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News and Comment July 2021

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23 July - Council Leader struggles to find borough improvements

Apologies to the few readers who still expect to see something new here every day. The silence has nothing to do with Johnson’s Freedom Day Fraud on the 19th, just coincidence, but two whole days out with friends, a day trip to Norwich and two cricket matches, or should I say pop concerts given how much so called music is aimed at a beer sodden audience these days. I am beginning to question my membership of the club.

So I missed Wednesday’s Council meeting. Did I do the right thing?

The Agenda highlight for me was Mr. Shvorob’s question which followed on from the blog of 1st July. That blog acknowledged that some borough facilities had improved using other people’s money - which is a good thing - but went on to list about 20 which had got considerably worse as repeated by the question poser.
Question
The Council Leader referred to the improvement in Social Care Services which is fair enough but she omitted to say just how poor they used to be under certain Cabinet Members for both Children and Adult Care who were in post until 2014. There can be little doubt that those things have improved dramatically.

Some of the things put forward as improvements the blog had already acknowledged as such, so pedantically not pertinent to the question but one that was is Adoption Services. They are said to be much better than they were and there is no reason to believe that is not correct.

It seems to me that Our Dear Leader failed to come up with any Bread and Butter services, those that affect everyone’s lives, which have improved. The Care Services used as examples of improvements may well be be close to excellent in recent years but they are too niche for most residents who might conclude that Bexley Council has not improved the quality of day to day life in the borough.

I do not wish to detract from what the Leader said with my “negative narrative” so below you can hear her counter argument for yourself. Let me be among the first to acknowledge that Councils generally and Bexley in particular have been dealt a very bad hand by central government and Councillor Teresa O’Neill has not attempted to deny the negative impact on most if not all of us. To her credit she did not dispute my “Downward Spiral” report. It is nothing to be proud of but is largely a consequence of Government policy. Bexley may be spiralling downwards but in my opinion is far from being the worst place in London to live, but maybe almost the most expensive.

 

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