After the Leader told us
how well Bexley had done in 2023 and her
toy-boy
told us the borough was deep in the financial doo-doo the Labour Leader threw
his spanner in the shape of a budget Amendment. The next part of the Council
meeting then became difficult to follow as the Amendment is not available to
webcast viewers who consequently have little idea what the Tory spanners are complaining about.
Fortunately the Labour Leader sent me a copy before I had time to ask, along with
a whole load of comment.
(PDF includes Amendment.) Possibly the most important part of the Amendment is that BexleyCo should spend £2·7 million and more
on affordable housing but the Conservative Councillors stood up one by one to decry the Amendment
and that idea. Most did so by reading from a pre-prepared script on an Amendment
that had been put before them only a few minutes earlier. It is a pity that
their crystal balls were not available ten years ago.
Labour comment…
The Amendment moved by Labour Councillors but voted against by every
Conservative councillor, would have provided £3·546 of payments provided by developers
to be given to the council’s development company BexleyCo to
assist them building more affordable housing and investigate building more
affordable rented properties on their developments.
Over the weekend BiB will provide the names of every Tory Councillor who spoke against more affordable accommodation together
with a summary of their reasons. Perhaps they will make more sense than when I
listened live without the benefit of knowing what the Amendment said.
When Bexley Conservatives inevitably create a song and dance about Labour voting
against their budget, Labour may be able to say that the Tories voted in favour of maximising homelessness.
That’s it for today. Too many other things to do but not all work. The last time I was in a Bexley pub (The Morgan doesn’t count) was during a brief break in the Covid nonsense when a local polito detected, during a phone call, that I was thoroughly fed up with the nonsense inflicted upon us and suggested that a few beers might help. History will repeat itself this afternoon. The problem with these people is that they never say anything really interesting.