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News and Comment December 2023

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22 December (Part 1) - Counting down to 2024

When @tonyofsidcup offered to fill a page or two of BiB over the Christmas period I was in two minds about it. Whilst both he and I habitually criticise politicians of every colour, in my opinion he is inclined to see no good in any of them whilst I think most of them are simply ineffectual and not thoroughly bad people - but some undoubtedly are.

Despite our broadly similar outlook on politics we frequently disagree on the detail. I suspect that may be because I look on from the position of a disaffected Tory while he may be looking in from the opposite horizon. Whatever the truth of it, I took the lazy route through the dilemma. Let him have his say; there are valid views other than my own.

His ten point submission is a little on the long side for readers with busy Christmas schedules but thankfully not as long as his contribution to the ULEZ debate. What follows is just the episode 1 - with one or two injected comments - and then the first of his main points. Enough to keep me going until the New Year. Thanks @tony.


I would like to thank BiB for his coverage of the escalating conflict between Bexley Council and the Information Commissioner, triggered by my FOI requests. It is certainly peculiar to see a London council venture into illegality, unafraid of a fairly aggressive regulator. Gangster Al Capone famously went down on tax-evasion charges - will Baroness O’Neill be undone by an arrogantly rejected information request? I will not bet a penny on it - but will watch the developments with interest.

If I could make two tiny edits to the BiB story, it would be (a) to upgrade a “FOI king” to “FOI emperor”, for obvious reasons, and (b) to remove the words “he may be an annoying individual”. I may have annoyed the Baroness and her minions, but I do not think that a fellow Bexley taxpayer has cause to regard me in the same way. “100 FOI queries in 18 months” may sound like a lot, but most of these were straightforward document requests, which should have taken a minimum of council officers’ time.


[BiB: Come on Tony, everyone must know by now that BiB blog titles are whenever possible outrageous or obscure puns. Also the phrase ‘maybe an annoying person’ was lifted from the BBC website where journalist Martin Rosenbaum used it to defend frequent FOI submissions by people such as yourself. It should not have been assumed that it was in any way personal.]


What good came of them? I improved my understanding of a number of local issues - pedestrian safety has been a major interest lately - and resolved a few local concerns. (Sometimes a FOI request can act as a complaint because: loath to an admit error, the council starts moving). I also discovered and, with BiB’s invaluable help, made public a number of things that ought to be embarrassing to Teresa’s crew. It’s a big question whether Bexley Conservatives can still feel embarrassment, but if they can, this may deter them from further shenanigans. Bexley residents win.


[BiB: Sorry Tony, after 14 years of taking that route I know that it simply does not work. Whilst Councils are protected by the police, the ICO and an ignorant electorate there is no way short of revolution that anything will change.]


With 2023 on its last legs, let’s recap the more interesting FOI requests of this year. (Many of them have already appeared on BiB). Coming in at number 10….


10. The Green Mile
Are you an idealist or a cynic? If it’s the former, you can think of Green Flag Awards - an annual certificate awarded by Keep Britain Tidy to parks that meet certain criteria - as an incentive for a council to improve its green spaces. If it’s the latter, you may see them as a way for a council to get some good publicity in exchange for a £400-plus application fee, without doing anything on the ground. Guess which way the #MakingBexleyEvenBetter council is swinging?

By no means an outlier among fellow London councils - Greenwich, for example, paid for a Green Flag for the green space at Eltham Crematorium - Bexley Council has grabbed the figurative flag pole with both hands. I remember how, in the halcyon days when I wasn’t blocked by @bexleynews on Twitter, I read how a Green Flag given to Danson Park meant it was recognised as one of the world’s best parks. Take that, Yellowstone!

This year, it was the turn of Lesnes Abbey Woods. A FOI asked “What improvements have been carried out at Lesnes Abbey Woods in 2020-23 specifically to meet the requirements of the Green Flag accreditation?” The answer was a short and honest “None”.


Note: The introduction and inserted comments were seen by @tonyofsidcup before publication and he did not request any changes.

 

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