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News and Comment June 2023

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29 June - A breath of fresh air?

At the Places Scrutiny meeting held at the end of April we learned that Cabinet Member Craske had authorised the imposition of yet more taxes on Bexley’s residents, this time in the shape of restrictions on the number of permitted visits to recycling centres and the imposition of charges on the deposit of DIY building materials from 1st July.

Conservative Councillors Bacon, Brooks, Smith and Slaughter challenged him, the first challenge of a Cabinet decision for very many years. (Labour Councillors are not allowed to challenge decisions. Imagine that. The official opposition is not allowed to seriously oppose.)

Since then Councillor Craske has gone: could there be a link? and Bexley Council is in serious danger of an outbreak of democracy and honesty - which leaves BiB in a bit of a hole, but never mind, that has to be a good thing.

The limit on the permitted number of visits has gone.

On Tuesday Cabinet Member Richard Diment responded to the Call In (the complaints) by saying that the Government has in mind not allowing local authorities to charge for the disposal of domestic building waste. Should he begin charging on schedule and cancel later or should he give up on the idea? The cash grab would be worth around £100,000 a year and reduce the general level of taxation on residents. Maybe I should rephrase that. The tax on DIYers might save one tenth of a percentage point on the Council Tax rate, except that this high taxing Conservative Council (highest in Tory London) will increase it by the maximum permissible amount anyway.

The decision on whether to cancel the charge or not is to be taken imminently, presumably by Saturday.

Councillor June Slaughter asked how staff will check for residency as delays will make the queues even longer. Queues “back up on to Maidstone Road by quite some distance”. According to Councillor Cameron Smith, Thames Road can be a big problem too and may merit a booking system.

“How will the contents of bags be checked?” The Government makes “nonsense decisions” - and so say all of us!

The Council Officer said that everything is down to the new Cabinet Member because Craske’s decision is invalid by virtue of being called in. Oh, the well deserved ignominy! Residency would be checked electronically and take ten to fifteen seconds. The old permit system will no longer be allowed because of the abuse it suffered.

The Cabinet Member said his priority is to minimise delays and if the queue extended on to the road “traffic would just be waved in”. A booking system would require capital expenditure and the experience of other Councils is that it is not efficient. “We want to be No. 1 recycler again”.

Note: In order to schedule available time efficiently and provide for the technical requirement to always have a blog on the first of the month, other subjects discussed at the Places Scrutiny meeting are already on line.

 

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