown he was on LBC Radio bemoaning the state of the Labour Party.
Thamesmead East Councillor Danny Hackett on LBC Radio.
For his brief chat with Eddie Mair too many of his friends and former colleagues
ganged up on him. Vile stuff some of it. One of the worst warranted a response
from Danny, he said they were talking “Bollocks. Bollocks. Bollocks”.
No one took much notice at the time in fact no one took any notice even after Danny
left the Labour Party but some time later Danny’s mood changed.
Let me speculate.
I would not discount the possibility that someone reported Danny to the Code of
Conduct Committee for the B word just as Councillor Dourmoush said they would. If so it will be great fun to see him defend himself.
But maybe the crass behaviour of the silly old fool (he is even older than I am!) known as Vince Cable will
scupper my chances of reporting on a juicy Bexley Council scandal. It’s been a
very long time since we had one of those.
The reference to porn on a laptop and dodgy house selling is brilliant isn’t it? (Buying actually but who cares?)
Is this all speculation? I will leave you guessing.
12 May (Part 2) - A ha’porth of tar
For months I have been making an almost
daily photographic record of the work
being done by F.M. Conway in Gayton Road, Abbey Wood. I am a little annoyed to have been
forced to miss the main event, the resurfacing of it and the adjacent Wilton and Florence Roads.
Fortunately I have been sent some pictures by sympathetic readers. Those taken
on phones demonstrate why I choose to lug around a great chunk of a camera but
beggars can’t be choosers and I am grateful for what I can get. I’m never sure why
most people insist on taking landscape type scenes with the phone held vertically,
most of the time the sky holds little of interest, but time to stop moaning! But
maybe not for long.
The first 15 photos you see here are by litter picker Roger Keene who knows how to capture a scene properly; he’s
obtained some fine shots. By the end of the day you should see even more in the Photo Gallery.
I’ve not often commented on the work except that the jobs run months late for
various reasons - sometimes in excess of a year - but the standard of
workmanship seems pretty good to me. Whoever decreed that the corners at each end of Gayton Road should be
blocks bedded on nothing more than compressed sand may live to regret it
especially as it is now confirmed that the 244 bus is to revert to its original
route. My front drive was built the same way and the blocks have migrated
slightly where I make the turn to the garage. My vehicle is red but it is not a bus.
A small journalistic annoyance is that I have sometimes managed to get hold of inside info
from Bexley Council about what was going to happen next, report it here, and then they do something entirely different, like the paving right next to the Abbey Arms.
The resurfacing was finished on time just as I expected it to be complete with
road markings to indicate it is a one way street. Unfortunately it is still a
two way street blocked at the station end. As far as I know there have been no
accidents yet but maybe Bexley Council could be held accountable if there were.
If I am allowed one more complaint it is that when I finally got home late last
Friday evening there was no pedestrian access from Abbey Wood Road (Greenwich) to Abbey Road (Bexley)
across the top end of Wilton Road without walking in the road mingling with the
traffic. I was not alone in cursing that oversight.
The real moan is about trees. Bexley’s publicity shots show 15 to 20 trees in
Gayton Road. Provision has been made for only three. I wonder if we wil ever get those benches. The drinkers and druggies will welcome them.
12 May (Part 1) - They got that wrong! Badly wrong
A couple of years ago
Bexley Council approved the building of a rail freight terminal
in Slade Green. See also the map of the area.
The Labour Group objected and so did some of the more sensible Conservative
Councillors objected too. June Slaughter, James Hunt and John Davey could see
the downside but the upside was the £2,000,000 plus of Community Infrastructure
Levy. The plan went through heavily backed by the Head of the Planning Department.
Fortunately for local residents a tiny bit of the proposed site fell in Dartford
and their Council threw the plan out.
Almost unnoticed Bexley’s Labour Councillors kept up the pressure while the rail
authorities appealed Dartford’s decision.
Last week the Secretary of State ruled against the freight depot saving local
residents the many lorry trips involved and rail passengers the potential delays
of the new access junction.
The Labour Group
Press Release is here. I doubt we will be seeing one from Bexley Council.
The developer could apply for Judicial Review so Slade Green residents must keep their fingers crossed for a little while longer.
11 May - The end of an era. 78 years!
A difficult two weeks has come to an end. After being quite literally dumped
on her doorstep with nothing but her clothes and handbag my aunt of very nearly
99 years is in a respite home funded by Newham Council for four weeks while I
look for something more permanent.
Everyone, maybe you too, has found it difficult to believe that the hospital did
and provided nothing whatever, not even the medication was sent out with her.
Some of it came later by courier and when that package proved to be deficient I
fetched the remainder myself.
As a result of Newham University
Hospital’s failures the first injections were made two days late
and only family intervention produced a physiotherapist. Last Thursday, very
nearly three weeks after the femur was repaired and as a result of that neglect
my aunt’s in-turning right foot is never likely to be straight again.
Some of the people masquerading as nurses don’t seem very bright to me. Trying
to engage my aunt in conversation I said “tell the nurse where you were born”.
She had forgotten so I chipped in “Rangoon, Burma”.
Blank looks!
So I added “it is called Myanmar now”. Still blank.
“It’s just east of India, it is all much the same place really.” It got me
nowhere, she simply didn’t seem to recognise that India was a country. It
reminded me of the time when a senior
Newham Social Worker asked me what a Hampshire was. She’d never heard of it,
didn’t know it was a County.
After being half promised respite care by last Tuesday, then Wednesday, Thursday
and Friday and with nothing happening, things were getting a bit desperate.
Little sleep, very low on my gluten free diet, no shower and no functioning bath - a long story!
Fortunately friends were operating in the background. The appointed Social
Worker, a regular in Wilton Road, Abbey Wood apparently, was banging his head
against a brick wall, the prospect of a care home had been kicked into the
middle of next week.
“I can’t understand it” he said. “You saw me making phone calls, I tried to get
her in last Tuesday” he added apologetically, and so 3 p.m. Friday came and went and a
long and smelly weekend was in prospect.
Then
the Social Worker came back all excited, he had made a breakthrough and this morning the
old lady was taken to her temporary home. Someone in Bexley should offer that
man a local job.
What I now know happened and I presume was critical is that the Independent
Councillor for Thamesmead East, the 25 year old Danny Hackett had metaphorically
kicked the arse of the Cabinet Member for Adults’ Services in Newham and she in
turn jumped on someone. I know because I have seen the emails.
So come the next election in Thamesmead, vote for Danny folks, you won’t get
that sort of service from anyone else.
So at last a happy, well more satisfactory anyway, ending. She didn’t want to go; 78 years in the same house is
a long time and it was all rather upsetting. “Please don’t leave me Daddy.”
Another friend was Teresa Pearce, I need hardly add the initials MP do I? She
kept in touch by text message. When I said I was finally ready for the journey
home both tired and smelly she offered to come and pick me up in her car. I
declined but as I trudged my way along Fendyke Road from the station my slightly
wobbly knees were suggesting I had made the wrong decision.
So that’s about it, back to something like normal tomorrow. Has anything been happening in Bexley?
Apologies if the off topic tales were not to your liking, there was frequently
little else to do while away. As some will know I engaged in a Twitter war with Newham Hospital and researched their Tweets which were quite often bragging
exchanges between staff members about how they were so good at throwing people out of hospital fast.
They must have realised what I was doing because the Chief Executive of the
Hospital and the Tayberry Ward manager deleted their Twitter Accounts.
Next port of call, a medical negligence lawyer. How is it that we have so many
very stupid people running this country? You only have to look to Westminster to
see how it comes from the top. Sorry Teresa, there is always the exception to prove the rule.
When things have calmed down these blogs will be combined into a single page
with suitable metadata etc. to provide a fitting memorial to Dr. Charlotte Pratt
(GMC Number 3083318), the geriatric consultant who signed off my aunt as fit to live alone.
Presumably it is ‘who cares, she is 99 let her die’. People like Charlotte Pratt should not
be let anywhere near any position of power.
Thanks are however due to the concerned GP, the lady at the Clinical
Commissioning Group who managed to interest Social Services in the case after
they had refused and put the phone down on us twice. Also the ladies from
Highland Care UK (Heigham Road, East Ham) who were absolutely fantastic. Every old lady should have a Mohima to look after her.
Related blogs
25 April 2019. •
27 April 2019. •
29 April 2019. •
2 May 2019. •
3 May 2019 1st part. •
3 May 2019 2nd part. •
6 May 2019 1st part. •
6 May 2019 2nd part. •
7 May 2019. •
8 May 2019. •
9 May 2019. •
10 May 2019. •
11 May 2019. •
18 May 2019.
The Omnibus Edition.
10 May - It’s still no go in Newham
Ten health related visitors knocked on the door yesterday. Yes ten; but not
the one I was waiting for. Someone to take the old lady to the respite centre.
A very small amount of hope had been held out that it would happen last
Tuesday but it didn't happen on Wednesday or Thursday either. Various phone
calls and visitors have convinced me that Newham’s systems are split into so
many small sections that communication between them is limited and time consuming.
A further assessment for the already approved respite care is
due later this morning.
That visit is one reason why I decided not to
walk out on the situation last night even though the GP said I would be entirely
justified in calling an ambulance and disappearing. That is in practice quite a
difficult step to take even though the cretinous Dr. Charlotte Pratt (GMC Number
3083318) said my aunt is entirely fit to be left alone. (I checked the papers
again yesterday to make sure I was not libelling the fool.)
However another reason for not leaving yesterday evening is that Dr. Pratt and her ilk
work eight hour shifts and then take two off. By not making any prior
arrangements for discharge - not so much as a packet of pills - they condemn
people like me to three eight hour shifts a day for days on end.
I judged
I was too sleepy to make the train journey home and safely drive back with more
supplies and maybe cleaner. Right now I stink of Dettol and possibly worse.
I have asked most of the visiting health professionals whether my aunt’s case is
a one off serious mistake or if Newham Hospital does it to everyone. Some replies were more
guarded than others but it would appear to be fairly common. One of them told me
that medics locally have a very rude word for Newham University Hospital but
wouldn’t tell me what it is. A second visitor confirmed it.
I
have been invited to a meeting at Newham Hospital. They made it publicly on
Twitter. What sort of idiot does that? Did they think that they would counter the bad
publicity by demonstrating how approachable they are?
How do they think someone on 24/7 nursing duties can drop everything and go to meet them?
And they have overlooked one thing. When I do eventually meet them I want to have a
medical negligence solicitor by my side.
If by chance you see me passing through Abbey Wood station later today,
steer clear. Dettol and cr*p is not a nice combination and some has splashed on
to my last remaining clothes.
Related blogs
25 April 2019. •
27 April 2019. •
29 April 2019. •
2 May 2019. •
3 May 2019 1st part. •
3 May 2019 2nd part. •
6 May 2019 1st part. •
6 May 2019 2nd part. •
7 May 2019. •
8 May 2019. •
9 May 2019. •
10 May 2019. •
11 May 2019. •
18 May 2019.
The Omnibus Edition.
9 May - Promises promises. Broken promises
It looks like there will be a gaping hole in my photographic record of the
regeneration of Gayton and Wilton Roads. One should already have been resurfaced
and the other is scheduled to be done tonight. Wilton Road closes from 7 p.m. to
2 a.m. tonight if I remember correctly. I may still be stuck in East Ham
living off the remants of gluten free fruit loaf and eggs.
The
Newham Social Services promises made on Tuesday came to nothing. I was left a
number to call to make enquiries but it was busy all day long. Going back to my
BT days, it was an equipment busy tone not the familar number engaged signal.
Somone had left the office and turned all the telecoms equipment off.
I called the main Adults’ Services number and asked them to pass a message to the
Social Worker and that department was so incompetent that they arranged an
urgent District Nurse visit instead. Useless wasters.
The only bright spot is
that a Doctor I had not heard of before phoned to tell me she had received a
letter to say my aunt was approved for respite care and afterwards her
regular GP who has not seen her for several months past called to say he would
visit this morning.
And Teresa Pearce MP called me with advice. Good old
Teresa, always there to help.
If it had not been for the doctor’s intended visit I would probably have carried
out my plan to call an ambulance during the night.
There has been a mental deterioration
and there can be no question of living alone again but the Catch 22 of not being
able to sort out a care home while on 24/7 caring duties in East Ham remains.
From mid afternoon yesterday until 04:30 this morning there was frequent
shouting out and no sensible conversation. Aunt just called for her Mum (deceased
1976) and when I was comforting her, “please don’t leave me Daddy”. (Deceased 1933.)
At 04:30 it all went quiet and I thought she had gone but it started all
over again 20 minutes later. Right now I am just ignoring it, my presence makes no difference.
The utter prat known as Dr. Charlotte Pratt (GMC Number 3083318) signed her fit
enough to live alone. Why are such people kept in
employment? - at four different hospitals apparently!
Both Newham Hospital and the local Clinical Commissioning Group have separately invited me to meet
them and tell them of my concerns. I don't think there is anything to say that
they cannot read here. I am quite pleased that if you Google Dr. Charlotte Pratt,
Bonkers is now on the first page. I hope it blights her career for ever.
I am now an enthusiast for privatising the NHS, I don't think they are short of
money, management positions and not a few others are filled with incompetents
from top to bottom. That is the real problem.
After the doctor visits this morning I will activate
my ambulance plan.
Related blogs
25 April 2019. •
27 April 2019. •
29 April 2019. •
2 May 2019. •
3 May 2019 1st part. •
3 May 2019 2nd part. •
6 May 2019 1st part. •
6 May 2019 2nd part. •
7 May 2019. •
8 May 2019. •
9 May 2019. •
10 May 2019. •
11 May 2019. •
18 May 2019.
The Omnibus Edition.
8 May - It’s Desperation Day plus one in Newham
So here I am in East Ham trying to write a blog using Notepad while on 24/7
care duties with little by way of food and being coeliac can't easily order it
in. Do I really want fifty quid’s worth of gluten free bread from Tescos?
A senior medic who may share my opinion of Newham General Hospital managed to get one
ball rolling yesterday morning and the first Social Worker to be seen since this
episode began a month ago showed up at my aunt's house. I arrived there just in time.
My opinion of Social Workers has not always been high but this chap, Jude, was
good. Maybe it’s because he agreed absolutely with my criticisms of Newham Hospital and he lives in Abbey Wood.
He could barely believe what he was reading in the hospital notes; as far as I could tell their complete failure to follow
through their own promises is on the record and a damning indictment of the competence of Dr. Charlotte Pratt (GMC Number 3083318) et al.
But apparently Social Services and the NHS don’t speak to each other in Newham and whilst my aunt
should have been sent for re-enablement (NHS I believe) the
NHS is unembarrassed by their failure to make any preparations for discharge.
Not just the obvious like no physiotherapists but they even forgot the medication
pack. Nevertheless they remain intransigent and refuse any retrospective action. The best the man from Abbey
Wood could offer was a respite home which could be anywhere
but he recognised that speed was of the essence. Later today maybe.
With my sister now at home she can get on with arranging a longer term care home.
As ill luck would have it my aunt still has the constipation she had when discharged - one
more reason she was not fit to be sent out - and there are signs that a powerful
laxative (Laxido) which was in the hospital medical pack when it eventually
arrived is beginning to have some effect. Up and down to the loo all night. I
have not had to clean that sort of mess since my son was in nappies 47 years ago.
If the Social Worker does not get my aunt a place somewhere today it is definitely
a taxi to A&E.
Me a dumper of old ladies? But what else is left to do?
The Social Worker said that all the things my sister and I have done and have
still to do should have been done for us or helped with before discharge. The NHS is simply not fit for purpose.
Related blogs
25 April 2019. •
27 April 2019. •
29 April 2019. •
2 May 2019. •
3 May 2019 1st part. •
3 May 2019 2nd part. •
6 May 2019 1st part. •
6 May 2019 2nd part. •
7 May 2019. •
8 May 2019. •
9 May 2019. •
10 May 2019. •
11 May 2019. •
18 May 2019.
The Omnibus Edition.
7 May - It’s the day of reckoning
I am going to East Ham and I may be away for some time. It’s a good job all is quiet on the Bexley front.
This morning my sister rang Newham Social Services to plead for help so that she
could get home to Hampshire to arrange a care home there for my frail and
demented aunt and to seek attention for her own medical problem.
Newham Social Services told her that they will not provide any help because on
previous occasions the family has funded private care. That was because Newham’s
services proved to be totally inadequate and uncaring. That pot of money is near exhausted.
When my sister asked to be put through to someone more senior, Newham Social
Services put the phone down on her.
My sister is now going home necessitating my trip to Newham.
I am not sure whether to call an ambulance, the old lady is feeling dizzy and
still constipated just as she was when kicked out of hospital, and simply walk away
from the situation or somehow deliver her to A&E and do the same thing.
This is a total failure of Barts Health NHS Trust and Newham Council.
If anyone can think of any better ideas I would be pleased to hear them.
P.S. Occupational Health has phoned to say they will do a
house assessment next Thursday, twelve days after discharge and two
weeks after the intended discharge date. The assessment should have been done before
hospital discharge to ensure it was safe. By Thursday it will be
too late, no one will be at home to arrange admission.
Who was it who assured me that all the professionals had passed everything as OK? Who signed the discharge papers?
Dr. Charlotte Pratt (GMC Number 3083318).
P.S. Again. Just been told my aunt has not got dementia. Yesterday she was
asking for her mother and when I walked in she was so glad to see her father. He
died in 1933. Just call me Alfred!
Related blogs
25 April 2019. •
27 April 2019. •
29 April 2019. •
2 May 2019. •
3 May 2019 1st part. •
3 May 2019 2nd part. •
6 May 2019 1st part. •
6 May 2019 2nd part. •
7 May 2019. •
8 May 2019. •
9 May 2019. •
10 May 2019. •
11 May 2019. •
18 May 2019.
The Omnibus Edition.
6 May (Part 2) - The grinning incompetents from Newham Hospital
Things are coming to a head. My sister is in her seventies and like most
septuagenarians is not totally free of medical ailments. She has just realised
that she will run out of vital medication tomorrow and must therefore return to Hampshire.
I had suggested she did so by Sunday but she felt she ought to wait until the
holiday is over; now it is crunch time.
It is what you get when the top priority for a team of uncaring medical incompetents is to shunt vulnerable
old people out of hospital before they are fit and then compounding their
misjudgment by not bothering to ensure a care package of some sort is in place.
Meanwhile
these self satisfied individuals are engaged in a frenzy of back
slapping to convince themselves they are doing a good job. I am pretty sure the
lady on the left below is the one who gave me two working hours to put extra care in place but didn’t think that medication
might be required or the District Nurse and various therapists should be informed.
I suspect I am wrong to assume that this is a one off mistake because if it was
they might be trying to make amends for their error. Instead they swan off
on holiday with both telephone (*) and email in-boxes conveniently full.
One must assume that the zero care dished out to my aunt is the norm to which they aspire.
* My sister tried to call Newham Social Services (not the NHS) on Friday afternoon but an announcement said their mail box was full.
Related blogs
25 April 2019. •
27 April 2019. •
29 April 2019. •
2 May 2019. •
3 May 2019 1st part. •
3 May 2019 2nd part. •
6 May 2019 1st part. •
6 May 2019 2nd part. •
7 May 2019. •
8 May 2019. •
9 May 2019. •
10 May 2019. •
11 May 2019. •
18 May 2019.
The Omnibus Edition.
6 May (Part 1) - The cretins who run Newham take a break
After
both the hospital and Social Services told my sister that no re-enablement
package or indeed anything else had been put in place to help my aunt’s recovery
because she was already privately paying for help they all waltzed off on
holiday leaving my sister in despair of what to do next.
No medication supplied, no District Nurse to administer it. No physiotherapy, no
occupational therapy. If that is not negligent what is?
The reason the care has been privately funded is because Newham’s Social
Services are so appallingly bad.
There is now a dreadful Catch 22. If we are to find a care home for my aunt and
it is away from Newham where the word care appears to be a dirty one it will
have to be back in Hampshire where my sister lives. But how can she set about
selecting a suitable home when she has to be in London on 24/7 duty?
I think I should take over the role as she is going to drop from exhaustion soon
and has a foreign holiday booked for a week’s time but the only thing we seem to
agree on now is that her phone call to Tayberry ward agreeing a two day delay to
the discharge was a very big mistake. We should have just walked away and if
anyone from Newham is reading this please take that lesson on board. Get a
written assurance from the appalling Dr. Charlotte Pratt (GMC Number 3083318)
that all the support services have been put in place before allowing any old
person to be discharged from Tayberry or Thistle wards.
A physiotherapist turned up unexpectedly on Saturday morning and spent best part
of an hour with my aunt but the main message seemed to be that no one in Newham
cares about anything but their budget and the chances of them doing anything useful is close to zero.
Meanwhile all I have been able to do is read the websites of various medical negligence lawyers.
Thanks to the many readers who have offered advice and those who have retweeted
messages to tens of thousands of their followers. It is essential that the
management and senior medical staff of Newham Hospital are shamed mercilessly.
P.S. The complaints email for Newham Hospital (palsandcomplaints@) printed on
their leaflet is another dud. Three days after I used it, their server - not mine
- returned my message appended with “delivery temporarily suspended”. I suppose they
have gone on holiday too. Newham Hospital can do absolutely nothing right.
Related blogs
25 April 2019. •
27 April 2019. •
29 April 2019. •
2 May 2019. •
3 May 2019 1st part. •
3 May 2019 2nd part. •
6 May 2019 1st part. •
6 May 2019 2nd part. •
7 May 2019. •
8 May 2019. •
9 May 2019. •
10 May 2019. •
11 May 2019. •
18 May 2019.
The Omnibus Edition.
As I drove past the Lesnes Abbey recreation ground this morning at about
11:40 there were two police cars and a fire engine outside with about four
police officers and maybe even more fire people standing on the footpath. By the
time I parked the car and grabbed a camera the fire engine had moved off and the
police officers were taking a walk around the park.
I did the same and
once again saw no sign of fire. There is an amazing amount of
play equipment there which is clearly a very popular attraction.
3 May (Part 3) - Round in circles in Newham
Another day of little progress in Newham.
I was asked to make
a formal complaint which could only
repeat what has been written here. I have been told that it will be sent to the Complaints Service. I
was naively hoping for some urgent action.
A physiotherapist said that only a GP could make a referral to the
rehabilitation ward, the doctor appears not to agree.
A later phone call said that the rehab. ward sister didn't want my aunt in
her ward anyway, said Social Services should be looking after her.
A call to Social Services said they were not offering any help because my aunt
pays for her own care - but only four visits a day which is already costing
more than her total income after Council Tax and heating costs.
Her savings would be all gone in a fortnight if there was a requirement to pay
for 24/7 care but Social Services said they were not prepared to help and gave an NHS number to ring.
No help available there either and there was a circular reference back to the first number at Social Services.
It’s the Bank Holiday weekend so it is unlikely that there will be any urgent action.
I’ve been trying to persuade my sister that she cannot spend the rest of her life as an
unpaid carer but she is reluctant to do anything dramatic as I would.
If the NHS is unwilling to provide the rehabilitation promised less than three
weeks ago the only solution will be a care home where she can sit all day
largely uncared for. We have seen that coming for a long time but it cannot be arranged in a weekend
when precipitated by a broken leg. There is no cash to pay for it
Maybe it will all be academic anyway. My aunt who used to be a perpetual grazer
on cake and sweets and her favourite marmalade sandwiches is eating very little,
getting weaker by the day and says she wants to die.
Related blogs
25 April 2019. •
27 April 2019. •
29 April 2019. •
2 May 2019. •
3 May 2019 1st part. •
3 May 2019 2nd part. •
6 May 2019 1st part. •
6 May 2019 2nd part. •
7 May 2019. •
8 May 2019. •
9 May 2019. •
10 May 2019. •
11 May 2019. •
18 May 2019.
The Omnibus Edition.
3 May (Part 2) - Lesnes Abbey Good Coffee to close
There has been a considerable brouhaha in Abbey Wood and several news sites
about Bexley Council’s decision to call time on the popular Lesnes Abbey coffee
shop and refreshment kiosk. Rumour has it that Bexley Council had realised that
it was running at a profit and thought they might take it for themselves.
Money grabbing is what Councils do of course but a Conservative one ’nationalising’
local businesses seemed to be a little far fetched.
But one can never be sure; I don’t remember the details but they had a hand in a
similar facility that used to operate from the riverside gardens in Crayford and
they spoke as if they had designs on the Belvedere Splashpark cafe too.
They have form in Lesnes Abbey park too.
The Yoga club left the Visitor Centre for reasons that
never became clear to me.
(Click for subsequent explanation). They
don’t like riding stables either however popular they might be.
Not unnaturally people assume the worst of Bexley Council and their reputation
is well deserved, but are they on firmer ground this time around?
They claim that the coffee shop owner has not followed every last detail of her
contract. Nobody but the owner knows if that is true.
More comment.
From the Murky Depths.
Survey Monkey petition.
Abbey Wood on Facebook.
Bexley Council Facebook.
3 May (Part 1) - The state of the NHS in Newham
There are several minor Bexley items that should be reported but battling
with Newham’s Health services is taking up most of my time.
It would appear that the only way of attracting anyone’s attention is via these
blogs and Twitter, the health authorities read them but as far as I can see do nothing.
Yesterday was not a good day. The District Nurse, it’s been a different one each
day, said she could not apply dressings because she didn’t have any and if we
wanted the bed blisters to be attended to we must buy the dressings ourselves.
The physiotherapist had recommended an urgent referral to the rehab unit -
Fothergill ward would you believe - so we chased him up by phone. Someone said
it was on the notes that my aunt should be taken to the gym!
The night was disturbed by my aunt moaning in pain and if I had been there
instead of my sister I would have called an ambulance.
A more insistent phone call to the physio’s office this morning persuaded him to call
back. He said only the GP can make a referral to Fothergill ward. The GP has
been supportive from the outset and that is not what he has been saying.
By Sunday my sister will have given nine days of 24/7 care and, like me, is no spring
chicken, she cannot do it any more. She will have to go home on Sunday.
When I take over full time I shall hire a taxi and drop my aunt into A&E. “All the
professionals say she is fit to go home [with carers dropping in daily]”. And that
was more than a week ago. What sort of professionals are they? And what was
Dr. Charlotte Pratt (GMC Number 3083318) thinking of when she signed the
discharge papers with no support services whatsoever set up in advance?
Earlier today a message from someone claiming to be a contractor to the NHS said
that the NHS is awash with cash but it is too partial to massive bribes, e.g. a
£40,000 scanner that comes with free holidays is chosen over another at half the
price. It would not surprise me one bit if it is true.
Related blogs
25 April 2019. •
27 April 2019. •
29 April 2019. •
2 May 2019. •
3 May 2019 1st part. •
3 May 2019 2nd part. •
6 May 2019 1st part. •
6 May 2019 2nd part. •
7 May 2019. •
8 May 2019. •
9 May 2019. •
10 May 2019. •
11 May 2019. •
18 May 2019.
The Omnibus Edition.
2 May - The state of the National Health Service today
It’s a day to drop everything and rush over to East Ham again. I must come to an arrangement with the care company to see if they can increase cover further, my sister cannot be expected to be on 24/7 care watch for ever.
I suspect that we cannot go on much longer without engaging a full time care
home despite my aunt’s insistence that she wants to be in the home where she has
been since being bombed in Victoria Dock Road in 1941.
There has been some progress towards mitigating Newham Hospital’s total failure to prepare for the discharge
of a frail old lady just a month short of her 99th birthday. The District Nurse who declared the incident a
failed discharge has been visiting since last Monday and dealt with the
bedsores. Not so good is that some of the supplied syringes will be past their
expiry date before they are due to be used.
Yesterday a Physiotherapist came for the first time and said that my aunt should
not be at home on weekly physiotherapy but in a rehab. centre for daily
attention. He said he would make an urgent application but had no idea if space would be available.
Also yesterday a commode was delivered
(a day later than promised) but there has been no contact with Social
Services. I regard that as a good thing. They were no help back in 2015 after my
aunt had been in hospital and rehab. for nine weeks.
The General Practitioner also declared Newham Hospital’s discharge to be
“failed” and he is so concerned by the last week’s events that he is going to
raise it with the Clinical Commissioning Group.
Everyone the District Nurse and I have persuaded to take an interest in the
situation have been very nice people who have done their best to mitigate Newham
Hospital’s failure to make any arrangements at all.
The ward Sister - the one in dark blue - assured me that all the professionals
in her hospital had passed my aunt, who was constipated and catheterised until discharge and required
lifting from bed to chair, fit for return home. Is Dr. Charlotte Pratt
(GMC Number 3083318) who signs off geriatric discharges still in employment?
My big mistake was allowing my sister to reach a compromise date for discharge with the ward staff.
They wanted her discharge to be eleven days after the leg break was repaired and
13 days was agreed. We should have just walked away.
Related blogs
25 April 2019. •
27 April 2019. •
29 April 2019. •
2 May 2019. •
3 May 2019 1st part. •
3 May 2019 2nd part. •
6 May 2019 1st part. •
6 May 2019 2nd part. •
7 May 2019. •
8 May 2019. •
9 May 2019. •
10 May 2019. •
11 May 2019. •
18 May 2019.
The Omnibus Edition.
1 May (Part 2) - Abbey Wood closed for business. Please go away
Next week Bexley Council will close most, and at some times all, of Gayton,
Wilton and Florence Roads in Abbey Wood. The anticipated chaos is so severe that
they plan to station a Traffic Marshall there to prevent total gridlock.
Full details here.
At the same time, in conjunction with Greenwich Council,
access to Eynsham Drive from Harrow Manorway will be severely restricted.
1 May (Part 1) - The police. Are they corrupt or simply incompetent beyond belief?
The following is not the original blog but an announcement placed here in February 2025
as part of the long term project to progressively restore old blogs.
A dishonest statement made by a Conservative Councillor in December 2017 persuaded
Kent Police to charge me with harassment for a series of supportive blogs. (The Councillor’s solicitor accepted that they were
supportive). Further blogs revealed that the same Councillor had been involved
in a High Court libel case. The BiB blogs were supported by a libel lawyer, a
media lawyer and the MP for Erith and Thamesmead.
Among many dishonest statements to Kent Police was that I invented the ‘Guilty’ verdict
recorded on Bexley Council’s website and that the verdict was in fact ‘Not Guilty’. An
outright lie! As if that was not sufficiently obvious from the evidence the
Statement went on to say that Bexley’s decision was being considered by the Councillor for
Judicial Review. Found ’Not Guilty’ but challenging the verdict in Court! A clear contradiction of one statement by another.
Sergeant Robbie Cooke based in Swanley ignored the obvious inconsistencies and without reference
to the CPS decided my support for the Councillor was Harassment and the entirely factual reporting of
the High Court Libel case merely exacerbated it.
The CPS dropped the case just hours before it was due to be heard in Sevenoaks Magistrates’ Court
I subsequently asked Kent Police to take action against the Councillor who made 13 untrue statements
in support of the accusations. All the complaints were rejected and the
Chief Constable himself said I could not pursue a complaint because I was not
the victim of the Councillor’s false claim. I was named in it 22 times.
My MP took up the case but was thwarted by the Police and Crime Commissioner’s
Office. The Commissioner was at one time a Bexley Councillor who sat alongside the dishonest Councillor.
This blog was removed on 2nd June 2019 but an archived copy remains available to legitimate enquirers.