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News and Comment October 2022

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31 October - Old problems ignored

If every document relating to Bexley Council is filed away for 20 plus years, sooner or later one runs out of space. I spent much of yesterday recycling as much old junk as I could and in the process found quite a lot of Council letters dated 1999 to 2001 with references to letters dated 1992 - most of which have not yet been found.

It would seem that senior Bexley executives were just as arrogant and dictatorial back then as they are now, the difference being that that if you wrote to the Chief Executive 20 years ago there was a good chance that it would be his signature on the reply. Not that they actually answered any of the questions.

In 2001 Chief Executive Christopher Duffield told me that he was disappointed that I believed him to be supremely arrogant so I told him why and referred him to the evidence.

Danger DangerThe document tidying revealed that my complaints about inconsiderate parking and the danger created at the junction with Carrill Way go back 30 years. (See this weekend’s photos.)

In 1992 I asked for yellow lines to be considered and the Group Engineer (Traffic and Road Safety) turned down my request on the grounds that “yellow lines cause considerable inconvenience to most residents”.

By 1999 his opinion had gone though a 180° reversal and a Controlled Parking Zone was proposed. The correspondence reveals that end on parking was a problem then just as it is now and the area designated for use as as a "turning head" only should be subject to the CPZ. My request that parking bays be marked out in a conventional manner was ignored.

In the event the proposed CPZ boundary stopped well short of my road and everything suggested went unheeded for 20 more years. They called themselves The Listening Council.
Ignored

 

30 October - It is definitely ugly

The number of reports that the new Bexley Council owned three screen cinema In Sidcup is a bit of an eyesore had reached the stage when a photographic expedition was required. The only spare time round about now was this morning so I left home just before eight, umbrella and water resistant lenses in the boot of the car.

Usually it is possible to park early on a Sunday a few yards to the east of Waitrose, but not this morning. The road was dug up; pretty much the norm for Sidcup one might say.

I do not know Sidcup very well, it is the sort of place one wants to get through quickly, Thames Water permitting. The visibility was poor but I toured the back streets looking for a parking space but without success. All I found was road humps every few yards, an incredible number of No Entry and No Through Road signs and temporary traffic lights.

Sidcup cinemaWithout stopping I headed home which is a shame because I had intended to watch a film at the new cinema and I now realise that may not be possible. A combination of Bexley Council’s parking policies and Southeastern’s withdrawal of the Abbey Wood to Sidcup train service.

In my youth I was the projectionist’s occasional assistant in an Odeon but I have never in 35+ years been to a Bexley cinema. A review of Bexleyheath’s Cineworld gave graphic descriptions of flying popcorn and urine soaked seats. I would hope someone was exaggerating but I played safe.

Occasional forays into cinemas elsewhere - nothing since Midway and 1917 so not very often - has found me complaining to my companions about the indifferent sound quality and if I ever get inside the Sidcup fleapit it will mainly be to check that out.

I have read all the planning documents relating to acoustics and I hope the insulation is good enough to protect adjacent screens. A modern cinema requires at least twelve speakers and the sound pressure level needs to reach 85dB or more to keep me happy. (Films are generally designed for that level.) Imagine something like Top Gun Maverick playing next door to a Hitchcock classic.

Where a cinema might win over a blu-ray disc on the best TV is in screen brightness. At the moment, if you spend enough money, you can buy a TV which is colour accurate and approaching cinema brightness. But not for much longer.

The European Union has decreed that the power consumption of TVs must be further limited. Bigger ones will be allowed to use more electricity but the effect will be that all 8k screens will be banned as will all the 2022 models from Sony and Samsung that use the latest QD-OLED technology. As yet no other manufacturer does.

8k TVs are probably a big waste of money because there is next to nothing of that resolution to show on them. With four times as many pixels as 4k to be illuminated there is no way they can get under the EU imposed limit but - good news - the Americans are understandably up in arms about the limitations especially as the best 4k sets will be banned too. The manufacturers appear to be unwilling to split their production lines but maybe they will rebel against European dictators by hiding something in the engineering menu.

My 4k disc of Top Gun Maverick complete with IMAX sequences and Dolby ATMOS sound is due here tomorrow, Royal Mail strikes permitting, so if you hear any low flying jet planes hereabouts you may safely blame me.

 

29 October - Helping the local economy and financing the national one

In a clear sign of impending senility I was surprised to see Councillor Andy Dourmoush chairing October’s Finance Scrutiny meeting. I was under the impression that he was still persona-non-grata for not being entirely convinced by the auditor’s Good News Story a year ago. As the most successful - only? - businessman on the Council who better to keep an eye on its finances?

However it seems I had entirely forgotten last July’s Finance meeting report. It is good to be reminded that Ahmet is back.

The first Agenda item was entitled Social Values which is an obscure way of describing responsible local procurement policies designed to benefit Bexley people whenever possible.

Finance Director and Cabinet MemberCouncillor Frazer Brooks (Conservative, Falconwood & Welling) asked how such local contracts are monitored and if penalties are imposed on any business which may not live up to their promises. It was at first said that it is too early to comment on either point but the Finance Director stepped in to say that monitoring will be carried out.

Labour Leader Councillor Borella asked how local people were benefitting economically but there was no obvious answer. (Misoperation of microphones might have been a factor.)

Councillor Larry Ferguson (Labour, Thamesmead East) expanded on Frazer Brooks question by asking if contracts could be rescinded for not fulfilling local contractual obligations. The Finance Director said that such a move would likely prove to be unviable. How quickly could a contract be replaced? Cabinet Member David Leaf thought that sometimes companies would find themselves unable to fulfill local provisions and if contracts were tighter might increase their prices to counter such eventualities.

The Chairman appeared to take a tougher line and said “penalty clauses must be controlled to give the best possible services to residents”.

Councillor Cameron Smith (St. Mary’s & St. James) asked how local is balanced against best value. The Finance Director said contracts are weighted towards price. “70% price based.” Social Care Services may be tipped in the other direction.

Councillor Daniel Francis (Labour, Belvedere) said that some contractors sub-contract especially in the field of temporary accommodation. How could that work? Councillor Francis was promised an answer later and the Chairman asked for it to embrace all contracts not just those related to accommodation.

The next item was entitled Bexley’s Borrowing Strategy and it envisages “additional external borrowing over the next few years”.

Councillor Francis asked when it was written because the financial situation was changing by the hour. (The meeting was held the day before Prime Minister Truss threw in the towel.)

The answer was that the figures provided referred to 9th August and it was admitted that nothing had improved since then. Bexley was paying even more interest while debtless Bromley was paying nothing. 24 London boroughs are in a worse borrowing position than Bexley.

Councillor Peter Reader (Conservative, West Heath) mischievously wondered in which direction Croydon’s £1·52 billion debt would go now that the borough has gone Conservative and likewise Wandsworth’s £69 million now that Labour is in charge. Bexley is on £250 million and has not taken on any new borrowing over the past three. Nothing since September 2019.

Cabinet Member David Leaf said that Croydon is a warning to anyone thinking of voting for a Labour Council.

The Chairman concluded that things are changing so quickly that updated versions of the Strategy should be provided to the Committee via training sessions at the earliest opportunity. He also suggested that with future borrowing inevitable it might be wise to go earlier rather than wait until the last minute when interest rates would likely be higher.

 

28 October - Bins and rubbish

The rubbish recycling contractor was required to update Bexley Councillors a year after taking over the contract from Serco. They did so on 18th October 2022 and once again there was a slide show.

The company was pleased that the traditional Bexley Summer bin strike lasted for only two weeks this year. CountryStyle staff are now paid at comparable rates to other local contractors.

Two vehicles are now dedicated to collecting missed bins.

Labour Councillor Ogundayo (Thamesmead East) asked how new vehicles will help with Assisted Bin Collections and noted that some operatives did not seem to know the way to some addresses. There was an admission that the missed bins target was itself being missed but I didn’t hear an answer to the Assisted Bins question.

Regular teams and their accumulated knowledge is seen as an important priority but can be affected by holidays and sickness. Bins are collected up to one metre from the property curtilage. Bin replacement remains an issue and there are “bad days”.

Councillor Hinkley (Labour, Belvedere) said that Fix My Street reports are still not being handled or updated correctly. It was accepted that some street cleaning and fly tipping complaints did come via FMS and “things sometimes went wrong”. There are about 18,000 FMS reports annually and more need to be automated to take the load off of staff who inevitably fall behind.

Councillor Davey thought the bin collection service was pretty good and attracts few complaints to his Inbox, however overflowing litter bins are a problem. Bigger bins are on the way to affected locations, space permitting.

Councillor Lucia-Hennis said that in her Crayford ward it is obvious that the use of food bins has reduced since they were discouraged during Covid. Education via leaflets and personal contact takes place to combat the problem. The cost of living crisis is tending to reduce the amount of food waste.

Weeds in gutters Weeds in guttersCouncillor Ward Willis (Crook Log) said that weeds in the gutters was becoming a problem. She had noticed that food waste was being tipped into green bins but assumed that this was transferred into a separate vehicle compartment. Her observations were confirmed but she thought the use of a green bin might confuse residents.

Councillor Slaughter (Sidcup) said that repeated bin misses and the delivery of new brown bins seemed to be a problem. Once again the issue was seen as a priority and there has been some improvement in the statistics. There was no answer to the brown bin question.

Councillor Betts (Falconwood & Welling) said that some emptied bins are just slung in the general direction from which they have been taken and end up blocking the pavement. How is that monitored? The Chairman drove the meeting on without waiting for a definitive answer and Councillor Ball (Labour, Erith) was encouraged to ask if anyone actually looked out for weeds growing in the gutters or assessed the amount of bin contamination?

There was no simple definitive answer any of the questions except that supervisors do get out of the office to monitor staff attitudes.

Note. I had to cross the border into Greenwich to find weeds in gutters.

 

27 October (Part 2) - Make your BID

Places ScrutinyBexley’s Places Scrutiny Committee devoted ten minutes of its last meeting to BIDs which if you wade through to the end of its Agenda report you will eventually find translated to Business Improvement Districts. For the uninitiated that is an organisation which operates under the auspices of Bexley Council - they used to share both premises and email addresses - and has the power to levy extra ‘taxes’ on shops and for inexplicable reasons, Sidcup schools too, with the aim of making them more profitable.

Their ambition is to extend their powers beyond Bexleyheath where it has operated for about twelve years and Sidcup to Welling and Bexley Village and Cabinet Member Cafer Munur appeared keen to make such a move. “Wherever we can create a BID we will do so.”

Councillor Cameron Smith (Conservative, St. Mary’s & St. James) thought that successful BIDs may disadvantage the smaller High Streets economically. He said the Traders’ Association in Bexley Village is very active but how can they compete? Is there any scope for joint BIDs with other small shopping centres?

For the record the Abbey Wood (Wilton Road) TA was a victim of Covid and effectively dead having not met since February 2020.

Cameron was told that there were as yet no joint BIDs but it may be possible to provide support to Traders’ Associations.

 

27 October (Part 1) - Feed back

When Councillor June Slaughter (Conservative, Sidcup) was complaining about the chaos caused by Thames Water’s protracted works in The Green she also mentioned a similar problem on Hatherley Road but not a word about Clarence Road. Maybe that is because, according to residents’ feedback it is Bexley Council that has caused the disruption to continue for longer than necessary.

The report is that Thames Water promised that the water main replacement would take five weeks starting in the first week of August. True to form Thames Water failed to put men on site every day but eventually packed up and went away on 21st October. Everything was left clean and tidy.

But not for long.

Last Monday they returned to rip up all the lovely new paving. Enquiries have revealed that Bexley Council objected to the colouring. They would prefer them to have a pinkish hue rather than plain grey.

For the record, Thames Water told the Council that although repairs and replacement has been taken back in house the same does not apply to restorative work. That is still contracted out.

Road blockNearer home there was further comment on parking post-Crossrail. Residents of a road that spans the CPZ boundary say that parking beyond it is similarly getting out of hand and it being a bus route (14 an hour in each direction) there is even more scope for road blocking.

I was informed that the “Incorrect parking” website reporting restrictions may be circumvented in a way I will not reveal in case the loophole is blocked and a phone option is also available. 020 3045 3000 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday.

I share my informantְ’s view that the only way that single yellow lines are likely to help significantly is if the restricted hours are extended from the usual - in Abbey Wood - 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. to 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

 

26 October - No Way Home

Traffic chaos Traffic chaosThe Elizabeth line continues to cause parking chaos in the streets just outside the old Abbey Wood Controlled Parking Zone and the first residential road beyond its boundary is mine.

When Bexley Council more than doubles its parking charges in three weeks time things will only get worse.

What is Greenwich Council doing to tackle the problem? Consult on an extended CPZ. What is Bexley Council doing? Sweet FA.

Around 1:30 today I managed to get my car out on to the main road and in doing so noted two cars parked across dropped kerbs, the ones that are there to assist road crossing, not private driveways.

When I returned half an hour later a third vehicle had similarly added to the chaos and I literally could not get home. I was able to do so only by reversing to allow a large van to get through and both of us driving over the footpath for a short distance.

Somewhat annoyed about it I went on the Council’s website to report them but was not able to. Apparently I was supposed to have photographed the offending vehicles and noted their registration numbers as I drove by. I gave up and so Bexley Council has missed out on a couple of hundred pounds.

I am not absolutely sure about it but I think I would have had to make three separate reports.

The photos above are recent stock shots. The silver car is parked across a dropped kerb although it does not show clearly. The number is obscured because I noticed it belonged to a nurse on call. I doubt Bexley Council would be that sympathetic.

The white van is trying to get past the red one which inconsiderately leaves its back end obstructing the junction. Sometimes it too has caused me to use the footpath.

The only way to solve the problem is double yellow lines around every junction, marked parking bays to prohibit end on parking and single yellow lines everywhere else to deter commuter parking. Every property has at least one designated off road parking space. There is no excuse for Bexley Council leaving residents to suffer.

 

25 October - Water torture

John DaveyBexley’s recent Places Scrutiny Committee was chaired by Councillor Cheryl Bacon - whose name once appeared in a Misconduct in Public Office file submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service - following the elevation of Councillor Seymour - who is on record as signing an inaccurate police statement and continuing to support it in the Crown Court - to a Cabinet position.

Neither was sanctioned by the discredited Boris Johnson’s favourite London Councillor but for reasons unknown the outspoken Councillor John Davey was expelled from the party for an ill-judged joke.

You may conclude that double standards and maybe an element of dishonesty pervades Bexley’s Conservative leadership but if you are sitting on the fence consider this.

When former Labour Councillor Danny Hackett on his own initiative resigned from that party the Council Leader took away his Committee Memberships, however John Davey was able to grace the Places Committee unimpeded.

It was good to see him there but it is further evidence that Bexley Council is never far away from double dealing and general dishonesty.

The first item on the Agenda was a presentation by that bane of residents’ lives, Thames Water. How many millions did they cost our economy by their massive disruption to Sidcup’s road transport infrastructure throughout much of this year? (It should come to an end in a month’s time but resume in February 2023.)

It was revealed that around 70% of their pipes etc. continue to be of Victorian vintage and their representative came equipped with a slide show. Possibly good news is that Thames Water has sacked its road digging contractors and taken the job back in house.

The first question came from Councillor June Slaughter (Conservative, Sidcup) who naturally enough referred to the protracted water works in The Green which caused chaos to tens of thousands. Work went on from the 3rd August until 30th September and is still not completed. I was pleased to hear that Bexley Council is at last getting tough with Thames Water, they managed to cause me a great deal of inconvenience too.

TW said that the long periods of little or no activity on site is caused by the unforeseen. Often safety related. Councillor Slaughter thought it would be of benefit if local Councillors were kept informed of such problems.

Councillor Davey proved his worth by asking about broken Fire Hydrants which Thames Water had failed to repair. A fire in his ward could not be tackled immediately because a hydrant was rusted shut. He also asked about water availability. In West London it is impeding housing development, Does the same apply here?

The aim is to repair faulty Fire Hydrants within 60 days. (No comment necessary!) Water availability is an issue but new infrastructure will keep potential problems at bay.

Councillor Lucia-Hennis (or Loser-Hennis if you take the webcast subtitles literally) said that Crayford was closed for three weeks by Thames Water and unattended leaks are widespread. Thames Water had never made any contact with her despite what was claimed during the slide show.

Councillor Cameron Smith had another communications problem in Bexley Village which was Thames Water telling business owners different stories to that related to Councillors. As a result of road closures some business had gone whole days without taking any money. What compensation is on offer? The answer was that there is no legal liability for destroying small businesses because of road closures, (Flooding is a different matter.)

All the evidence suggests that Thames Water will remain the least customer focused of the utility company for some time to come.

 

20 October - A greener climate aware Bexley

Bexley’s Cabinet “does not believe in throwing all our toys out of the pram and declaring a [climate] emergency etc., we quietly get on with delivering and making the changes which we believe are right for our residents”. We know that because that was the Leader’s opening statement when climate issues came up for discussion last week. They consider their Climate Plan to be part of the Local Plan reported on a few days ago.
Cabinet meeting
Councillor Craske said that the Council had already achieved a lot while Councils that declared emergencies had achieved nothing and are still planning to do things that Bexley did ten years ago. “No grand gestures!”

Greenwich is still thinking about installing LED lighting. In Bexley it saved 84% of carbon emissions and a lot of money. Greenwich has overspent on street lighting by half a million pounds because of increased energy prices while Bexley has saved more than that each year by switching to LEDs quickly.

He went on to say - with zero useful details - that textiles and electrical items are now included in recyclables collections.

Cabinet Member Munur did what he does best. Waffled. This time about sustainable living, net zero, green jobs and green infrastructure.

Councillor Leaf said that residents had done their bit by investing in solar panels and electric cars. In Bexley we do not glue ourselves to roads or smash the windows of banks. “We do not need top down diktats imposed or a green agenda imposed under the guise of socialism.” Referring to a conversation with Greenwich Council he said they were unable to understand how Bexley had switched to LED lighting before first declaring a Climate Emergency.

Labour Leader Stefano Borella said that there should be “a Cabinet Member singularly responsible for Climate Change. It is a very important issue. We should be doing more”. The reduction in the number of trains and the route restrictions will cause more residents to drive. He made it clear that he was against fracking and more oil exploration but did not explain how we are going to avoid freezing to death.

Councillor Nicola Taylor representing riverside Erith for Labour was concerned about rising sea levels. Pesticide use was not mentioned in the Climate Change plan and she thought it it should be.

Councillor Dourmoush (Conservative, Longlands) said that there were nine new commitments in the plan listed on page 48 of the Agenda and wondered what else Councillor Borella had in mind and it was premature of him to have said that he would not be supporting the Local Plan.

The commitments listed are…


• Protect our natural environment
• Reduce, reuse and recycle
• Send no waste to landfill
• Enable a greener economy
• Empower residents and businesses to make positive changes
• To keep an open mind and go further


You are absolutely right. That’s six commitments.

The Cabinet approved the plan which will go to Full Council.

Note: A blog dated 24th July 2021 tells a different story about Greenwich and LED lighting.

 

19 October - What’s the problem?

Plume of FeathersDid I ever mention that I used to live in Plumstead? As a refugee from the Hampshire countryside I hated it. Kept awake all night by the sound of police sirens and disturbed all day because the new build flat had no sound insulation. The builder had forgotten to put it in which was fully admitted but because retro-fitting would disturb the upstairs neighbours and benefit only me he was denied access.

I could have drowned my sorrows in the nearby Plume of Feathers where a naked lady show was hosted most nights but I never did, honestly. For a start I knew no one locally with whom to share a pint.

Now the Grade II listed Feathers is associated with a different sort of stripper, Bexley Council’s preferred and favoured asset stripper. First mentioned, very briefly, on BiB last May.

In July Greenwich’s Planning Committee, in the space of a few seconds, deferred an application (1/4575/F and 21/4576/L) to build nine residential units in its back garden until they had made a site visit. One must assume they are not very keen on Mr. Singh’s ideas and presumably there are no questionable behind the scenes links with a Labour Council.

The matter was due to be debated again a week ago and was listed in the Agenda dated 11th October 2022 but although previous and subsequent webcast meetings have been placed in the video archive the one relating to the Plume of Feathers is missing. Unless someone was able to view it in real time - and I wasn’t - there is no way of knowing if planning permission was granted.

The Planning portal continues to show “Awaiting decision”. Is Greenwich Council, unlike Bexley, an influence free zone?

 

17 October - Fraud. Pure and Simple

Del BoyTwo of Britain’s oldest institutions are on a suicide mission. One is the Conservative Party and the other is Royal Mail. Both deserve to die.

Hoping that you don’t notice, the Royal Mail is still selling through its various agents - the Post Office being a different organisation - postage stamps which have an expiry date of 31st January 2023.

You must either use them before that date or send them unsecured to an address in Edinburgh. Exchanging them at a Post Office is far too simple and runs the risk of the Royal Mail not profiting from those who don’t bother to poke them into an envelope and probably never see the replacements.

The Royal Mail instead ask you to download a PDF form which if their extremely unhelpful Twitter account is anything to go by is a data harvesting operation demanding your full name and address, email address and phone number.

You can’t get the form from a Post Office and if you have a large number of stamps a Recorded or Insured Service is recommended. Guess who pays?

It would not be possible to design a more unfriendly system if they had tried - and probably they did try.

I had already decided to stop sending out greetings cards, the postage rates are far too expensive but I did have three 1st class and 12 2nd Class stamps left over from last year to enable a few exceptions.

One is the Del Boy stamp you see above. The only people who will be millionaires next year are the Royal Mail managers who devised this get rich quick scheme.

I will get my money back by not giving the postman his usual Christmas tenner. Sorry Nigel.

And I will stop sending mail. Well I pretty much have as must be obvious from still having 15 stamps left over from last Christmas.

I can remember exactly where I was the day that the price of a stamp rose from 2½d (a penny in ‘new’ money) to 3d. It was headline breaking news. What else has gone up 100 fold in less than a lifetime? (Err, broadsheet newspapers actually!)

 

15 October (Part 2) - Bexley Cabinet meeting. Same old, same old

O'NeillBexley’s Cabinet met last week to debate their latest self-satisfaction plan. It is titled ‘Making Bexley even Better’ which pretty much encapsulates all that is wrong with Bexley Council. Almost nothing gets better, certainly not taxes, fees and charges and they fail to recognise it.

The Conservatives plan to convert their ideas into a website. As presented to Cabinet the plan is the usual ambition to get someone else to pay for any possible improvements which represents no obvious change of direction. Almost everything changed possibly for the better over the past ten years has come from the likes of Cory Environmental, the Lottery Fund. American golfing companies and Network Rail.

There is absolutely nothing new in the latest 34 page report; working with partners, early intervention and prevention, happy healthy lives, listening, (yes, really!) open and accessible. Growth, better transport, cleaner and greener, thriving economy, safe and inclusive, affordable homes. The usual fine words that crop up in every report.

It is not strictly accurate to say that the Cabinet debated the report. They’d had their staff knock it all together and already agreed the contents so it only fell to them to say how wonderful it was. Councillors Read, Seymour, Diment, Craske, Leaf and Munur lined up to thank the authors, praised the regurgitation of old ideas and generally slap a few backs. (Cabinet Member Sue Gower was not present.)

Councillor Borella’s description of the plan was not too far removed from mine and added that it merely embeds the Conservative Manifesto into policy which may be no bad thing except that the 2022 Manifesto contained no promises and few ambitions. “A lack of ambition” to quote the Labour Leader. “Efficiencies mean cuts.” he said and the Council only goes “for Statutory minimums”. He could not foresee how the Labour Group could possibly support the plan if it is just a dressed up version of the Tory Manifesto.

There was a brief and probably unnecessary reference to John Davey’s unfortunate words which were “beyond belief and atrocious”. He did not want to see John Davey come back.

Councillor Nicola Taylor (Labour, Erith) made similar points but in a more unforgiving tone reinforcing my view that my Labour voting days are over. #bekind.

It did nothing to persuade me that the Labour reaction to John Davey’s final Tweet is not hypocritical. It is not all that long ago that a Labour Councillor had to resign following an unintentional error of judgment. I don’t intend to give chapter and verse on it again although the details were reported on BiB at the time. There was a minor technical breach of the Local Government Act so arguably far more serious than an ill-judged Tweet.

Conservative John Davey may have ‘misspoke’, to quote our former Mayor, but he wasn’t in breach of the LGA. The Labour Councillor came back. Why not John Davey?

Why is it only me who remembers all these old law breakers and not the Labour front bench?

The plan was approved and will go before Full Council.

 

15 October (Part 1) - Bexley Council accelerates war on motorists. Parking fees more than doubled

£15 to parkNext time you hear Bexley Conservatives bleating on about the unfairness of Sadiq Khan charging £12·50 a day to move your car from the kerbside you will know that the spiteful crew is totally insincere.

From next month they will charge £15 to stop by the Abbey Wood kerbside. A 114% increase on the previous outrageous price.

Not long ago they said at a public meeting that a 30% across the board increase was neither here nor there. What is 114% in their book?

Presumably such a charge will drive yet more motorists to park beyond the existing Controlled Parking Zone boundary and my road will look even more like a lorry park. Four large Transits there yesterday.

Labour Greenwich Council has taken steps to counter this Crossrail inspired blight on residents’ lives by extending their CPZ. In criminally inclined Tory Bexley; nothing, zilch, nada.

Nothing except that Belvedere Labour Councillor Sally Hinkley has taken up the cudgels on residents’ behalf.

And been rewarded with, well sod all, so far.

Bexley Tories. Liars who are not one bit worried about the cost of living.

 

14 October (Part 2) - Wanna laugh?

It has definitely not been a good week and I don’t just mean the political shenanigans both here in Bexley and in Westminster. Personally I am not happy about having paid for a bit of electrical equipment back in August after being assured that 50 were in stock and now being told I must wait until 7th November at best and that cannot be guaranteed. Not a local company but they claim other Bexley customers. Maybe a Name ‘n’ Shame is due.

The following anonymous message gave me a chuckle so at the end of a long week I hope it does the same for you. Maybe it came from a Councillor, it wouldn’t be the first time
O'Neill
Well done that man, a lot of people will be rejoicing if Teresa O’Neill leaves Bexley. Some say she already has but that requires further investigation.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/political-peerages-2022

BTW, what happened to all women directors in Bexley? There was a time when the line up was entirely female. I wonder if I can find my photo.

 

14 October (Part 1) - Not to be Trusted with your child’s education

Trinitas TrustIt is a whole year since I first mentioned the saga of Thamesmead’s Jubilee School where a young lad with mild autism had been slung into something close to solitary confinement and given a minder, not a teacher. When his parents complained they were banned from the premises and banned from phoning and emailing.

In retaliation the Head reported the parents to Social Services accusing them of neglecting their son’s medical needs presumably in the hope of getting the father into trouble. However both the boy’s consultant and GP certified that that was nonsense and Bexley Social Services gave the family a clean bill of health.

At my suggestion the father submitted a Subject Access Request but was told by the Head that it came under the same heading as the ban on emails and denied.

The Trust took a slightly different view and accepted a complaint and hired a solicitor to look into the case. No doubt mindful of possible future fees she ruled in favour of the school; and from there the information source dried up.

There is an Index to related blogs.

However in recent weeks I have been advised of a similar case and this parent has been perhaps more proactive. He has managed to gather together a small group of similarly affected parents who feel they are being manipulated by Bexley Council and the Trusts to disadvantage their children’s education. Their leader is a man of some standing in the borough with links to the news media.

Their struggle for better SEN education is at an early formative stage but they are already getting some political support so if you too are involved in the SEN scene, and especially if it is adversely affecting your child, then some way of getting extra help may soon be available.

A number of communications schemes are being debated and a downloadable contact form on which to express an interest may soon become available and if anyone volunteers to run a Facebook group so much the better. Meanwhile a few words via the Contact page would be welcome too. Nothing more than an “I’m interested” would be enough for the time being.

 

13 October (Part 3) - What did he do to deserve that?

The big mystery surrounding Councillor John Davey’s expulsion from the Conservative Party is what he had really done to justify such a draconian reaction. Not even the most rabid Socialist can possibly believe that John wanted to see Nazanin back in an Iranian jail. I didn’t believe them when rabid Socialists conspired to crowd fund a trip to Dignitas in Switzerland to have me euthanised for voting Conservative.

Rabid Socialists are everywhere it seems and so are mad Tories.

What John said was ill-considered by a momentarily disengaged brain, no doubt about it, but his colleagues have done far worse things without any sanction.

As already mentioned, the Council Leader refused to take action against a Councillor who abused his Council credit card. It was well reported in the local press (one of several reports) at the time but Bexley Councillors remained loyal to their old boss; certainly in keeping him away from the clutches of the local police.

Peter Craske’s arrest is fairly well known and hopefully too that the police traced the offences to his phone line but not a single Councillor publicly criticised him for it.

There are several similar cases.

I witnessed one Councillor perjure himself in both a Magistrate’s and Crown Court and I have both the actual evidence and his signed statement about that evidence in my files and there are important differences which change the meaning dramatically. The Councillor was supported in his truth suppression by a Labour Councillor who left Bexley in 2014. No one criticised him for it, indeed he has progressed through the ranks since then.

Cabinet Member Read used to abuse me regularly to the extent that another Cabinet Member wrote to me personally to apologise for his behaviour and another agreed with me when I said that Read was “nasty”. Again in writing but Read remains a leading Conservative Member of Bexley Council.

I have video of the late Linda Bailey (†) assaulting a member of the public and Councillors were not in the least bit concerned when I posted it on BiB.

Greenwich police reported Councillor Cheryl Bacon to the Crown Prosecution Service when she allowed her name to be added to a Bexley Council document which was pure fabrication. Three Labour Councillors made a bit of a fuss about the alleged Misconduct in Public Office and so did one Conservative but officially she got off Scot free.

Councillor Geraldene Lucia-Hennis organised a strip show in a pub that was not licenced for such entertainment and a number of Councillors turned up to watch including the Mayor who made the event official by having the date entered into her Council diary. Labour Councillor Stefano Borella did his best to ensure that the licence rule breaking was acknowledged but it never was.

Along the way there have been some less serious misdemeanours. On one occasion a Councillor admitted in Court to being a liar and admonished for it but no one locally took any action except that privately a well known Conservative name made it clear to me that he considered that to be a mistake. Twice have would-be Conservative Councillors been dropped at the selection stage for minor skirmishes with the law; but that is as bad as any punishment has ever become up until now.

Something doesn’t smell right about the events following John Davey’s ill-judged words. If I was him I’d resign from his West Heath ward today and watch Labour romp home while Liz Truss remains under a cloud.

All this staggeringly inept episode has proved is that neither of the main parties can be trusted to make rational decisions. As my ninth decade approaches I think I am sick of all of them. Political Parties that is. I remain of the opinion that not all politicians are bad but would I trust any of them absolutely? Probably not. Correction; absolutely not.

† She may have been provoked but I doubt John Davey would have got away with it.

 

13 October (Part 2) - If you can’t beat them, join ‘em

Occasional blog diversions into the price of energy have provoked a few enquiries on how best to make economies. I am not alone in thinking that despite the massive subsidies provided by the new Prime Minister for this Winter (two whole years actually) energy costs will cause hardship to many. Massive the subsidies might be but energy prices are still double what they were a year ago.

Throughout this millennium I have considered government energy policies to be total madness and if I could see the likely end result why couldn’t they. It started under Labour and was made worse by the Lib Dem influences on David Cameron’s coalition government. However the fact remains that the Conservatives have had twelve years to put things right but have instead emulated Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus Nero.

In 2010 I decided that some aspects of the green agenda were complete idiocy but with no way to put a stop to them I may as well join them. About £10k. went on 14 solar panels. They’d be much cheaper now but Labour’s generous subsidy formula puts around £2k. a year into my bank account. Money for old rope at the expense of people who struggle to pay their bills.

Not only £2k. but the sun provides enough energy to heat my water - the gas boiler has not been switched on since last April and is still off - and there is enough left over to cover all my motoring needs. I do about 500 miles a month and it has cost not a penny in fuel.

The subsidies were total madness and guaranteed by government until the end of 2035. (They do not apply to new solar installations.)

But the madness does not stop there.

BillMore out of curiosity than real need I have for the past six months or so tried to drive my energy use down. LED bulbs everywhere. Chuck out the old plasma TV which guzzled up to 500 watts, using the microwave whenever possible, pond waterfall stopped overnight and switch off more of my computer equipment.

My electricity bill for the past month was £68·50 which I think most people will consider to be low. Looking towards the bottom of the bill summary you may notice that our wonderful new Prime Minister has paid £66 of it. Thank you Liz. The electricity bill is effectively £2·86 for the month, one week of which is at the new higher rate.

Beyond that I will soon receive £179·59 for the electricity generated on the roof during those 30 days. Don’t tell me that the energy policy is not absolutely mad.

The gas bill by the way was a couple of pence for the occasional use of a saucepan and the rest is standing charges.

Thanks to the energy supplier it is not all plain sailing. The more expansive PDF version of the bill spells out that my electricity unit charge has increased to more than 56 pence but querying it resulted in an immediate written response from Octopus - their customer service is pretty good - assuring me that I will only (ha! ha!) be charged 35·6 pence. Nearly 20% above what it was last month.

It would appear that the PDF bill shows the pre-subsidy price which is much higher. It is no wonder that it is so difficult to fully understand energy bills. (Even the date in the heading on mine fails to correspond with the detail.)

Reducing consumption to the level I have tends to take the fun out of life. Not only are microwave meals monotonous but it involves silly things like only blogging when the sun shines so that the solar panels power the computer. (There are special reasons to make an exception today.)

I am moving slowly towards a move to a ‘cheap’ overnight tariff and storing energy in a battery for use during the day and evening. I have been buying components to enable this and there is now a rack of batteries sitting here as yet unconnected. Hence the new DIY consumer unit. I think when it is done I will have to call in a qualified electrician to check whether I have torqued all the connections to the recommended levels and do whatever the regulations say they have to do.

Now that Dear Liz has limited the price rises I am less convinced than I was that the pay off period will be reasonably short, but it may be a fun project.

 

13 October (Part 1) - Trains chopped. (Not Tory Councillors this time)

I am not sure what motivated Bexley Labour to send a differently presented version of their Press Release on the Southeastern railway cuts but overnight one arrived. (First published here on 3rd October and old version deleted from archive.)

Like every railway user they are “appalled” by the cuts to services on all three of the borough’s railway lines made with no consultation whatsoever and still without any publicity at railway stations. The Woolwich line peak hours Victoria service hit the buffers many years ago but now Charing Cross is no longer at the end of the line. Southeastern’s priority is not to use expensive sets of points and if passengers are inconvenienced their reaction appears to be “tough, it’s what we do”. Why else do London bound trains at Abbey Wood stop at the far end of Platform 1 and make last minute passenger arrivals run a third of the length of the platform? (Because the driver’s departure screen is in the wrong place for trains shorter than twelve cars.)

My occasional journey to Richmond is made more difficult and friends in Bexley can no longer visit me via the loop line. Until Sadiq Khan runs their old diesel Peugeot off the road next year they will have to further congest Bexley’s mean streets. Then they will join the ranks of elderly people confined to barracks.

Bexley’s Labour Councillors are trying to save residents from such fates and seeking a meeting with Southeastern. What are Bexley Conservatives doing? Nothing, while far too busy stabbing each other in the back.

 

12 October - Sanctimonious tosh

My Councillor until 2014, John Davey, uttered the words “Can we send her back and get our money back?” He was referring to Nazarin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the illegally held hostage of the criminal gang which murders young women on the streets of Tehran and hangs gays from the jibs of cranes, when there were suggestions that she may be being courted by Labour.

John Davey is Bexley Council’s Court Jester and prolific Twitter user and I assume it was his idea of a joke because that is both his track record and forté. For that misjudgment he has paid with his political career.

Until last May John was Chairman of the Erith & Thamesmead Conservative Association but that is a time limited appointment and he was replaced with the nonentity who is Aaron Newbury. Aaron is a sensitive soul who the electors of Northumberland Heath had the good sense to reject five months ago. He blocked me on Twitter because I was critical of him for impersonating a genuine member of the public at a Council meeting.

The pathetic snowflake decided to kick John Davey out of the party on account of his Tweet. He would not have done that without permission of the ruling elite. Can we really believe that John Davey is an ignorant racist pig without anyone noticing during his tenure of Association Chairmanship? Of course not and that is because he is not an ignorant racist pig.

The present Council Leader refused to report a Councillor colleague to the police when he dipped his hand into the proverbial till. For such a dubious lack of integrity she is apparently to be elevated to the Lords. But she is content to see John Davey crucified for a few ill-chosen words. Self-serving hypocrite.

Her most senior Cabinet Member, Peter Craske, is often said to be the power behind the @bexleynews Twitter propaganda channel. He is no angel. The police arrested him for Misconduct in a Public Office. I have it in writing from Scotland Yard that they traced the following comments - just a selection - to his internet connection and found more of the same on his computer all ready to go.
Obscenities
Obscenities
Within two hours of Council Leader Teresa O’Neill being officially notified of Craske’s obscenities they were withdrawn from the web. It is difficult to imagine how that could have happened so quickly if she did not know exactly where to go to find the author. John Davey has a long way to go before reaching the same level of misjudgment as Bexley’s longest serving Cabinet Member.

Did the Leader punish Craske? Did she hell!

Probably there was a quick call to London Mayor (and effectively London’s Police Commissioner) Boris Johnson to call in a favour. Whether that is true or not, and the then Borough Commander indicated to me that it might be, the investigating officer was instructed to call the Crown Prosecution Service and in conjunction with Bexley Council have a meeting to “resolve Craske’s situation”. In other words a stitch up to ensure that the perpetrator escaped justice. Peter Craske was de-arrested.

The Independent Councillor for West Heath will have every right to feel aggrieved.


HinkleyNaturally the local Labour party is moved to motivate their attack dogs. Not only the well known activists who rarely think outside their tiny political bubble but also elected Councillors all displaying their superficially Holier than Thou morality.

None annoyed me more than that which came from my own two Councillors. When I read the one from Sally Hinkley the two words that immediately came to mind were “Sanctimonious Tosh”.

My second thought took me to the correspondence file that former Labour Councillor Danny Hackett sent to me after he had expressed his dissatisfaction with the Labour Party and subsequently left it.

It is never likely to appear here but at the time I could barely believe the venom that was coming from Labour sources including my own Councillor.

When voting for her last May I consoled myself with the thought that the words signed off by Sally Hinkley must be something like ‘following orders’ but now I know that they might well have been her own.

Although my first reaction was Sanctimonious Tosh I am coming the the view that the final few words are spiteful nonsense. “This awfulness”. Sally must have led a very sheltered life.

Can we really believe that John Davey is an ignorant racist pig without anyone noticing during his long governorship of Bedonwell School? Of course not and that is because he is not an ignorant racist pig. He is nothing worse than a possibly not very good comedian.

I think I have cast my last Labour vote.

For the record during my 13 years of reporting on Bexley Council only three Councillors have ever approached me in a friendly fashion AND shaken me by the hand. One is John Davey, another is James Hunt and the third is Peter Reader. All Conservatives. Not a nasty thought between them.

 

11 October (Part 2) - Rail wars

SquabbleFollowing Southeastern’s publication of their new anti-passenger timetable and the consequent mud slinging by politicians on all sides I always like to regurgitate my old 1988 timetable.

Back then my favourite train home was the 17:08 from Cannon Street which pulled into Abbey Wood station a mere 23 minutes later. An underpowered slam-door train operated by the much maligned British Railways. There were several with the same or very similar timings.

Today the best that Southeastern can do just after 5 p.m. is 29 minutes with some taking four minutes longer.

 

11 October (Part 1) - The Wokerati speaks

My few days away from the computer was due to preparing the ground for yesterday’s big event. Providing a couple of new circuits on my electrical consumer unit, or fuse box as it used to be called.

I had called in an electrician but on arrival a couple of weeks ago he refused to tell me how he planned to do the job without disrupting the surrounding area too much and eventually got around to telling me that I was “just a silly old man” (who presumably knows nothing) so I told him none too politely he could leave immediately; which he did. His apprentice or whatever he was quietly told me he was “seriously embarrassed” and seen his sparky boss behave in that way before.

Cable clipAfter checking the regulations (who knew that cable clips like these are considered to be a fire risk?) and buying some specialist tools I did the job myself yesterday. The mechanical rearrangements took far longer than the cable connections but by mid-afternoon the job was done and power restored. On my return to the internet I soon noticed that the name John Davey was close to trending on Twitter. What had Dear John done?

A jokey comment too far it would seem and Labour Members, their teenage activists and Sidcup’s Champagne Socialist had been wound up into a frenzy while I had been more concerned with terminating 2·5mm cables. Where were they when Councillor Craske went far beyond John Davey’s ill-considered Tweeting and the police arrested him after tracing internet obscenities to his IP address? Craske was not sanctioned in any way by the Leader and is her longest serving Cabinet Member.

Councillor Davey is now on the receiving end of official complaints to anyone who might be prepared to listen.


TweetJohn Davey, like me, is just a little disappointed that Nazainin Zaghari-Ratcliffe became a political activist almost immediately after being released from her unjustifiable imprisonment by the murderous Iranian regime of mad Mullahs.

I was always very sympathetic towards Nazanin and her family and followed her various Twitter accounts. There was even a supportive blog last year and understanding when on her release she was immediately critical of Boris Johnson’s (as Foreign Secretary) idiocy. He said that she was not just a British citizen who had innocently gone to visit her mother. Just what one needs when languishing in a rat infested cell.

The political situation was admittedly difficult. Iran had paid £400 million for British armaments and then a change of regime caused trade sanctions to be imposed. Someone in Whitehall decided that Iran could not get their money back and the criminals in Tehran took their horrible revenge.

It is impossible to imagine how confinement in some dank hell hole will affect any personality and if bitterness towards feeble minded politicians is a consequence fair minded people should accept it even if they think a better course might be to make up for lost time with family and young daughter.

But political activism is Nazanin’s chosen course. As people of my age used to say “it's a free country” so who can object to that? I suspect that Councillor John Davey would agree with almost every word written above but his Twitter comment is less than sympathetic to the trauma which Boris Johnson helped to bring about. Where was the joke emoji?


TweetAs misjudgments go it is a pretty big one and the Wokerati has spoken. One might ask how many years has John served Bedonwell school without them ever noticing that he is whatever they now think he is? At least ten years to my knowledge. It is the knee-jerk reaction of the previously unobservant.

Maybe it is John who is “the silly old man” and not me but he has at least flushed the hypocritical and spiteful out of the woodwork. The Chairman of the Erith and Thamesmead Conservative Association, the unelected Aaron Newbury, has suspended Councillor Davey’s party membership. Davey was Chairman for the past ten years so once again we have people who never noticed that he is whatever he is supposed to be when it suited them.

Note: It will be interesting to see how many more Guardian reading trolls I will have driven into a messaging frenzy.

 

8 October - Health issues in Bexley

Bexley Council and its NHS partners discussed its Winter plan earlier this week. Hospitals have been unusually busy during the Summer months so there is some concern for the months ahead. The NHS people explained their biggest problems to Councillors.

Social care is particularly challenging following the [enforced] staff losses during the Covid pandemic and new people are not replacing them in sufficient numbers - a national problem. All hospital staff are paid at least the London Living Wage but retirements are at a very high rate. Normally about 50 per year but already 120 in 2022.

There are severe problems of “flow” within hospitals and slow discharge is “a significant element” with its knock-on effect on bed occupancy. “If we run out of beds there is a severe problem at the front door.” The Emergency Department and Ambulance Service is hit hard. Patients are held in A&E and ambulances are unable to discharge new patients and they have to queue in an excess of an hour and not able to respond to further calls. “Bed capacity is the number one thing.”

Repurposing surgical beds is not an option because of the effect on waiting lists. “This week we have had up to 95 patients who were fit to be discharged but with nowhere to go. It is totally unacceptable. The system is under intolerable pressure and things are deteriorating.”

Councillor Nicola Taylor (Labour, Erith) asked if the energy crisis was impacting the NHS, people not heating their houses or not running home medical equipment. The Council Officer said advice was being offered but there wasn’t much that could be done. From the NHS came the comment that the home situation was definitely a factor in discharge delays. All hospital discharges are fully assessed but some risk balancing has to be accepted. “Demand always exceeds supply and there is no magic bullet.”

Bexley Council’s Health Director said it was currently near impossible to recruit new social care workers and Councillor Borella reminded us that Bexley had almost the worst population to GP ratio anywhere.

Who would have thought that the long standing policy of reducing bed numbers and more recently sacking unvaccinated care workers would have caused a medical crisis?

 

7 October - She’s no lady

Did he really fancy her that much?This morning’s Daily Telegraph is reporting that the Leader of Bexley Council, Teresa Jade Teflon O’Neill is to be elevated to the Lords - on £323 a day presumably.

The full list…

TORIES

LABOUR

DUP

NON-AFFILIATED

 

6 October (Part 2) - The poisonous Left

I would guess that political comment on BiB must be in the region of 95% anti-Tory. Bexley Council may have improved over the years but it remains fundamentally secretive and dishonest and nationally the Conservatives have done little to please me. The restrictions on freedom imposed by Johnson were completely unforgiveable and the money wasted on futile stunts by his Chancellor helped to bring the country to its financial knees. Obviously the failed energy policies of the past 30 years and an inept Bank of England are factors but we have had a Conservative government for the past twelve years which couldn’t see where it was all leading.

Hence my preference for Ministers who want to take a different path and a disdain for Labour ideas. In very nearly 60 years of voting I have seen where their old ideas took us and the newer ones have generally been the failed policies of Johnson and Sunak but with bells on. More of all the bad things but for longer.

For expressing such views I get hate mail and I find it both amusing and reassuring. It is welcome reassurance that I should continue to resist Labour politics nationally despite the reaction flying in the face of my local experience.

Over the years I have been at the same table in a pub with two Labour Councillors and shared a car journey with three. (Zero Conservatives for both.)

Twice I have been invited to Labour Councillor homes and on a third occasion presented with an unexpected gift. Only once did I reciprocate but not to the same person. There have been several Christmas cards and once again the Conservatives score zero for all these things.

After careful thought I have voted Labour at every Council election since 2014.

There are seven Councillor names on my mobile phone contact list and only two are Conservative and two of my closest friends were union reps in former lives. I could add that I would welcome any Bexley Labour Councillor as a next door neighbour but there must be at least half a dozen Tories who would have me running to the nearest Estate Agent.

StarmerSo why am I not tempted by Starmer over Truss?

I first alluded to it five years ago. A big part of It is because the Labour Party attracts the dregs of society and always has done. The danger of them being influenced by it is too great for me.

Their abusiveness and occasional violence may be seen outside every Conservative Party Conference and it was apparent earlier this week when a Labour supporting nurse wanted to see every Conservative voter dead.

I experienced the same after Brexit and quite recently it was suggested I should be euthanised for voting Conservative.

Yesterday I received three emails, all from Labour supporters. Two sources were names everyone reading this will know well who pointed me towards current news items and the third, who uses a pseudonym, not for the first time indulged in anonymous abuse. No one is allowed a political opinion that differs from his and his only source of enjoyment is invective.

I would have preferred Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng to have directed more of his largess towards people such as me existing on incomes somewhat below average wage levels. A move towards quelling rampant inflation. Perhaps some tinkering with VAT on fuel but to condemn him totally for ‘wasting’ £2 billion on reducing a tax level to what was last seen under a Labour Government is idiocy. Does his party really deserve such a thrashing in the polls for putting the brakes on the highest tax take since I was a post-war toddler? The only consolation is that the furore exposed what I suspected all along. A lot of Tory MPs are a long way from being Conservative.

 

6 October (Part 1) - Rubbish on repeat

SloppyStyle has completed the cycle once again by clearing away the mess that they helped create. Not a perfect job, the plastics bin is unlocked and completely full and the lockless paper bin has been put in place back to front.

Ultimately it is local residents and a few itinerant fly tippers who are at fault but bins without locking lids do nothing to help the situation.
Group

 

5 October - Best of the bunch? She could well be

Gone to Sutton Best of the bunch?It is very depressing that the Leader of Bexley Council - or Sutton if you believe the Local Government fan-boy website - is considered to be among the best Councillors in the country. Boris Johnson once said she was best in London and now Teresa O’Neill is in the running for best anywhere.

Can it really be true that someone who failed to notice that her one-time boss had his finger in the till and apparently didn’t know that her favourite Cabinet Member was committing a criminal offence (but somehow managed to put a stop to it within a couple of hours of being told the game was up) is the best local government has to offer?

So incompetent that she managed to impose Council Tax rates that have increased at a greater rate than other London councils and despite 16 years of Tory rule in Bexley not very noticeably improved the borough in any meaningful way. (Parks that survived the bulldozers are in reasonable shape but beyond that one would search in vain.)

Most of her manifesto promises have not been fulfilled and Freedom of Information requests and senior Council Officers confirm it but she steadfastly claims otherwise.

At a time when no better candidate for Prime Minister than Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak can be found (†) it is entirely believable that Teresa O’Neill will be among the highest rated Councillors in the Country. In political circles the ability to preside over disasters and remain in charge for 13 years is a skill Liz Truss can only dream about.

Is she saying “Let’s get rid of Khan?”


† To answer a lone phone enquiry I still prefer Truss to Starmer.

 

3 October - Nationalise the railways

The Southeastern rail representative at Bexley’s recent Transport Users’ meeting said that a revised timetable was to be issued the following week. As I left the building with Councillor Sally Hinkley (Labour, Belvedere) I predicted that it would be another exercise in running trains for the convenience of the operating companies rather than for the travelling public.

And so it has proved to be.

The priority is to avoid using sets of points with the result that all Southeastern trains through Erith and Abbey Wood will run only to and from Cannon Street. Trains through Bexleyheath will suffer the same fate except in peak hours and the loop line trains providing a service from Sidcup to Abbey Wood will end. The Elizabeth Line services will be put out of reach of those living to the south of the borough.

Total idiocy.

As the Bexley Labour Group say in their Press Release, this has been done without consultation or any regard for passengers, particularly the disabled, the platform interchanges at London Bridge having been designed to maximise passenger inconvenience.

Unsurprisingly, the Labour Group (and others) are saying that “the railways should be brought back into public ownership in the interests of the travelling public”.

Who is going to tell them that Southeastern was nationalised in October 2021 after £25 million of taxpayers’ money was misappropriated by the franchisee?

 

2 October - Shop Talk

Radio TimesIt is probably nothing to be proud of but I derive a small amount of satisfaction from the fact that I almost never go shopping in Bexleyheath. It doesn’t make sense to pay for car parking and risk a fine for misjudging a yellow box junction when it is so simple and convenient to go on line and click a button. However on Friday I made an exception.

The watch strap which was originally fitted in H. Samuel’s was about to break and the only local shop I used to occasionally browse and possibly make an impulse purchase is back in town. The HMV record store has reopened. Not that it has much to do with Nipper the Dog any more, it is a Canadian company.

With the watch strap repaired for 70% more money than five years ago I went into HMV fully expecting to come out £20 poorer, but I didn’t.

The UHD blu-ray display cabinet was small but reasonably wide-ranging. However the discs were stacked from floor level to rather less than chest height with only their spines on display. There was no way I was going to get down on my knees or crawl on the floor head on one side to look for an interesting title. And to find three discs in their three for £30 offer would have required me to remove every single one!

Vinyl disc enthusiasts didn’t have to suffer this indignity; the discs were stacked in the traditional flip over way. I may possibly return on big issue release days but Top Gun Maverick is already ordered - from hmv.com.

Note: Shop Talk was a BBC Radio 4 programme which was abandoned a dozen or more years ago. It was produced weekly by my daughter.

 

1 October (Part 2) - The preferred weapons are demos and strikes, definitely not nukes

Crisis meetingThe day that electricity prices go up by 20% and gas by 40 may be a good one to put on the record what happened at last week’s ‘Fightback’ meeting in Abbey Wood. Any thought that it might be housewives suggesting that tumble dryers should be abandoned in favour of washing lines and that one big washing up session per day will save a lot of hot water were dispelled when I sat in the back row five minutes before the meeting was due to start. Next to me were two gentlemen who had worked out exactly why prices generally and energy costs in particular had gone through the roof pretty much world-wide.

The cause was “Western Imperialism” which had provoked Vladimir Putin into starting “an entirely justifiable war” and if the West behaved more like Putin the world would be a happier place. Fortunately they were interrupted by the start of the meeting chaired by former Bexley Councillor Dave Putson. He introduced himself and his principal speaker Councillor Larry Ferguson (Labour, Thamesmead East).

I had not heard Larry Ferguson speak before but I was quite impressed. Whilst his politics are no doubt some way to the left of mine he said nothing with which I could seriously disagree. The emphasis being on seriously!

Larry said that inflation and the associated cost of living crisis was primarily due to the pandemic lockdowns, with Brexit being a factor and the Russian invasion not helping. I am inclined to agree. How much did Test and Trace cost? (Some 200 times as much as reducing the 45% tax rate to what it was just over a decade ago.)

This comment caused the gentleman to my left to leap to his feet with a defence of Putin’s murdering spree. An audience member put him firmly back in his box.

Councillor Ferguson continued to make his more reasonable points. Many of us will be reduced to “heat or eat” and “the Government is not on your side”, lifting the cap on bankers’ bonuses being the proof. “The Conservative party is the political wing of the super rich.”

The first speaker from the floor was critical of the lack of support from Abena Oppong-Asare MP. He wanted to see practical help provided locally but there was no sign of it coming. It was alleged that MP Abena Oppong-Asare was still fiddling around wondering what she might write in a leaflet.

Other speakers reminded everyone that the problems we are seeing in the UK were being repeated in lots of countries. A small number were concerned about climate change and one made it clear that he thought anarchy and superglue was the answer to all the country’s ills. There was yet more criticism of the Erith and Thamesmead MP.

The Putin supporter jumped to his feet again. Vladimir has all the answers and the discussion here is “bollocks and bullshit”. After suffering another put down the enthusiast for blowing civilians to bits and attacking nuclear power stations said he was going to find the toilet. He was never seen again.

I noted that every time someone in the audience indicated a wish to speak, Chairman Dave Putson made his invitation by name. This meeting of 25 men and five women (approximately, there were some comings and goings) was very much a closed shop of union activists and officials.

Their line was that the only way forward was demonstrations, “a priority”, leading eventually to a General Strike. “A powerful weapon”.

“Get on to the streets and do something” was the message and to that end as many as 50 groups planned to meet at King’s Cross today and march to Parliament Square. Presumably no one had told them about the rail strike.

I didn’t agree with everything I heard but the obvious dislike of the present government was not balanced by any confidence in Keir Starmer and his crew; at one time someone said “there is no opposition”.

Dave and his friends clearly want to bring the Conservative government down and the Poll Tax riots inevitably got a nostalgic mention but right of centre as I am, I could not honestly label them extremists. Except perhaps the man who got lost in the bog and the guy who buys superglue in bulk.

 

1 October (Part 1) - Utterly shameless

I get occasional requests to report stories that would-be contributors believe might shame Bexley Council into action. I always advise against it. Bexley Council is shameless and beyond embarrassment and there is always the danger that their spiteful nature will provoke some sort of retaliation.

Now that it is an established fact that Bexley’s rogue developer is a very close associate of Bexley Council at the highest level as reported yet again on 26th September, a resident/reader took issue with the too cosy relationship and wrote to Mayor Nick O’Hare (Conservative, Blendon & Penhill) and his Deputy Rags Sandhu (Conservative, Bexleyheath) to in effect ask just what they were thinking of when hob-nobbing with people who flout planning law, Health & Safety regulations and indulge in dangerous high speed car chases against any resident who might get in their way.

If the resident had asked my advice beforehand it would have been “don’t bother”.

Councillors Nick O’Hare and Rags Sandhu, once elected, are no more likely to care about what residents think than any other run of the mill Conservative Councillor.

The prompt reply from the Council’s tame lackey, Dave Easton (Head of Mayoralty and Members’ Services) merely said “The contents of your email have been noted”.

Extraordinarily arrogant, pretty rude and utterly shameless. I expect Mr. Easton was under orders to not cooperate with anything that might shed even a glimmer of light on unhealthy relationships within their midst.

 

News and Comment October 2022

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