15 May - ‘V’ for vexatious, vindictive, vendetta
As we move towards crunch time I cannot help but compare the allegedly vexatious Dimitri
Shvorob with the late Michael Barnbrook who earned himself the same accolade
from Bexley Council. Both knocked up more than 100 FOI requests, Dimitri single
handedly while Mick did so over a much longer period while allowing himself to
be an FOI funnel for five of his supporters.
Both gentlemen planned petitions which might embarrass Bexley and both were derailed by
the Council’s unprincipled political maneuverings - an outright lie in Mick’s case.
Perhaps their worst ‘sin’ of all is that both put themselves forward for election as
Councillors, twice in Mick’s case and once coming within a literal handful of
votes short of success. Standing against a Conservative candidate is sure to reap retribution.
Allotment campaigner Rita Grootendorst
(Tory Bexley wanted to get rid of allotments) did it in Erith in 2010
and her 500 odd votes was easily enough to allow the Labour candidate to slip
through and deprive the Tory Mayor of his seat. Unforgiveable!
Rita
was mercilessly pursued for her unorthodox gardening ideas despite them winning her
an
Award from The Royal Horticultural Society. Undeterred Bexley Council went down the legal route, first getting
their
mates from Arnsberg Way to arrest her and then seeing Rita in the
Magistrate’s Court under Section 215 of the Town and Country Planning Act. Bexley Council lost
and as far as I know they gave up on being the nasty vindictive tyrants that too many of their employees are.
There are not many avenues through which to hit back at out of control authorities.
There is the Information Commissioner, the Local Government Ombudsman and the
Independent Office for Police Conduct or whatever they are calling themselves
this week. (They have a record of changing their name every time their reputation is trashed by yet another scandal.)
My experience of the three of them is not very great - in both senses of the word. The [then] IPCC
refused to look into Bexley police conniving with the CPS and Bexley Council in
order to “resolve Councillor Craske’s situationְ”
as they described his arrest. The IPCC reply was not so much as a refusal to
investigate as a meandering mess that simply failed
to comment on it. To this day I remain convinced that Craske was not charged
with the criminality traced to his phone line because Boris Johnson, Mayor and
Police Commissioner at the time, had given the order to de-arrest him; but we will never know for sure.
I think I only complained to the Local Government Ombudsman once and that was over the Council Leader
reporting me to the police for ֧“criticising Councillors”. The LGO rejected my
complaint on grounds which might be summarised as “any nut job can make a
malicious report to the police and it is for the police to sift the wheat from
the chaff”. I suppose in a way they were right.
I have no clear recollection of my few brushes with the ICO apart from them always
coming up with some cock and bull story to excuse their friends in Council but
Mick Barnbrook’s complaining about his vexatious label is easier to recall. The ICO upheld his FOI
ban because he was a racist who had made enquiries about a black Monitoring
Officer who had found the inquisition stressful. History showed that Mick’s
suspicions were correct. The racist allegations could only have come from Bexley
Council still angry that Mick very nearly defeated Steven Hall as a BNP
candidate. Mick was no racist and joined the BNP in pre-UKIP
days because it was the only anti-EU party.
It takes a long time for officialdom to construct a waterproof tissue of lies to
build against a resident who has incurred their displeasure. The fact that I am
still awaiting the ICO report from Dimitri - assuming he is still speaking
to me after various implied criticisms - is probably not a good omen. Senior
Council staff are nothing if not dishonest; they have to be
to cover for their incompetence.