31 July (Part 2) - Leopards do not change their spots
Our unelected Prime Minister who even Conservative Party Members rejected has over the past couple of days shown some signs of becoming a Conservative.
Just a little and only because an election is not far away.
Who is he trying to fool?
Rishi Sunak has done nothing traditionally Conservative since seizing power and
it is his decisions to date which must represent his true colours.
Naturally I would like him to change direction but if he does and the subterfuge
works electorally he will soon revert to type.
In the short term if he doesn’t rein in Sadiq Khan then there is no way he will
get any support from this lifelong Conservative voter. That seems to be a widely
held view among us old-timers.
31 July (Part 1) - At least she holds surgeries!
Unfortunately one ran later than expected…
Daily Mail report.
Daily Express report.
Independent report.
LBC Radio report.
Abena Oppong-Asare is MP for Erith and Thamesmead.
A couple of days off while I make a new computer for my sister. The component prices are up around 40% on 15 months ago when I last made one.
Some bits may have improved a little, we shall see if it’s any faster when Windows is
installed. While we shelter from the rain, put the lights on in the
middle of the afternoon and wonder if the heating should go on an email said
this is the worst July the sender could remember. I agreed but what do the records actually say?
As mentioned before my solar panels have recorded their accumulated output power every 15
minutes since January 2011. That equates to the amount of light falling on them
which is not the same as sunshine hours but it is likely to follow a similar pattern.
Taking this month’s lousy figures as the reference point and assuming that
tomorrow is about the same as today, 2012 put on an identically bad show.
2015, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021 were all poor too with the best of them only 5%
better than this year. 2011 and 2016 managed to be 8% better than this year but
the best by far was July 2013 (27% up) with 2014, 2018 and 2022 not too far behind.
Sun worshippers should not holiday in the UK in July.
Note: In the event the 31st July was even worse for light
levels than the average of the 30 previous days so that the month as a whole
was the worst July of the past 12 years by a margin of 2% and 24% worse than last year.
29 July - There are worse boroughs than Bexley
It may have been a mistake to allow @tonyofsidcup to
preach about the
wonders of ULEZ without dissecting every statement but in general BiB
prefers to let people have their say rather than, in Twitter parlance, block
them. It was surprising to find when constructing an Index to ULEZ blogs just
how many there are and most being against the ULEZ charge because it is quite
clearly nothing but a tax raising measure. If the issue was air quality Khan
would have banned all petrol and diesel powered cars or done the same as in
Glasgow; ban all non-compliant cars.
Sadiq Khan is not an honest man and four London boroughs sought to overturn his
ULEZ consultation in which he disregarded some 5,000 valid opinions and still failed
to find majority support. The boroughs’ Judicial Review failed but even if it had not Khan
would most likely have ignored it because that is the way he is.
There have been outrageous claims that a million pounds of taxpayers’ money was
flushed down the legal plug hole while the known figures point to the cost being
no more than a few pennies per household.
Why am I drifting towards defending Bexley Council’s leadership when its democratic record is so
abysmal? Beyond doubt, vindictive and criminal at times.
Two reasons right now.
@tonyofsidcup has shown me his latest letter to Teresa O’Neill and he wants you to see it. I do not like it very much,
but sending it is his prerogative and ‘cancel culture’ is something else I do not like.
Taking,
as I do, an opposing view on ULEZ, I find @tony obsessive in his support for it on Twitter in particular. He never fails to contradict anyone, high profile or not, who thinks
otherwise and repetitively flings mud in the direction of the Conservative
Mayoral candidate Susan Hall. Now there is a letter to the Leader of Bexley Council in
another attempt to put her on the spot.
I have every reason to criticise Teresa O’Neill whenever
possible but in practice it is her spiteful nature rather than her political leanings which earn the criticism.
Her “moral judgment” has often been in doubt and @tony thinks
it is again for not acknowledging “the health hazards of air pollution”
and he goes on to cite ְ“Imperial College London’s estimate of excess deaths” without reference to the
statisticians who have poured scorn on those estimates.
Referring to the premature death of James Brokenshire MP from lung cancer and implying that ULEZ would have
saved him looks like quite a stretch to me and perhaps in rather bad taste.
The other reason is that compared to Greenwich, Newham, Waltham Forest,
Redbridge and Enfield, the only other London boroughs I know reasonably well,
Bexley is a rather green and pleasant land where the Council is not too
obviously setting out to spread misery as widely as possible.
The relative freedom from 20 m.p.h. speed limits and
roads restricted by excessively wide 24/7 bus lanes makes Bexley a more pleasant
place to be where road accidents remain among the very lowest in London. Quite a
lot lower than in Enfield, Greenwich, Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest
despite the lack of Safe School Streets which even the Labour representative at
the most recent Transport Users’ meeting said were unnecessary and the Cabinet Member confirmed that
no school is requesting them.
There are lots of reasons why I would like to see the back of Teresa O’Neill but
fighting ULEZ which makes it one of the few manifesto promises she has ever kept
is not the reason why she should go - as @tonyofsidcup has told her she should.
Comparing her to “a schoolboy who has failed to do his homework” is the sort of
language that one might get away with on a blog not noted for its political
correctness but may not be appropriate in a formal letter which one hopes to be taken seriously.
Maybe mine is a minority view but I am not inclined to let @tony go completely unchallenged.
His letter to Teresa
O'Neill is here. (PDF) Will she respond? Will @tony let me see it if she does?
I am wary of messages purporting to come from senior Council sources but when
an equally well known senior Councillor confirms it is true maybe it is OK to make an announcement without too much fear of egg
being deposited on my face.
It seems that Bexley’s Chief Executive
Jackie Belton resigned today with her
deputy Paul Thorogood in line for a promotion. If so congratulations Paul who
appears to have successfully steered Bexley away from the financial rocks.
Could the resignation possibly have something to do with the recommendation to go to
law against ULEZ which failed today?
Resigning is a lucrative business.
While observing the commuter cars parked in my road by those without
£75 a week to throw in Bexley Council’s direction I
gained the impression that quite a high proportion were not very new vehicles
and wondered if we might get a parking respite come 29th August if the Dictator
of London’s abuse of statistics and the consultation processes is not stopped by the High Court.
This morning I conducted a survey.
In my road 13 cars were parked and five were non-compliant according to
https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/check-your-vehicle/.
However around the corner in Carrill Way twelve vehicles formed the usual
dangerous chicane and all were ULEZ compliant.
Overall 20% of commuter vehicles may be off the road in only five weeks time.
Have I changed my mind about Sadiq Clown? Definitely not.
25 July - Compassionate Conservatism
I suspect, based on the lack of feedback, that very few people are interested
in the Motions that the Bexley Labour Group puts forward at every Full Council
meeting. They tend to suffer one of several fates; if they are worthwhile the
Tories will make a minor amendment and claim them as their own or if they are less than enthusiastic will
change them out of all recognition with a bit of self-praise added for good
measure. Sometimes they will simply vote them down.
Last week the subject was temporary accommodation
for which the Conservatives chose their second option. Councillor Mabel Ogundayo
(Labour, Thamesmead East) said the Council “owed it to residents to ensure a decent and
non-demeaning home” and called on Bexley Council to
“raise and enforce basic standards”. Recently we have seen people dumped into
houses with no roofs, no toilets,
no electricity and no furniture
but with the benefit of rodent droppings.
The photos below were taken in a flat in my own road
after a single and mentally damaged lady was unceremoniously dumped along with all
her worldly goods such that it was next to impossible to get through the front
door let alone sit down, cook a meal or sleep.
One of the disadvantages of relying on webcasts for
information is that the inevitable Tory
Amendment is not made public. It fell to Councillor Davey (West
Heath) to derail Mabel’s motion but what it may have said must remain a
mystery apart from his spoken comments on the night.
He said it was an improvement on the Labour Motion because “it highlights the fantastic work of our Council staff”
(the mandatory self-praise) who dealt with 2,915 homeless approaches last year. The Housing
Associations are good and some private landlords are better. “Nearby Labour
Councils” provide “a concrete forest not fit to bring children up in”.
“Households in temporary accommodation in Bexley continues to decrease month on
month. [Are they turning even more applicants away?] Greenwich overspent on temporary accommodation by £2 million, Lewisham
£6·5 million and [sheer desperation] ULEZ will cause more homelessness”.
The Amendment was seconded by Councillor Chris Taylor. “All Bexley properties
meet national standards” while Greenwich provides “substandard, dirty cramped and verminous accommodation”.
Labour Councillor Chris Ball (Erith) objected to the Amendment being about Emergency
Accommodation while the Motion was on Temporary Accommodation but was
over-ruled by the Monitoring Officer who said “neither
the removal of words nor the insertion of words amount to voting against the Motion”.
Councillor Daniel Francis obviously thought that was nonsense as indeed it must
be. Change any number of words you like but it remains a simple Amendment not a new Motion.
Councillor Ogundayo regretted that the debate had become one of semantics and not people’s lives.
Cabinet Member Sue Gower said that Bexley was a “compassionate Conservative
Council” and the Labour Motion was defeated.
The photographs above were made available to Bexley Council which, after being
chased, telephoned me at home to explain that the occupant had not been very helpful to them and was therefore being
“actively punished”. The words are burned into my memory.
It will be noted that the events
portrayed above are 20 years old which puts it firmly within the Labour era. It
is to be hoped that the staff employed then are long since gone.
24 July (Part 2) - What the Leader said
The first thing Councillor Oְ’Neill said when last addressing the Council
(19th July) was
to “thank Councillor Craske for his service over the years”. That’s it. That’s
all he got for God knows how many years of reputational damage to Bexley
Council. 15 at least if no deduction is made for the time he spent under the
watchful eye of the law. Whatever did happen to the £4 million he handed over to
the consultants Parsons Brinkerhoff who allowed its offices to be used to send me
abusive emails? (Checked from the server logs and the recorded IP address.)
From one sort of law breaking the Leader immediately transferred her attention
to another, the High Court challenge to Sadiq Khan’s dubious ULEZ consultation
practices. She hoped for a resolution by 28th July. She was “humbled” by the
number of her supporters and the stories of the dramatic impact on people’s lives. Council staff too.
Thanks to Teresa I too have been lauded during my weekly
session in a North London pub, although as yet it has not translated into free beer.
There is particular concern for
the impact of the £12·50 a day tax on care workers and “the Mayor does not get Outer London”.
There was initially no intention to run
the Superloop into the North of the
borough and definitely no DLR extension to Belvedere. The Mayor is failing to
pass on Government LIP funding grants to the boroughs. “He top slices it.”
(Local Implementation Plans.)
In contrast Bexley Council has secured the Welling Banking Hub.
Councilor Borella thanked the Deputy Leader David Leaf for his attendance at the
Erith Pride event where he very obviously “immensely enjoyed the refreshments and food”.
He went on to ask the Leader “to apologise for soaring interest rates” and for
Boris Johnson who damaged transport infrastructure in the borough by
cancelling the bridge (which would have opened nine years ago) and has as
his legacy the shared space scheme in Bexleyheath. “Where is the criticism for
the loss of the loop line rail services or the support for the Elizabeth line
introduced by a Labour Mayor?”
The Leader acknowledged her Deputy’s liking for food and thanked Councillor
Hinkley for her litter picking skills. She confirmed that it was Councilor
Cameron Smith who championed the cause of Abbey Wood to get a Superloop service.
She (correctly) said that it was Mayor Khan who was the latest Mayor to scrap a
river crossing but totally wrong to imply that Boris Johnson had not done the
same. “Please do not change history there because there is plenty there that I
will put right”. They simply cannot stop lying can they? Johnson cancelled Ken
Livingstone’s bridge because Teresa O’Neill told him to. She bragged loud and
long about it at the time. Am I the only one to remember the posters she
plastered all over her ward?
She said it was Boris who kick started the Elizabeth line which is certainly a
bit of history rewriting. It might never have come to Abbey Wood
if it
was not for the efforts of our Labour MP. There was no support from Bexley
Council at the time as it was still in its isolationist phase which eventually
lead to its flirtation with bankruptcy. The Leader admitted to never having ridden the Elizabeth line.
Deputy Leader David Leaf said that interest rates had soared to much the same level as Labour thought was normal whilst in office.
A Labour Councillor, for the second time in the same meeting, adopted a sarcastic
tone and this time earned a a suitable retort from the new Mayor. It was totally
unnecessary and marred an otherwise perfectly valid, indeed welcome comment.
Note: The Crossrail bill dates from 22 February 2005 and received Royal Assent two
months after Boris Johnson was elected. Ergo, it is Teresa O’Neill who is
rewriting history.
24 July (Part 1) - Recycling issues
What was I saying a few days ago about playing a straight bat? The new
Cabinet Member for Places clearly stated at the last Council meeting that the
recycling rates are not as good as they used to be. 2022/23 was 43·8%,
significantly lower than the 50% achieved in 2020/21 but better than the 42%
of 2021/22. Residents appear to have changed their habits during the bin strikes
and “it will be an uphill task to get them to revert to previous habits.”
Not one spinning, and not entirely correct, word about Bexley being the top
recycling borough which made Councillor Diment’s predecessor sound like a stuck record.
Instead, an admission that it no longer is accompanied by plans for improvement.
Food recycling rose from 5,187 tonnes in 2021/22 to 5,567 tonnes last year.
Note: Speaking of cricket metaphorically at least, the Surrey Club eventually
admitted that their bad accounting and failure to acknowledge a warning email caused
my
membership to be cancelled mid season but have given me a free pass for next
year’s games in compensation; which is more than generous.
23 July (Part 3) - Scraping the Transport meeting barrel
Apart from the main rail and bus presentations at last week’s meeting a few possibly interesting snippets came to light.
• The 486 bus from North Greenwich to Bexleyheath is to become a 24/7 night service from 29th July. Half hourly between the times of the present last and first buses.
• Councillor Diment regretted
that the new
contract for route 89 does not mandate low emission vehicles.
• He also said that terminating the 269 away from Marketplace which the 229 serves will effectively halve the choice of buses to Sidcup.
• The regular police representative failed to show up and his substitute knew next to nothing. Various questions were taken away.
• Councillor Slaughter asked if there were stats on e-scooter accidents but there were none that distinguished scooters from bikes.
• The Highways Manager chipped in that there had been an accident in Hook Lane back in December 2020 and another with “a powered two wheeler” in June 2021 in Faraday Road.
• A pedestrian crossing survey has been conducted at both locations but the need scored “quite low” on the calculations.
• Bexley has fallen from 6th best to 7th position in the table of accident prone London boroughs.
• No school has pressurised Bexley Council towards the installation of ‘Safe School Streets’.
• Residents have shown no enthusiasm for Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. “It will not go down well with Bexley residents”.
• There appears to have been “a dip in cycle ownership” as measured by Cycling Proficiency Tests and school travel.
• Network Rail has ignored Bexley Council’s latest objection to the long distance and
three month long diversion of pedestrian traffic that will be caused by the planned replacement of the Mitchell
Close footbridge in Belvedere and the closure is imminent. 1·2 miles necessitating
a crossing of Bronze Age Way.
23 July (Part 2) - Lies and Khanned lies
The Labour party has finally admitted that Londoners cannot afford ULEZ but expects to see it spread to every town (Angela Rayner on Sky TV
“You have got to remember that ULEZ is coming to every town and city across the UK.”)
and continue to say it was all Boris Johnson’s idea. Like most things political that is not actually true. London’s first Low Emission Zone was
introduced on 4th February 2008 (Wikipedia) which is well into the Ken Livingstone era. A year later Johnson as Mayor announced his intention
to defer Livingstones plan to extend the restriction to vans pending a public consultation.
On 4th April 2011 at a press gathering in Erith and accompanied by his then partner in crime, the Leader of Bexley Council,
Johnson announced the inclusion of vans.
It was not the first ULEZ, it adopted a lower standard and was still called, LEZ.
A few years later - when did Boris first come under the influence of Carrie
Antoinette? - he proposed extending restrictions to within the South and North
Circular roads by 2020 but in 2016 along came the clown Khan who had other ideas.
By October 2017 there was a £10 toxicity surcharge (T-Charge) for driving within the Central London
Congestion Zone and Johnson’s ULEZ ideas for 2020 were brought forward to 8th April 2019. The price increased to £12·50.
But some people continue to spout that it is the Conservatives and Johnson in
particular who pushed Khan into a London-wide ULEZ. But that is to ignore the
fact that in 2011 Johnson was only advocating Euro IV for commercial vehicles. At no
time has he advocated Euro V for all vehicles across all of London.
That is solely Khan’s idea which he justifies with false statistics. 4,000
people a year are not dying in London from air pollution each year; that is to abuse the
computer modelling. One could equally say that ten million people are dying on a Tuesday
afternoon instead of Wednesday morning.
Neither did the Conservative government insist on the ULEZ extension after Khan
bankrupted TfL. They specifically told the spendthrift that “HMG funding must
not be used to cover the costs of your policy decision to charge road users. If
you choose to implement it you must fund it yourself”.
It is being said that the Labour Mayor is trying to make the poor even poorer; but hasn’t that always
been the party’s principal purpose? Traditionally their support has come more from the
poorer members of society than the better off. The more they can impoverish people the more votes they get.
23 July (Part 1) - MiliMayMadness
I am inclined to think that some of the country’s current problems have their roots in the Thatcher
era but far more can be traced back to Tony Blair; followed by Cameron who thought he was his Heir to Blair
and Teresa May whose personal mission was to wreak havoc by first thwarting a
referendum and then making the Blair era Net Zero a legally binding commitment.
Whoever you blame for setting the course that has led to the present disastrous
situation there can be no doubt whatsoever that the Conservatives have twiddled their thumbs Nero-like
for 13 years and let it all happen.
Far too late in the day they may have realised that
the Net Zero business created by Ed Miliband is one of many things that is killing their poll chances and there is
pressure from within to maybe
think it out again.
Forcing electric cars on everyone, banning gas boilers
and relying too much on wind turbines and solar panels is the sheerest nonsense,
especially with all the green taxes needed to pay the subsidies to investors.
Having invested a little in the past, I am a beneficiary. Nice at the personal level but it is impoverishing the average Joe.
In the month to 8th May my electricity bill was £21·10. In June it was £25·14
and in July £12·96, all including the standing charge. With 4kw of solar panels,
a sunny June helped keep the July bill especially low and the panels, though three times
the price in 2011 compared to now, paid for themselves long ago. It’s all profit at someone else’s expense.
The nonsense arises because of Mr. Miliband’s generous, inflation linked and guaranteed for 25 years,
subsidy. (Feed in Tariff.) The bacon sandwich eater caused £905·51 to be deposited into my bank account three days ago for those
same three months. Free electricity and £840 in the bank paid for by people who cannot afford it.
A crazy form of socialism by a crazed politician. Imagine that on tens of thousands of roofs across the country but it pales into
insignificance compared to the subsidies available to wind turbine owners.
Note: Octopus Energy has never been able to explain why they recommend a monthly payment of
£172 which is approximately double my normal winter bill. I reduced it to £120 in June and taken it down to £50 for July.
22 July (Part 2) - The party divide
One
of the questions at last week’s Council meeting came from Erith Councillor
Nicola Taylor who had
organised a Pride event on Erith Pier. She asked the Council Leader if she
was in favour and would support it becoming an annual event.
Councillor O’Neill congratulated Nicola on her successful initiative and said
she was absolutely in favour of events at which the community, not the Council, takes the lead.
Councillor Taylor regretted the fact that there was no Council involvement and
no Officer time expended. She then went on the offensive in both senses of the
word. “There was cross party support but it was without any funding. Do you think that the LGBT Community
are not worthy in which case you are morally bankrupt or could it just be that
you are financially bankrupt?” Catty or what?
Quite rightly the Leader objected to the tone of the question. “The Council
publicised the event and it was in line with our policies on diversity. There
has been an abundance of community events in Bexley this year and none received funding.”
The exchange neatly summed up the difference between Labour and Conservative rule in
Bexley. Should taxpayers be forced to pay for every minority interest and see Council Tax go up by 40% again?
22 July (Part 1) - Railway Ticket Office closures
The Transport Users’ Sub-Committee is almost
certainly the most interesting of meetings to Bexley residents because its subject matter
affects everyone. Bus issues, a report by whoever is running the railways on the
day, policing of the networks, accidents, potholes and utilities with their
constant endeavour to bring the borough to a standstill. It should be webcast.
But if it was I would miss its friendly atmosphere. The three Conservative
Councillors, Richard Diment, June Slaughter and Cameron Smith all greeted me by
first name and no one complained when my phone audibly alarmed at 9 p.m. because
I had forgotten that Alarms take precedence over Mute.
Probably I would have spoken to Labour Councillor Sally Hinkley too but she was
in Uxbridge to watch her party being defeated in the
Uxbridge by-election by Sadiq Khan.
After the ritual of choosing Cameron to be Chairman - which is odd given that he
is listed as such on the Council website - the first item discussed was the plan
to close railway ticket offices. I should perhaps declare a small interest
here because not long ago I needed to buy a ticket to Cambridge and my research
said the price would be £19 from the Freedom Pass boundary.
In the event I didn’t get around to buying in advance and found myself at the
ticket office at Liverpool Street station. “Two returns from the the boundary to Cambridge please.”
“You don’t want to do that.” “Why not?” “Because that would cost £38 but there
is a special offer for couples. From Liverpool Street to Cambridge is two for £22.”
A couple of years ago the ticket machine at Paddington wanted to charge me £50
when there was a one day only special offer at the ticket office and I saved £30.
However, having listened to
the Southeastern presentation I began to think
things may not be too bad. The various managers on Zoom were keen to point out
that every Train Operating Company is doing their own thing and one should not
assume that the bad things highlighted by the news media would apply locally. They
are collecting all the worst aspects and lumping them together to frighten people.
The present situation at Bexley’s various stations is that between 81 and 87% of
journeys are paid with Contactless/Oyster cards with between 3 and 7% at the
ticket office. Ticket office sales across the Metro network vary from 13 to 29 a day.
There will be no staff hours reductions, in fact a few increases. At stations due to lose their ticket
offices, former ticket sellers with their wealth of expertise will be redeployed to
help passengers at the Ticket Vending Machines (TVM) and elsewhere.
I did wonder for how long that wealth of expertise would exist as the
specialists were gradually diluted into the general station staff which includes cleaners.
Unlike some other TOCs, Southeastern will not employ roaming teams staffing
stations on a rota system. Their staff will be permanently allocated to their station
and some of the larger stations will be provided with Travel Centres providing a full range of services.
(London Bridge and Dartford.)
Passenger assistance, 42,000 requests last year, will be available by telephone
24/7 in order to book a two hour support window for vulnerable travellers.
Councillor June Slaughter asked how many stations are unstaffed and was told
it was 27 permanently unstaffed and 142 staffed which does not include places like Belvedere
which currently has vacancies. The 27 will not be increased.
Councillor Chris Ball for Labour pressed further on the matter of staff
reductions and was told that only the very largest stations will see any. “Would
refunds and warrants be handled by TVMs?” No, except perhaps at London
Bridge but Delay Repay can be done on the App. He was content when assured that
displacing ticket staff to other roles would not cause anyone else to lose their jobs.
Councillor Richard Diment asked the Freedom Pass boundary question which might
have affected my journey to Cambridge. A TVM software upgrade will allow any
station to any other station fares to be purchased. Quick thinking Richard asked
how a traveller would know the name of the boundary station on any route to
which Southeastern had no answer.
“What is going to happen to the disused ticket offices?’ No decision yet. Could
be shops, Network Rail store rooms, community space or staff welfare rooms.
A series of
consultations by London Travel Watch is underway
and the first is for a batch of 40 stations (orange on the map). The consultation will
close on 26th July with more to come later. If
the 40 Ticket Offices are closed it will happen in the new year.
Abbey Wood is a TfL managed station and for the time being at least, is safe.
A few minutes were devoted to railway performance figures but Southeastern is easily pleased. Last Saturday I
returned from Dartford on one of the two remaining Southeastern trains per hour.
It sat for about six minutes at Slade Green and still arrived at Abbey Wood dead on time. They take us for mugs.
21 July (Part 3) - Institutional Corruption
For repeatedly saying the police in general and the Metropolitan Police in particular
are thoroughly corrupt and have been for many years has occasionally got me into
hot water but thankfully that view is now widely recognised. Recognised even by
the current Commissioner who has belatedly apologised to the family of Daniel
Morgan who was a private eye murdered in 1987 because he knew too much about their dishonest ways.
Several people have asked why recent events have not been mentioned here in view of my
family links - through my daughter - to the Morgan family. It is mainly because
I do not know much more than has been reported in the newspapers etc. and the
family are looking forward to a quieter life.
Daniel left a wife, two children, a sister and his brother Alastair.
His mother did not live to see the Home Office report due to the crooked
interference and consequent delay by one Cressida Dick.
The impact on Alastair has been devastating, mentally definitely and physically, probably.
He is no longer the man with whom I used to share a beer or watch a rugby match.
The shared monetary compensation will not bring his life back and his solicitor
who has worked tirelessly on the case for 25 years or more will presumably have
to be paid so that he can afford to fight his next police corruption case. Never
trust a policeman.
21 July (Part 2) - Cheap parking
As I returned home at 1:30 yesterday there were two pavement parkers nearby. I
would probably have snapped them with the mobile except that I was on a very rare incoming call, they may
have been residents visitors, reporting them is a pain and they may well have
been gone by the time the ticket lady showed up. Probably they were visitors as
they were both still there after 10 p.m. with PCNs on their windscreens.
Why people park on the footpath when a fine is almost inevitable is beyond me.
The rules are not difficult to follow and by doing so my 60 year old driving
record is unblemished. A PCN is an expensive mistake and so is Bexley’s
outrageous £15 a day commuter parking fee.
However right next to
the £250,000 Felixstowe Road car park is a more secure and more accessible car park.
It is called Sainsbury’s and boasts free electric car chargers.
You can book on line
for a fiver a day. A no brainer!
I knew that you could book a space at Sainsbury’s but had not checked out what was involved. Thanks to Sharon for the tip.
21 July (Part 1) - Super Loopy
Later
today - it is 6 a.m. and the the by-election results have not yet been revealed
in 20 minutes of listening to my news radio station - TfL will announce
a six
week consultation on their proposed Bromley to Thamesmead bus service to be
numbered SL3 and branded SuperLoop. (The map omitted Thamesmead before the
Bexley Council intervention.)
Old timers might say that is to restore the 229 of the 1980s which
used to run through to Bromley North railway station.
The 229 was divided into two routes because road congestion and Bexley’s ever
narrowing roads made operating to a reliable timetable impossible.
However this time it is different, SL3 will be a limited stop service and the
slide briefly put on screen at last night’s Transport Users’ Committee in the
Council offices suggests it will serve Bexleyheath Market Place (the Clock
Tower), Lion Road, Bexleyheath Station, Abbey Wood station and Thamesmead.
With a 12 minute frequency most of the time that is another ten diesel buses an
hour on New Road. Electric power has been ruled out for the foreseeable future.
The overall Bromley to Thamesmead journey time is expected to be an hour and a
quarter. Getting around the Knee Hill roundabout and over the flyover might in
practice take ten minutes of that.
It is now 6:24 and I still don’t know the by-election results except that there
is a suggestion that Sadiq Khan has given Labour a kick in the teeth in
Uxbridge. It looks like being a good day.
P.S. In other bus news, TfL plans to terminate the 229 and
269 services at stops 300 yards apart, effectively halving the service frequency
for passengers heading towards Sidcup. Cabinet Member Richard Diment who graced
last night’s meeting with his presence has protested on behalf of residents and
TfL has acknowledged the downgrade. I do not recall the former Cabinet Member
for Places being sufficiently interested in residents’ well being to attend the
Transport Committee meeting.
TfL acknowledged the problem but two or three years ago they did the same in
Woolwich with the QE Hospital services. They prefer people to run around three
stops but unlike in Bexley, all three are visible from one vantage point. Amateur
sprinters can usually manage.
A photo reconnaissance to Bexleyheath has been deferred for several weeks because
although it is well under ten minutes away by car the report said that it
might be impossible to park there. Eventually I found time to get a bus and -
silly story redacted - just managed to miss four of them (out and back) and walked the last
part of the journey. 57 minutes overall.
When will Sadiq Clown realise that slowing the economy to that extent will kill London as a thriving city? But that
is his intent so he will be all in favour.
While waiting for a B11 which never came outside Abbey Wood station - the city
saboteur has reduced its frequency - I was able to put a stop watch on
the pedestrian crossings that cause
excessive traffic delays.
From red to red again takes between 30 and 35 seconds.
When will Sadiq Clown realise that slowing the economy to that extent will kill London as a thriving city? But that is his
intent so he will be all in favour.
The reader’s comment that prompted the visit was that Royal Mail has reduced its
sorting office opening times from 45 hours (first image) a week to 16 (second image.)
The sorting office is literally next door to Bexleyheath station but Royal Mail
hasn’t noticed. It says the nearest railway station is 1·7 miles away.
My sorting office is in Dartford and the two regular postmen are excellent, the
service never faltering even during Covid but I have friends in other parts of
London, Bromley included, who only get mail deliveries at two weekly intervals. My
2023 record of not yet buying a new style stamp currently remains intact - but I have no old ones left now.
The
point at issue is that even with the old opening times queues could exceed the
30 minute parking time limit (Photo 1 alongside) and with everyone now being compressed into much shorter
time windows the problem has become intolerable. Maybe not anything Bexley
Council can put right but I did notice that the station’s all day car park fee
is less than half of what Bexley Council charges in Abbey Wood.
The journey home was marred by a bus being taken out of service and the obligatory SGN road works.
At the lower end of New Road there was a six bus jam as three of each route
descending met their opposite number ascending. One with its wheelchair ramp
extended while permitted parking bays narrowed the road beyond what any bus
driver could be expected to manage.
When will Sadiq Clown realise that slowing the economy to that extent will kill London as a thriving city? But that
is his intent so he will be all in favour.
20 July (Part 1) - Hot Air Quality
It is not normal for BiB to agree with anything Bexley’s Chief Executive says
- on reflection does she ever say anything? - but just before the microphones
were switched off at the end of last night’s Full Council meeting she whispered “well
done” into new Mayor Andy Dourmoush’s ear. One can only agree, a calm and
professional first outing with every word audible, except of course when the
automated camera and mic system thinks it knows best.
Mr. Dimitri Shvorob was there to ask his usual awkward questions and
one of them was “Please tell me about the financial impact of the decision, made
in early 2023, to close the Council’s parking-warden phone line, crippling
parking enforcement in the borough?"
Whether enforcement has been crippled or merely made less accessible is obviously contentious
but I know of two residents fairly local to me who have stopped making reports following the changes.
Cabinet
Member Richard Diment, who did not make the decision, we owe that to Peter Craske, said that there was no impact on revenue as the service was only used a couple of times a day while
150ish penalties were issued every day. Dimitri (usually known as @tonyofsidcup
on these pages) did not challenge the answer but instead chose to post on
Twitter only a few minutes later.
I made the mistake of responding without having listened to the webcast and my
FOI suggestion was unnecessary as Richard had already answered the question.
At only two or three calls a day it probably isn’t worth making someone
available to answer the phone. Maybe Dimitri should ask how many web form reports come in daily.
I am particularly pleased that there is no reason to suppose that the new Cabinet Member has already
become as slippery as his colleagues because for the moment at
least I have found Richard Diment to be straight forward and honest which is something of a rarity in a Bexley Cabinet Member.
They are either chosen because they share the Leader’s dictatorial tendencies,
swallow their own principles and bask in the glory or soon resign in order to
pursue a successful career in business or become an MP.
But meanwhile the new Cabinet Member for Places seems to be playing a straight bat.
(In late news; Dimitri has come around to that view and regrets any contrary implication.)
Dimitri had another question. “Who is responsible for the Council’s failure to
develop an Air Quality Action Plan in the 16 years since the creation of the
Bexley Air Quality Management Area?”
The Leader said an Air Quality Report (not Plan) had been produced every year since 2015
and reviewed annually by the GLA which is content with everything Bexley is
doing. Bexley is designated as an Air Quality Management Area but recent figures
do not reach the threshold for designation. “There is no part of our borough
which breaches the national objective for air quality. We have some of the
lowest readings for NO2 and particulates in London.”
I wonder if there are readings for Harrow Manorway which took me eleven minutes
to traverse at 8 a.m. this morning? (Knee Hill roundabout to Sainsbury’s only.)
In response to a further question from Mr. Shvorob the Leader said she would
pursue an Air Quality Action Plan even though there is no longer a legal
requirement to do so. The question about not producing one while there was such a
legal requirement was ignored.
Mr. Paul McQuillen asked why Bexley Council did not object to the proposal to
increase operating hours at London City Airport when they were in a statutory position to do so.
Cabinet Member Cafer Munir (Growth) said that an objection was made on 3rd July.
What he didn’t say is that submission was made too late to be included in Newham
Council’s report. The best that the Cabinet member could come up with was “We
are where we are.” Impressive as usual.
18 July (Part 2) - Fair’s fair. Maybe
As you will understand, @tonyofsidcup is still unable to go ahead with his proposed road safety petition because
Bexley Council reserves the right to
ignore it on any pretext they might invent at the time. He recorded a
summary of the unacceptable situation in a letter to Council Leader Teresa O’Neill and sent me a copy
for publication.
I told him that I would prefer to keep it under wraps until I saw what the
Leader had to say about it as that way BiB readers can better see both sides of
the argument. Tony persuaded me that playing totally fair is not how Teresa
works and reminded me that it was her who, according to police records, first contacted them
with a request that I be arrested for the heinous crime of “criticising Councillors”.
Maybe two wrongs do not make a right but this is what @tony wrote. It seems fair
enough to me. Will I be able to say the same for his reply? If he ever gets one.
Dear Teresa,
I have raised the issue with you in your role as the chair of Bexley’s
Constitutional Review panel - but given the lack of enthusiasm you displayed
in that correspondence, I feel that I ought to reframe the issue as a
council leader matter, and make it public.
Bexley’s Constitution appears to say that a residents’ petition with over
2,000 signatures is entitled to a debate and a vote by the full council.
This is not the case in practice. For example, in 2011, a petition mounted
by the Bexley Action Group, asking the council to limit executive pay,
collected over 2,000 signatures, but was denied a full-council debate and
“buried” in a committee.
Examining council rules regarding petitions, one finds two separate
documents, pp. 55-56 of “Codes and Protocols”, Part 5 of “Bexley
Constitution and Codes of Governance”, and a four page document named
“London Borough of Bexley Petitions Scheme”. The two documents contradict
each other on key points - for example, one says that 2,000 signatures
“would be sufficient” to trigger a full council debate, the other says “may
be debated by the full council”. They leave out essential details - for
example, allowing a petition to be dismissed as “inappropriate”, without
defining “inappropriate”. Where definitions are provided, they are sometimes
bizarre: for example, a “full council meeting” is “a meeting that all
councillors can attend”.
In correspondence regarding a FOI request, Bexley’s Director of Finance and
Corporate Services wrote that “the council has no criteria for officers to
follow when administering a petition”. A senior council officer -
incidentally, the same one who dismissed the 2011 petition, still in his
role - identified as the contact person for proposed petitions, refused to
assist with a petition, claiming that it was “hypothetical”.
Bexley’s Petition Scheme is broken. Is it broken on purpose, to let the
council leadership dismiss unwelcome petitions, and discourage
would-be
petitioners in the first place? I think Bexley residents deserve to know.
Will you commit to bringing transparency to the Petition Scheme rules, or
pretend that there is no problem? It’s time to step up, Council Leader.
Regards,
18 July (Part 1) - Privileged people
The Treacherous Weasel Khan (© Simon Webb)
took his revenge on me last night following my decision to
block his spamming political emails.
He closed the Overground with no bus alternative causing
me to be on the second to last Elizabeth line train home after a mile and a half
race through the back streets of Whitechapel.
Once indoors flopped in front of the TV I checked what Simon had been
saying in my absence. He like many of us is concerned by certain people wanting to turn
this country into the one they recently left behind. His specific subject this time was how Muslims are
allowed to dodge Stamp Duty on property in an entirely legal way because the
alleged war criminal Blair had helpfully changed the law to allow them
privileges not available to anyone else. It involves buying a house and
immediately off loading it to an offshore finance house.
By coincidence, when checking my email I found a reader keen to ensure I didn’t
miss Mr. Webb’s report. However with his brain more firmly engaged than mine he pontificated on
the possibility that it offered an explanation for several Bexley houses being
bought and sold again on the same day which was
reported here in August 2020 with
a further reference 18 months earlier. All HMOs.
Land Registry guidance.
17 July (Part 2) - Desperation
This
man is a menace to democracy who appears to be lashing out in every direction in a desperate bid
to cling on to and abuse his powers. It’s not quite four weeks since
he was prevented from
spamming my tfl@ email address with political claptrap contrary to the
conditions offered when I signed up for the Congestion Charge exemption. Despite
cancelling that email address he has returned to exploit the BiB Contact form - see menu above.
It is tempting to change contact@bib to something rude but there is not a lot of point as I would be the only person to
see it. I could simply blacklist noreply@email.london.gov.uk so that I don’t see
any more of Khan’s nonsense, but he won’t realise he is blocked which is not
ideal. As of a few minutes ago the Contact form address is changed, but no
user needs to know it. Just use the form as usual. The direct email facility remains a vulnerability and is
suspended until I think of a better solution. In practice all new contacts seem
to prefer to use the Web form so the loss of a visible email address should not be too serious.
London’s foul air. (16th July 2023)
17 July (Part 1) - Heads we win, tails you lose
In order to avoid the confusion that may arise from providing only a summary of his correspondence; viz.
yesterday’s now
deleted comment that Bexley Labour had not been particularly helpful to him,
@tonyofsidcup has sent me several PDF files relating to his seven month struggle
to get a straight answer on the rules relating to 2000+ signature Petitions from the slithering nest of
vipers who make up Bexley Council’s legal team.
As the extract below makes clear, they can do what they like. There are no
criteria. They make something up, as required, to ensure that every Petition is rejected, as every large one has been.
For the record, @tony says that Labour doesn’t advocate Petitions for exactly the reasons outlined above. “What is the point if
they bury it?” (@tony’s summary again.)
It has been obvious for some years that BiB readers prefer reports on a
lying Bexley Council to those that merely record the mundane because since it
apparently cleaned up its act the number of web visits
has fallen to no more than 25% of peak levels. But an alternative view is that the Leadership is just as
bad as it ever was (†) and the reduced number is due to less scrutiny. Most of the scrutineers were
elderly and I can immediately think of seven who have died in recent years.
@tony’s tussle with “vexatious” FOIs maybe proves the theory given the amount of
interest it aroused. BiB readers may love a scandal but the Leader of Bexley Council is not so keen.
She has told @tony that he has already been given a clear response to his
questions and politely asks him to go away. “I understand you have been advised
that our Petition Scheme is in accordance with statutory guidance.”
Maybe it is time to report @tony’s complaint more fully. He has a daughter who
has to cross a busy road to get to school but his request for a pedestrian
crossing has been refused. Hence him thinking that a petition might help his
cause. This is how he described the situation to me
The 2011
Bexley Action Group petition is, of course, an inspiration and a warning. I
am trying to get clarity on the rules before I start collecting signatures - my
pedestrian-crossings-for-schoolchildren hobby horse again - and I encounter
resistance from Mr Fox and Ms. Narebor. They won’t say in advance if a petition
is “admissible” - go collect signatures, then find out.
They won’t promise a Full Council debate if there are
2,000-plus signatures. It isn’t even clear what the full
council meeting is. According to them it’s just a “meeting that all councillors can attend”,
which would also cover a pub quiz. The Information Commissioner may get them to clarify the rules,
but should they break them, the complaint will go to the hopeless Local Government Ombudsman, and perish.
Overall, for all the effort, I am none the better prepared than the BAG musketeers were.
This was the set of questions that earned @tony the vexatious tag.
Page 56 of “Codes and Protocols”, Part 5 of Bexley Constitution and Codes
of Governance, says: “Petitions which are considered to be vexatious, abusive or otherwise
inappropriate will not be accepted”.
Can you please provide the full list of reasons why a proposed petition
could be deemed “inappropriate”?
Page 56 of “Codes and Protocols”, Part 5 of ”Bexley Constitution and Codes of Governance”, says:
“If a petition has more than 2,000 signatures, this would be sufficient to
trigger a debate at a Full Council meeting. This means that the issue raised
in the petition will be discussed at a meeting which all Councillors can attend”.
Can you please confirm that “Full Council meeting” refers to a meeting of
the Full Council. (“A meeting which all councillors can attend” is a broader concept).
Page 56 of “Codes and Protocols”, Part 5 of “Bexley Constitution and Codes
of Governance”, says (emphasis added):
"If a petition has more than 2,000 signatures, this WOULD BE SUFFICIENT to trigger a debate at
a Full Council meeting".
Page 3 of ‘London Borough of Bexley Petitions Scheme’ document says (emphasis added):
“If a petition contains more than 2000 signatures it MAY be debated by the
Full Council unless it is a petition asking for a Council officer to give evidence at a public meeting”.
Can you please confirm that a petition with over 2,000 signatures - not
deemed “vexatious, abusive or otherwise inappropriate” (cf. a related question about what
“inappropriate” is) - will be debated at a Full Council meeting if requested by the organiser, or
provide the full list of reasons why it could not be debated at a Full Council meeting.
Those are the questions which Bexley Council does not want to answer and Teresa O’Neill
has emphasised the same in her email to @tony. (Should I be jealous? She has
never emailed me; not even when I provided her evidence of criminal activity for
which a Cabinet Member was arrested.)
What is difficult about saying exactly what constitutes a meeting at which Petitions will be heard?
Maybe I am confusing two issues but three month old correspondence with @tony
suggests to me that the ICO has already pronounced on the subject of contradictory publications.
† It still needs to be said that ten years ago I would have been unable to
name more than one or two Conservative Councillors who I regarded as trustworthy
and in recent years the number has climbed well into double figures - party
loyalties excepted. The party always comes first.
@tony subsequently explained that the comment included in the first
version of this blog to the effect that Labour Councillors have not been of any
help, is a misreading of his correspondence. That is good to know.
15 July - Judge, Jury and Executioner
I hate to say “I told you so” but the day after
suggesting that @tonyofsidcup might
be labelled vexatious for daring to ask Bexley Council a succession of probing FOIs, he was!
@Tony has been considering organising a road safety petition and is well aware of what happened to
the last borough-wide
attempt to surpass the 2,000 signature
threshold. Bexley Council refused to accept it, saying that the statement on which it was based, the
excessive level of senior staff salaries, was incorrect.
Although I was not directly involved with the petition; that honour goes to
Elwyn Bryant and Michael Barnbrook, it was me who insisted that the figures
they quoted were lifted directly from Bexley Council’s website, and they were.
So unless Bexley Council was lying on its website the salary figures were 100% correct.
Bexley Council’s immediate reaction when caught out is always to lie.
@tony is very aware of Bexley Council’s proclivities and does not want to risk
falling foul of Bexley Council’s less than clear, in fact contradictory, protocols on
petitions. Needless to say Bexley Council does not want 2000+ people to support a statement
that might embarrass it and has been busy erecting barriers.
The protocols refer to rejecting vexatious or inappropriate petitions. @tony
asked what sort of thing would render a petition “inappropriate”.
The same protocols state that a 2000+ signature petition will be “discussed at a
meeting which all Councillors can attend”. @tony asked if that meant a Full Council meeting.
He also noted that a separate publication, ‘London Borough of Bexley Petitions
Scheme’ only said that the petition MAY be debated at Full Council but
with exceptions. @tony asked for a list of reasons why a petition might
not go before Full Council.
@tony was not going to trudge the streets of Bexley as Mick and Elwyn did only to be
rejected at the hands of one of Bexley’s habitual liars. Twelve years may have
elapsed since the last big petition but the same set of advisors is still in place.
As noted by a Councillor at the last Finance meeting, Bexley Council very often
does not answer questions fully and @tony suffered that same fate.
And for questioning the response he was promptly labelled vexatious, the defence of a
cowardly Council. A Gina Clarke, whoever she might be, has said that his follow
up questions are “part of a series of overlapping requests which makes your requests vexatious”.
How can trying to get a straight answer on which of two contradictory Council
documents relating to petitions is correct be vexatious? I think I can hear the Information Commissioner laughing already
unless of course Bexley Council repeats its trick of telling the ICO that @tony is a racist. A corrupt
Council stops at nothing. Trawl BiB and you will find they have stooped that low twice already.
Every time I come around to the view that Bexley Council is not as dishonest as
it used to be someone comes along to prove that our Tory led Council remains dishonest to its very core.
14 July - Destruction and death
Ever
since Bexley Council admitted in 2009 that Abbey Road, Belvedere, didn’t have a
bad accident record and ignored advice that their plans would likely change
things - I was told it was “a recipe for collisions” - I have whenever possible taken
photographs of the aftermath of various
accidents. Sixteen of them so far, one fatal.
When I first saw a wall down again I assumed it was wind damage. The builder back
in 1987 was a great believer in lots of sand and a minimum of cement and water such that many have simply fallen down.
Then I noticed that it was a concrete wall and some three year old memories returned.
In February 2020 a vehicle took out the brick wall by the bus stop (Photo 1) and the
owner rebuilt it with concrete blocks. (Photo 3.) A good idea but not good enough.
It has been demolished again and this time the bus stop has been taken with it. (Photos 2, 4, 5 and 6)
When the property owner sees his house insurance go up again he should perhaps consider making a claim against Councillor Craske.
13 July (Part 2) - The Cost of Freedom
There may be no Children’s Services meeting to report on but fortunately
there are still a few juicy bits from
last week’s Finance meeting that may be worth an airing.
Councillor Rags Sandhu (Conservative, Bexleyheath) was interested in the number of Freedom of
Information requests which is rising. 110 on Adults’ Social Care, 224 on
Children’s, 474 on Finance in 2022 and as one might guess, the Places
Directorate topped the list at 616. How many man hours is that the Councillor asked.
He was told that many can be answered in just an hour or two but the
average is not known. The difficult ones are those that span more than one
service area. Very few reach the charging threshold and even fewer people are willing to pay.
In the dim and distant past Bexley Council under a different Deputy Leader used
to object strenuously to answering FOIs and famously told the Information Commissioner that
one enquirer was a racist in a successful bid
to stop him
submitting any more. Thankfully everyone concerned in that shameful episode has
gone and the comments made by Council officers and Deputy Leader David Leaf last week were entirely reasonable.
Councillor Daniel Francis (Labour, Belvedere) was not quite so happy. He echoed the complaints that I used
to hear regularly. If Bexley Council gave complete answers to FOIs there would
be a lot less need for follow ups which leave residents liable to the vexatious tag.
Someone else who could be labelled vexatious is @tonyofsidcup,
London’s premier
ULEZ supporter. His latest FOI is “Can you please supply all emails sent from the
Council Leader’s work email address between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023 that
have ‘ULEZ’ or ‘Ultra Low Emission Zone’ in the message body or subject, and have ‘bexley.gov.uk’
in the recipient’s email address?”
I am not sure what his strategy is there. I would have thought that the final stipulation would rule out some of interest.
13 July (Part 1) - Another Bexley Council IT failure
Today’s plan was to provide a brief report on Bexley’s Children’s Services
Scrutiny Committee where new Chairman Lisa Moore officiated. Alas it is not to
be. I can stream an Ultra High Definition video with Dolby Atmos from Amazon
Prime but once again Bexley Council cannot do better than webcast a succession of still
pictures accompanied by seriously broken audio with periods of total silence
thrown in for good measure. On two different devices over two days.
The Agenda suggests it would have been a very brief and probably uninteresting report.
That other IT failure of sorts,
the censoring
of two Planning Applications on a property some wrongly attributed to
Leather Bottle Man has been partially corrected. 23/01420/FUL is back and it
doesn’t amount to much. An outbuilding is to be incorporated into an already
approved rebuild of 2 West Heath Road.
I’m not sure why there has been
so
much correspondence over such a long period about that address. Presumably
it demonstrates the fear that residents to the north of the borough have that they
may be living next to the next
Leather Bottle or
238 Woolwich Road.
12 July - Teething problems with Council Tax Direct Debit reminders
I don’t often look at Facebook but I suspect that is where I saw people
complaining that Bexley Council had sent out Council Tax payment reminders at the end of June and
scared a good few people. I haven’t seen how it was worded and maybe it was not
as clear as it should have been but surely payment reminders are almost the norm in business these days?
I get a countdown from my domain name registrar over about six weeks but my
mobile service, a car ‘club’ which supposedly provides cheaper insurance
- but doesn’t - Octopus Energy and my Council garden waste service and probably others all send text reminders
with a few days notice.
My credit card provider recently extended their pre-warning email with a
follow up text message to confirm that they have successfully taken the money
which seems a little OTT but I don’t see it as a problem.
Maybe not sending reminders is more of a problem. Surrey Cricket Club failed
to send me a warning or to take my Membership fee in January while other Members of the
cricket gang were warned and debited; one of them twice!. I emailed an enquiry and was told that I was
not Direct Debited because I had paid in full on October 24th. I definitely hadn’t and told them so. There was no reply
and I assumed that when they eventually checked the records properly they would get in touch.
They did not but last month I was hauled out of the queue for the Oval and told that my Direct Debit had been declined
six months earlier and my Membership cancelled with immediate effect.
Since then my bank has confirmed that SCC made no debit application and their
Commercial Director has told me that they have all sorts of problems with their
Direct Debiting system. You would think that they might belatedly ask for the money and
restore my Membership with some compensation for the lost matches; but no. 2023
membership is no longer on offer so I am out.
I doubt I will be going to the Oval again. But back to Bexley Council’s Council
Tax reminders. Believe it or not the procedural change was considered to be
sufficiently important to merit a short debate by the Finance Committee.
Councillor June Slaughter (Sidcup) was the first to raise the issue.
She said a “constant stream of texts and emails was extremely irritating” and
maybe she is be right but it is not difficult to ignore them. She must have had
similar thoughts and ruminated about people simply ignoring the
messages and whether a warning would make any difference to people who have insufficient funds.
More directly she asked what the experience of other Councils that had adopted
similar systems was. “Does it cost money? Can residents opt out?”
The Council Officer said it was a new initiative to try to
reduce the DD failure rate currently standing at 3%. It would be kept under review and take account of residents’ comments.
There is no cost to Bexley Council but there is no opt out facility currently.
Labour Leader Stefano Borella said he received two such warnings which caused
him to panic momentarily. “Old people mighty think it is a scam.” (Isn’t that ageist Stef?)
He was told that the text message had been sent to people due to pay on the first of the
month for whom a mobile number was on their Council Tax records. The duplication
was caused by the initial messaging being flagged as failed and then someone or
something pressed the Rerun button twice! It won’t happen again and the message
text will be simplified for 15th July and next month.
Councillor Francis (Labour, Belvedere) was concerned by the lack of a text opt out
facility and asked what the procedure was for unsubscribing. If it cannot be
done quickly would there be a breach of GDPR? Deputy Council Leader said it was being looked into.
One Councillor planned to opt out. You’d think there might be better ways of expending one’s energy.
While
I belatedly listen to Council meetings to see if anything worthwhile has
been debated a fall back on that old faithful; parking issues. It must be of some interest, one man manages
to write a successful blog on only that subject usually highlighting the dishonesty and stupidity London’s 32 boroughs.
Two days ago his theme was
never believe a word that Councils say unless it is
corroborated by irrefutable facts. Barnet Council had fined someone for pavement
parking in a road which that Council had listed as being free from that
particular restriction and had never before fined someone for the ‘offence’. Yet despite
their own list of roads showing pavement parking to be OK they refused to consider an appeal against the fine.
Idiots.
But it is not just Councils which take the pee. There are some very stupid motorists around too.
On
Sunday there was a market at Lesnes Abbey and the legal parking spots soon
filled up. Whatever the difficulty in finding a space only a very special sort of idiot
risks being fined for two and arguably three offences at
the same time. Parking on double yellows, parking on the footpath, obstructing a cycle path.
I don’t know if the driver was given a PCN. It is a pity that Bexley Councils
email reporting system is not further automated to signal back to the reporter
the result - or would that too often reveal a failure to attend?
Another driver thought it was OK to park at the bus stop opposite.
Note: Well that didn’t work; someone I’d not spoken to for a year phoned and
carried on for half the meeting. Now I have to find the time to listen again.
Yesterday
I was presented with a choice of two local events but never having owned a pink
outfit I decided that the 100th anniversary celebration of
the
Old Bexley Ex-Servicemen’s Club was more suited to me. I remain unsure why
1·5% of the population (2021 Census figure) who thank goodness have exactly the same
rights as everyone else should regard themselves as in any way oppressed and in
need of a whole month (June stretching into July) of events, exhibitions, parades and
support from Bexley Council but it does no one any harm, so why not?
Down in Bexley their MP Louie French accompanied by Deputy Mayor Nigel Betts
officiated with a speech in support of everyone who served their country and
finished with a spot of plaque unveiling.
To his credit Louie was still there chatting to club members when I left two hours
after he pulled the curtain string.
I learned that the Club grounds were purchased 100 years ago for the princely
sum of £175 which is exactly 20 times the price of a hot dog from their snack
wagon. My gang went down to the local chippie and bought enough for the three of us for under four quid.
8 July - A nice letter and a nice little earner
After Bexley Council at long last proposed to paint
six sets of double yellows
around corners at nearby junctions
I immediately
emailed a letter of support to the traffic department but also brought to
their attention the probable further commuter displacement to already congested roads. I didn’t
expect to get a reply but yesterday I received one which I thought was pretty
good. It clearly set out the formal position but was friendly and far from being dismissive of my suggestions.
This might not be worthy of comment except that I have previously been told “see
you in court” when I complained that Abbey Road parking bays were too narrow for my
not very big Rover 45 and I have an explanation of why yellow lines are put in
before the traffic order is signed. It is because to do it the other way around
risked losing PCN revenue. Money comes before the law.
Maybe Bexley Council really is more honest than it was 20 years ago
On
a slightly related note
the Abbey Wood CPZ proposals from last April included
getting rid of the remaining Free parking bays which at first sight is another
cash grab, but I am beginning to see the rationale.
I asked a friend who can keep a closer eye on things, to see if he could confirm
my suspicions. Let’s keep things very generalised.
If a house has two or three off street parking spaces and the resident owns two
little used cars it is possible to keep one of them more or less permanently in a nearby
Free space. Then you can rent your drive to an Elizabeth Line commuter and
shuffle one of your two cars into the Free space like a German tourist on a poolside sun lounger.
Now why didn’t I think of that first?
7 July - What should we make of this?
One
of the emails which commented on
yesterday’s Leather Bottle blogs included the words
“widespread ignoring of all rules and regulations plus corruption. Am I allowed to say that?”
I don’ְt see why not; it is just one man’s opinion isn’t it? Saying it might result in
your bank account being closed or get you banned from a woke coffee shop but
even with a cretinous PM in charge of the country I don’t believe it is actually illegal to say that yet.
Whether the rest of us should make similar assumptions based on Bexley’s rogue
property developer being such close mates with several Bexley Councillors and its most senior MP is up to individuals.
Personally I think he has to be nuts to applaud investments from Kulvinder Singh
but if his judgment is that poor it is up to him - and the electors of
Bexleyheath and Crayford at the next election.
This former Conservative Party Member with a 59 year old 100% G.E. voting record is hoping that
his party will be totally destroyed in 2024. And God help us all when that
happens but the Tories are asking for it.
6 July (Part 2) - The known unknowns
Well that was quick, or was it?. A planning application on the Council’s
website (18/03247/FULM03 44 Erith High Street) dated 4th May 2023 includes a
reference to a building start date of 30th November 2021 (18 months earlier) and completion last
March. Was the application really that retrospective? Who knows? I suspect I must have missed
something but the permission letter dated 30th June 2023 and addressed to a Mr. Singh approves everything
proposed - or should I say already built? - just as you might imagine and with no reference to it being a revision of
an older approved plan. Weird.
I suspect someone will soon tell me where I have gone wrong.
Simpler to understand is 23/01508/FUL which refers to site of The Drayman public house
in Crook Log, (Closed
in 2009 following drug misuse.) That application makes it clear that it is retrospective for a
scheme started ten whole years ago! Three additional flats requested by yet
another Mr. Singh.
There is remarkably little useful information on either planning application. I
suppose that is one stage short of suppressing publication altogether
as happened last month.
Bexley Council may not be bent but it would like you to think it is.
Earlier
today BiB referred
to the Heron Hill Hell Hole which reminds me that I was sent some
news, or maybe it is tittle-tattle, about it a little while ago.
It was not especially complimentary towards the role played in Ye Olde Leather
Bottle saga by Belvedere Councillor Daniel Francis. Maybe not entirely fair
because the Tories take very little notice of what Labour Councillors say and both Daniel and I worked with the Health & Safety Executive
providing evidence that led
to the successful prosecution of Mr. Singh’s company.
However the main complaint was against Singh’s associates in Bexley Council.
The allegation - which is news to me - is that they fined Singh a paltry
£6,000 for demolishing the Bottle while other boroughs in identical
circumstances had enforced reconstruction.
The 2017 plan to build houses on the site probably fell by the wayside
because of the affordable housing requirements and with the government grants
available a care home can become a relatively risk free cash cow.
Approval for a 70 bed care home was given in November 2020. So far only a
sick fox has taken up residence.
Prompted
by a reader who has the misfortune to live opposite the vermin ridden drug den
that used to be Bexley’s oldest pub I hitched a lift there intending to update
my Leather Bottle photo collection and take Footpath 11, mud permitting, as a
shortcut home.
Fat chance; it was blocked.
However I had better luck on the drugs and vermin front. I think the fox must
have been deaf. I was able to get within two feet of it before it ran off. Maybe
that was unwise, it was the most unhealthy specimen I have seen with no fur on
its tail. Did I ever get that rabies injection? (†)
Planning permission for a care home was
granted on 14th October 2021 with Astoria Healthcare and its Director
Amarveer Singh Dhatt appointed to run it but absolutely nothing has happened since.
How does Kulvinder get away with blighting Bexley and Belvedere in particular? I
think we need only look at today’s fixed BiB banner. Friends in high places.
Index to Leather Bottle related blogs.
† I am joking. I have a friend who is a veterinary surgeon so I know it is mange.
5 July (Part 2) - The Great Escape
Well
that was a close shave. On the very day
I decide to go to a Bexley
cinema for the first time ever
the Council Leader and the Mayor decided to celebrate my attendance.
Last time our paths crossed in similar circumstances was the day the
Bexley Village bridge was reopened. The Leader and Mayor saw me and ran away - literally.
I suspect the Leader would have done the same yesterday had I been able to go to an
evening performance but probably the current Mayor would have come over, shaken
my hand and maybe posed for another photograph.
It’s what he used to do when I attended Council meetings. Good bloke.
5 July (Part 1) - Neglect is the norm
It
is often said that Bexley Council doesn’t care about the North of the borough
because no Conservative Councillor lives nearby (and neither do recent Labour
leaders) but probably Southern residents see similar neglect.
The rain last night was especially heavy and while driving home circa 11 p.m. I had
to go very slowly because I couldn’t see the edge of the road. The Abbey Road footpath was
once
again under water but it had receded by eight this morning.
Abbey Road has flooded during heavy downpours for as long as I can remember and
first mentioned on BiB in 2011. It was another year before it made
its photographic debut.
FM Conway installed a drain in 2012 but it obviously didn’t have the desired effect.
The New Road Layout sign under the flyoveer was erected in 2007 when the cycle lane which at that
time went down the middle of the road - yes really - was moved to a more
conventional position. It
first featured on BiB twelve years ago.
The faded Shops Open As Usual banner is a mere youngster. It was
put up in 2016
in an attempt to alleviate the problems created for the Wilton Road shopkeepers
during Crossrail construction. A bit late in the day for a project that began in
2013 but welcome at the time. There is an identical one on Knee Hill.
The shops never did recover from
Crossrail. I heard Bexley Council told them they were
“sitting on little goldmines” but a chat with the Chairman of the Traders’
Association last week told a different story. Commuters jump in a waiting car and go straight home. Gridlock permitting.
All photographs taken early this morning.
I am afraid I have always been a techno-nerd. As a teenager I would blag my
way into the projection box of the local Odeon to thread projectors with film
and adjust the arc lamps while school mates blagged their way on to the footplates of steam locomotives. Petty
fogging rules have since taken all the fun out of life.
My interest in cinema technology stayed with me and in the 1960s helped make
a short film which had a one night screening at the National Film Theatre. More recently
I wangled a ticket into BAFTA to see the first digital film presentation in the UK, although even
that is rather a long time ago now. However I more or less stopped going to the
cinema 30 years ago. A combination of smoking, audiences who could not stay
quiet or still for a couple of hours and mediocre quality sound.
As a result I view a lot of films at home but I have
recently felt the need to remind myself how
the two experiences compared and the new StoryTeller in Sidcup provided the incentive.
My first visit ever to a London cinema south of the Thames.
I
resisted the temptation to buy a pack of Maltesers at a 247% mark up on
Sainsbury’s price - I diverted on the way home to check - and instead paid an
extra £1·05 to watch the latest Indiana Jones. No complaints on Tuesday’s ticket price.
What follows is a review from a techno-nerdְ’s
perspective. It may appear critical but StoryTeller is probably every bit as good as any other modern cinema
- IMAX and the like excepted.
Screen 2 is a nice little 35 seater and the staff were friendly enough. The lady
sitting next to me complained that the back of the seats reclined too much and
she found them uncomfortable and I agreed but soon forgot about it. Some
adjustment may have been nice.
As expected the programme began with 20 minutes of adverts and to be honest the
presentation can only be described as poor. A relative postage stamp of a
picture on a bigger unmasked white screen. If I had allowed that at the Odeon I am
sure I would not have been invited back.
Fortunately when the main feature began, things improved considerably but the
image lacked the contrast of a high spec OLED screen and the black levels were
pretty awful. Whether that is a feature of digital projection I simply do not
know because I have nothing recent to compare it with. I saw 1917, Dunkirk and Midway
in an Enfield Cineworld a few years ago and do not recall black levels being an issue but
maybe I have become even fussier.
What was less than brilliant was the audio quality which is why I stopped going
with North London friends to their local cinema in Enfield. That and Covid of course. I clearly
remember saying to them as we exited how disappointing the audio quality was and
they probably sighed having heard it all before.
It was the same in Sidcup today. I felt the sound could have been turned up a
notch but one shouldn’t be too critical of that. Some people do not like things
to be played at a realistic level and a compromise must be struck.
There were ten visible loudspeakers on the walls and probably three more behind
the screen. I counted six brief occasions during Indiana Jones and the Dial of
Destiny when the side speakers became active and the rear ones never. Very
little in the deep bass department either. This may be as good as the source
material gets, the film was running from a hard drive and Disney is notorious
for inferior digital encoding, I will have to buy the 4K disc when it is
released to check how good it is and compare.
Throughout the film I felt I was listening to Dolby Digital on a DVD which can
be OK but several steps down from Dolby Atmos on a Blu-ray. Nerds can easily hear the
difference on decent equipment. Overall the sound simply lacked the impact of my
home system. Never did it thump me in the chest and the aural definition simply
wasn’t there. A blurred round the edges sort of effect. Maybe the visible
loudspeakers being nothing special and far cheaper than my own is a factor.
Overall I was happy enough
with the outing because it confirmed that spending too much money on a
home system was not quite as mad as I sometimes think; but at a real cinema the
downsides remain as they always were.
There was no smoking obviously but the four young people in front of me
occasionally slightly obscured the view and several times got up for more supplies of fast
food. Gone for at least 15 minutes on one occasion, what is the point of doing
that during a film show?
The moment the visuals finished the lights came on, everyone headed to the exit
and the cleaner came in (lights because of Health & Safety I suppose) but I am afraid I sat there for ten minutes or more
reading the credits to see who did what and where.
The New York scenes were filmed in Glasgow.
Right at the end it said Dolby Atmos. I am not sure I believe it unless the Blu-ray turns out to be the worst ever disc.
Thank you to the cleaner who left me undisturbed.
I probably won’t be in a hurry to go back but that is just me, I am not your
typical film enthusiast. You will probably enjoy StoryTeller and with luck you won’t have
Jack-in-the-Box sitting in front of you.
With no loop line train and no parking that I know of Sidcup is not very
accessible to me. I allowed an hour and a half for the bus journey but with a
total waiting time of about 15 seconds the connections could not have been
better. 65 minutes for a 15 minute car journey and one of Khan’s diesel buses -
a 301 - nearly choked me to death spewing fumes into the cabin throughout
the journey. And he has the gall to drive the rest of us off the road.
3 July - Let another battle commence
Now that residents are
on the cusp of winning their 20 year tussle with Bexley Council over yellow lines in
Carrill Way its next phase must be renewed because their belated acceptance of Highway Code guidance does not go far enough.
Roads will continue to be blocked if the Council does not go quite a lot further than its current proposals.
The red van (Photo 1) is parked at the end of the layby shown at the top of the
map (Image 2) and tonight when I left home at 6:45 p.m. I just managed to
squeeze my two metre wide car through the gap but by the time I returned it was
dark and I was not prepared to take the risk.
Instead I used the dropped kerb outside Number 1 to mount the pavement and
continued to that outside No. 2 which is a much longer distance than the numbers imply.
Well if it is good enough for dust carts
The report on last week’s Places Scrutiny meeting has been hampered by Bexley
Council’s failure to provide a full Agenda which is illegal but they plead
technical problems. Some segments have since become available, the Dog Walking proposals for example.
At last week’s Places Scrutiny meeting L&Q the housing provider attempted to
bore the Committee to death with a presentation which is of course preferable to
making the attempt more literally as
they did with an old friend in Blackfen who has disappeared off my radar and I
fear the worst. It was confirmed that 4,400 L&Q homes in Baxley have been
reported (including multiple occasions) as suffering damp and mould which L&Q should know can prove fatal.
By the end of their address to Council, Sue Gower remained
wide enough awake to ask a question which included comment about “pulling the
state of the area down and people are weary [of it]”.
The blame was dutifully passed elsewhere in the manner perfected by
our illustrious Mayor Sadiq Khan.
“A solution is not on the table.” and damp is often caused by condensation and
too many people in the house. “If water is gushing someone will go out the same evening.”
Simply untrue.
Chairman Cheryl Bacon moved on to road maintenance, potholes and poor workmanship by the utilities. As you might imagine utilities
should operate on a like for like reinstatement basis but can be “rather slack”.
There should be a two year warranty on their work but it is difficult to enforce.
BT are “quite good” but others are not and therefore inspected more often. Thames
Water has been mentioned at previous meetings. There are about 12,000 holes dug
in Bexley’s roads each year which will surprise no one who has to drive across
it regularly. Around 4,000 of them are subsequently inspected by Council staff and 300 of them were found to be inadequate.
Potholes have to be 40mm deep and 200 wide before they are dealt with promptly.
1,600 of them last year but even so the budget was underspent. The number of
potholes that do not meet the criteria is about four times larger.
Total resurfacing is programmed twice a year and reviewed in the Spring with
reference to weather damage and known utility plans.
Councillor Sally Hinkley (Labour, Belvedere) asked if Bexley was being
targeted
by SGN (gas) as they are disrupting things right across the borough at the
moment. The Highways Manager could only guess at the reason and the Chairman
asked him to look further into things.
Councillor Slaughter (Conservative, Sidcup) complained that utilities block roads with cones and
temporary traffic lights and promptly disappear. Are they falsely claiming urgent status for their work?
The Highways Manager implied that the utility companies have an excuse for everything.
Chairman Bacon recognised the difficulties “but our residents do not think we are on it”.
Bexley Council not only
proposed to restrict the number of times you can visit the
refuse dump but is in the early stages of considering restricting the number of
dogs you can exercise at the same time - which may be a good idea if there is
evidence of widespread dog minding issues. Councillor Slaughter thought that “anecdotally
there maybe is a problem” especially as neighbouring boroughs have introduced restrictions.
It was revealed that other boroughs had seen up to 1,500 dog incidents as
evidence for dog walking restrictions while there was next to none in Bexley.
Greenwich has introduced a four dog limit while Bromley had four but is in the
process of reducing it to three dogs. Councillor Hall representing East Wickham on
the Greenwich borough border had seen one person exercising 16 dogs in his local
park. Drone footage has shown up to 25 dogs out of control and people are
migrating to Greenwich parks for safety reasons.
Bexley Council would welcome such evidence before considering PSPO
restrictions in parks - but would displacing dogs from parks to footpaths create a worse problem?
Councillor Ball (Labour, Erith) said there are already all sorts of restrictions
on dogs and none are enforced and a dog PSPO should not be top of any priority
list. The Chairman was inclined to agree as were a number of other Councillors.
Councillor Slaughter thought that residents should be encouraged to report dog
problems, perhaps on FixMyStreet but my guess is that nothing is going to
happen in the immediate future.
Note: On a Monday evening two weeks ago on an Elizabeth line train at Abbey Wood a
couple sat next to me with eight small dogs in tow. While no enthusiast for the
constant attacks on personal freedoms I did begin to think a decibel limit on
yapping might be a good idea.