23 December - Just a trifle? In the park and in the Budget
Almost two months ago @tonyofsidcup famously won his battle with Bexley Council after
a Judge
ruled that his FOIs were not vexatious and were performing a public service when reported here.
However it did not cover an Appeal against a refusal to answer which was at that
time lodged with the Information Commissioner.
The latter was an enquiry about the contract placed by Bexley Council with a company
called City Events which turned out to be a bit of a fly by night. Not long
established and and not lasting very long.
@tony smelled a
nepotistic rat although I had been given assurances that that was without foundation.
City Events had been contracted in something of a rush
to
run the Party in the Park which was intended to thank the Covid volunteers. Now that the
Information Commissioner has ruled in @tony’s favour, Bexley Council has been forced to release the correspondence file.
Maybe @tony has spotted something that I have missed but it looks to me that
just over three weeks to fix up a party in the park only confirms that there was
an element of lastminute.com about it and the worst that can be levelled at Bexley
Council is that they should have got their act together sooner and dallying may have impacted on value for money.
Once again one must wonder why Bexley Council’s reaction to most things is to
attempt to hide the facts. To that end @tony provides a useful service.
(Note: I subsequently noticed that I had been misled by the emails not being
filed chronologically. The earliest supplied is dated 1st June and clearly not
the first. The last was dated 5th July, a month before the date of the Party.
‘Just over three weeks to fix up a party’ becomes five. If what @tony has
uncovered is the whole story it might be a storm in a teacup but how did City
Events get to know about the party? One can only guess.)
He had a minor success with another enquiry too. As the parent of a young child
he took far more interest in the contraction of the Children’s Centres which was
planned to save £396,000 than I did.
The decision was eventually
confirmed in September 2021 after
Cabinet debated the issue at length. There was
a question in Council on the same subject in November 2022.
Thanks to @tony’s FOI we now know how much Bexley Council has been spending on
Children’s Centres. £464,000 in 2019/20. £484,000 in 2020/21 and £342,000,
£359,000 and £363,000 in subsequent years.
One might therefore deduce that the cut backs in 2022 saved around £100,000 a year,
somewhat short of the near £400,000 which Councillor Perfect (Labour, Northumberland Heath)
queried in 2021. Press Release. (PDF)
However the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services has said this is not
comparing like for like because the services provided to the very youngest - one
and two year olds - has been massively improved and because the service now
concentrates on the most deprived areas.