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News and Comment April 2024

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18 April (Part 3) - When in a hole, buy a bigger spade

Bexley Council will do whatever is necessary and go to extraordinary lengths to avoid scrutiny. They definitely don’t like direct questions and asking too many will result in retribution.

I was threatened with the vexatious tag when asking just once why a bus lane was installed which was not compliant with the legal requirements. In 2011 a pressure group known as NoToMob was labelled vexatious for exposing the fact that Bexley Council was operating mobile CCTV without obtaining the necessary DfT certification.

Michael Barnbrook was labelled vexatious for asking why the Monitoring Officer was neither a solicitor nor a barrister as required by his contract of employment. When Michael complained to the Information Commissioner the Council gained their support by implying that Mick was a racist. The Monitoring Officer was a black man.

Bexley Council used to be thoroughly dishonest and occasionally they try to convince us that it still is. The same old question dodging stunts are being pulled again and this time their victim is @tonyofsidcup. (You can find his real name easily enough but he asked that I avoid using it whenever possible.)

Currently he has a complaint with the Information Commissioner because all his FOI requests are turned away and the little I have seen of their interim response suggests the ICO is not unsympathetic. Bexley Council will be working overtime to find a way to mislead the Commissioner.

Meanwhile the incompetents and overpaid ne’re do wells in Bexley have dusted off another of their old tricks. Refusing to allow a resident to ask a public question at Full Council.

The answer to @tony’s question about ULEZ is arguably already known or at least easily guessed. The work of the ULEZ Task and Finish Group was in my opinion overtaken by events but that was never formally announced. Indeed Bexley Council denied it ever existed - but it did. @tony was looking for an official response. Why Bexley Council cannot just answer him in a single sentence I do not know, but they have always preferred confrontation. Given the calibre of their management both elected and otherwise one should perhaps not be surprised.

The other question was about a caterIng contract awarded in 2021 which bypassed the tendering process. Bexley Council did not want to admit what went on at the time and certainly doesn’t want to find an answer now. My guess is that it was a monumental cock-up but @tony harbours the suspicion that nepotism was involved. 2024 is well past the date of the alleged skullduggery but the rules on public questions do not prohibit digging up the past.

By refusing the question Bexley Council effectively confirms that they may be either incompetent or crooked but they are gambling that a scandal free webcast and website is preferable to the truth.

 

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