31 October - Labour stooge?

I used to be called a Labour stooge by one of the less intelligent Conservative Councillors who could never recognise that if he interpreted a factual report on their activities as being critical it was more a reflection on their performance than my political leanings.

I am pretty sure that at one point I said that if Labour ever gained power in Bexley the boot would be very much on the other foot. Labour would be similarly criticised.

Labour Councillors have almost without exception regarded me with a certain amount of suspicion and they are right to do so. I regarded them with suspicion too. Former Councillor Daniel Francis told me long ago that Bonkers was one third conspiracy theory and one third totally wrong and 20 odd years ago he took the Council’s side when I put in a complaint about Bexley Council. It may have been when they said I was racist for questioning the multi-lingual signs which adorned Lesnes Abbey Park at the time. (†)

The uncomfortable feeling engendered by both incidents never quite went away.

My other Councillor Sally Hinkley could not have been nicer or more generous on many occasions but Danny Hackett (my third Councillor at the time) sent me his correspondence file with the Labour whip, the aforesaid Sally, and I could barely believe what I was reading.

That uncomfortable feeling never completely went away either.

And now we have both of them in Parliament (MP and assistant) fully supportive of the worst Government in living memory with corruption and skullduggery in plain sight. It is impossible to be anything other than despairing that any rational person can think we are living under anything other than a thoroughly nasty regime. From killing old people to banging up innocents for spreading ‘misinformation’ which we now know to be true.

I have given up on trying to maintain any relationship with either and presumably the reverse is true. Not a word of support when the Reform UK candidate demanded money with menaces.

Today my erstwhile Councillor is claiming credit for increasing the Minimum Wage; something for which the Government provides not one penny. One way or another it is us who will pay.

And talking of pennies, if the pubs pass on the reduction in beer duty - which they won’t - I might now save something like 70 pence a year at most.

They take us for fools.

† Checked the file. It was. October 2001.

 

29 October - The best of Labour

I am probably not alone in finding it near impossible to hold any Labour politician in high regard. One might have thought that 14 years in opposition was ample time to produce a fully costed plan on every aspect of British life but there is no sign that was done despite what they claimed before July 4th. Since then nothing but lies, malpractice, misjudgment, bad decisions and profligacy all topped up with a fair dollop of corruption and occasional treachery.

Even those such as I who lived through Labour in the 1960s and 1970s who warned that another Labour Government would be a disaster have never seen anything like Starmer’s first 117 days which have seen him relegated 40 odd points on the popularity scale. And that is before tomorrow’s budget. Even Labour Chancellor Denis - tax ‘em till the pips squeak - Healey who broke the country in 1976 and had to call in the International Monetary Fund is a mere amateur country wrecker compared to what Rachel from Accounts has been threatening.

With views like that it is perhaps unsurprising that very few of Bexley’s Labour Councillors have ever spoken to me but there has always been one exception who will greet me like an old friend and send friendly emails from time to time.

It is more than three months now since Reform UK’s General Election candidate in Old Bexley wrote to me via her solicitor that I must pay her £4,800 within fewer than two weeks to compensate her for my election coverage and demanding the removal of every reference to her on BiB over the past eight years or so.

Somewhat shocked and maybe a little panicky I let those Councillors who had shown friendliness towards me, anything from regular phone calls to a hand shake in the Council Chamber, know what was going on in the hope that I would at least get some sympathy if not a little advice.

On the Labour side the numbers involved were few; the Leader Stefano Borella and my own ward Councillors Daniel Francis and Sally Hinkley. Stefano came back quite quickly with some of his past experiences with the aforesaid General Election candidate and more recently, all of which must necessarily remain confidential except perhaps “happy to offer support”.

From my own Councillors - one now elevated to Parliamentary grandeur - there has been total silence which perhaps illustrates the real level of concern they have for residents. I suppose I should not be surprised that someone who votes in support of an estimated (their estimate!) 4,000 elderly people dying of hypothermia cares little for anyone else either. And the same presumably goes for his office support worker too.

Stefano stands head and shoulders above the lot of them.

I wrote similarly to a handful of Conservative Councillors. Were they any better?

 

28 October - Some you win and some you don’t

I asked @tonyofsidcup if the police had charged a suspect over the hammer throwing incident yet and whether his legal challenge to the vexatious label imposed by Kate Bonham is going to be successful.

There is still a serious technical problem here which is inhibiting blogging but there will soon be an update on both issues.

At times I wasn’t wholly supportive of @tony’s FOI requests as he was averaging just over one a week which have to be paid for. On the other hand he came up with information which Bexley Council would rather you didn’t know and with the local press having largely given up on politics how else will we keep tabs on what Bexley Council is doing?

For now I have cobbled together an Index to his requests this year and last. Quite a long list but was the Council Leader right to so publicly attempt humiliation at a Full Council meeting?

 

27 October - Believe it if you like

There are some technical problems here so there may not be much new for a few days but meanwhile a tiny bit of good news from the recent Adults’ Services Scrutiny meeting. It is easier to get a doctor’s appointment in Bexley than in any other of the six South East London boroughs but there is still a significant backlog on GP tests, blood, diabetes etc. Bexley doctors are providing the highest number of Face to Face appointments too. (All statistics relative to population.)

“Things are not perfect but they are improving.” Labour Councillor Wendy Perfect agreed that they were, things work well except perhaps for digitally deprived patients.

I have no experience of getting hold of a GP; not tried to see one for very nearly five years but my sister in Hampshire is constantly reporting horror stories to me. As a volunteer escorting vulnerable people to rural medical facilities, maybe she sees more difficult cases than most of us.

Councillor Lucia-Hennis (Crayford) said more than half of her doctor’s patients don’t live on Bexley. Her family doctor is in Dartford and because of that no one would come out to take a blood test when Mr. LH was unable to leave home. No solution was offered.

 

26 October - The battle rages on

The notorious rat run to the A2 known as County Gate has featured on BiB occasionally ever since 2011 when the Labour activist now known as @Sidcup4RemainSafe (dressed in yellow) posed for my camera on the evening she presented a petition to Bexley Council sponsored by former Labour Councillor Munir Malik.

This was of course long before she decided that my reporting on her activities was a matter for legal challenge.

On the evening in question (June 2011) the petitioner was not allowed to speak but Councillor Craske who was Cabinet Member for Public Realm (now called Neighbourhoods) gave his excuses. He said that he’d been pushing for a resolution of the County Gate problem since 2006 and actually got as far as hiring the contractors but was thwarted just 24 hours before work was due to commence by legal action from an uncooperative Greenwich Council. They invoked the GLA Act.

Councillor Craske went on to say that a major impediment was a Greenwich Councillor who lived in the next road who didn’t want to see traffic displaced in his direction. Having achieved very little the protesters showed up again in September 2011 but the Conservatives offered up the same old excuses. Inaction was Labour’s fault in both boroughs.

A year later history pretty much repeated itself with the petitioners back in the Council Chamber and in the News Shopper.

And again in 2013 when Councillor Craske’s blaming of Greenwich ended up in the News Shopper again. That was the meeting when it first became clear that Greenwich was taking revenge action against Bexley by displacing its Eltham parking problem into Falconwood (Bexley). Bexley threatened to use the GLA Act against them but the coming of a Labour Mayor ensured that Labour Greenwich won that battle.

The County Gate rat run was kicked into the long grass until Longlands Councillor Lisa Moore took up the cudgels in November 2021. Councillor Craske said he would write to Sadiq Khan pointing out that the County Gate solution had cross party support in Bexley. And then there was silence for almost three years but earlier this month Bexley Council consulted on effectively blocking County Gate.

Greenwich Council doesn’t like it.

Forgive me if I find Matt and Roger’s response to be verging on the pathetic. “We continue to urge both Councils to work together to come up with a solution that works for everyone.”

Yeah right! As if no one has been trying since 2006. Surely two Conservative Councillors on Greenwich Council will know better than most how intransigent and generally dreadful Greenwich Council is?

Index to County Gate references - some of them vey minor.

 

25 October - Bexley’s autism strategy

Yesterday was spent in a household including three young children, all cousins twice removed if you are into that sort of thing, and the not quite three year old ran around like a lunatic all day without speaking to anyone. After losing an argument with his six year old sister over which TV programme should be watched, he settled it by throwing his toys at the screen hard enough to crack it. (Really; this is not invented!)

When I got home I discovered that the 40 minute long Cabinet meeting devoted most of its time to Autism. It did make me wonder but fortunately not my problem - or Bexley’s.

As is Bexley Council’s way, they have recently been busy studying a Mencap survey from which yet another Strategy has been created. The total responses numbered a disappointing 120, more than 80 from Unpaid Carers and only 18 from the affected persons.

Anyone with an interest in Autism should take a look at the data collected (PDF) and not rely on this brief summary of what Councillors and staff had to say about it.

It is not the first such Strategy, the first was in 2017 but the new one devotes attention to children and young people which the previous one did not. 4,089 Autism sufferers are registered with Bexley GPs but others self-identify as autistic without a formal diagnosis.

Cabinet Member Cafer Munur (Place Shaping) said the Strategy was “rather excellent” and particularly pleased at the plans to get affected people into work. Cabinet Member Melvyn Seymour (Adults’ Services) was similarly effusive.

Councillor Esther Amaning (Labour, Belvedere) said that survey respondents represented only 2% of those registered; why was the take up so low and went on to allege that early intervention is still not early enough. The lengthy reply did not answer any specific question but Cabinet Member Seymour offered a guarantee that all the Councillors concerns would be addressed.

From various respected sources I am informed that Cabinet Member Seymour is conscientious and determined and without going into details I spoke to him recently for the first time ever and formed the same impression.

Councillor Chris Ball (Labour, Erith) said that seven to eight percent of Autism sufferers have learning difficulties too and males outnumber females. What is being done to help them? Answer: With help from Mencap there is a range of groups in the borough which are specifically engaged in “reaching out” to all varieties of sufferers and it was known that “women are very good at masking Autism”. There is a group for young girls.

Cabinet Member Seymour said no one is being forgotten.

The Cabinet approved the revised Strategy.

 

23 October - Preparing for a healthy Winter

The Adults’ Scrutiny meeting held a week ago was Chaired by Councillor Janice Ward-Wilson who introduced herself and explained the purpose of the meeting in a manner that more experienced Chairmen would do well to emulate. At last a Chair that considers the inexpert audience who may know nothing of acronyms.

The subject was ‘Winter Resilience Planning’.

Bexley is served by three hospitals, Greenwich, Woolwich and Darenth Valley which had not bothered to send a representative to the meeting. There are not enough District Nurses in and around Bexley to meet a rising demand - so another review has been called for. Bed capacity is always inadequate as is ED capacity (so much for no acronyms) and “exacerbated in Winter”. The cyber attack on primary care services continues to be “a challenge”.

Councillor Geraldene Lucia-Hennis representing Crayford the nearest ward to the Darenth Valley hospital was disappointed by their absence. The hospital had taken on another 60,000 potential patients from Ebbsfleet and beyond but has not been able to handle what it had during the Summer let alone even more in Winter. However the hospital at a meeting held 24 hours before the Scrutiny meeting was optimistic that everything will be OK despite the average A&E wait being 14 hours.

Councillor L-H was concerned that Darenth Valley would “not be able to cope at all”. The medical representative said that all three local hospitals have already seen Winter pressure put them at “high risk”.

Councillor Lisa Moore (Conservative, Longlands) said “bed occupancy runs just a smidgen under 100% in Winter. What is the target and what stops you achieving it?” The answer was that “the capacity target nationally is eighty something”. There were several references to “virtual wards” but despite the Chairman’s initial plea about jargon, no explanation was forthcoming.

Councillor Peter Craske asked the Cabinet Member if the hospitals were prepared for the likely influx of admissions resulting from the abolition of the Winter Fuel Allowance. Councillor Seymour said about 34,000 Bexley residents will be deprived of the allowance and if they cannot heat their homes there will be extra demand on hospitals but he is looking at mitigation. There should be an announcement at the next Full Council meeting.

Councillor Wendy Perfect (Labour, Northumberland Heath) was brave enough to admit that she didn’t know what a virtual ward was. It turns out it is acute care patients stuck at home in their own bed with a telephone by its side. She told a story of her own experience at Darenth Valley Hospital where she gave up and went to Urgent Care in Erith.

Councillor Perfect then said the NHS had undergone sustained underfunding for the past 14 years having presumably not noticed that more money has been put into the NHS every single year. £131 billion in 2010 and £185 billion last year. Councillor Seymour said that expenditure was at unprecedented levels and greater than the entire GDP of Greece but accepted that there is waste and poor procurement practices. And population growth of course.

There was then a short pause to allow for the Labour Councillors’ contribution to the debate. Jeering.

Councillor Peter Reader (Conservative, West Heath) said the Agenda referred to DOCCLA. What is it? Answer: A tool used to monitor Virtual Beds and the frail elderly don’t like it.

Note: On a personal note I have seen the inside of Queen Elizabeth Hospital recently more often than I would like but cannot find anything which merits criticism. If you can grab the attention of the NHS they aren’t always too bad. I have not seen a GP for very nearly five years. No longer sure how one goes about doing so.

 

22 October - Housing. Targets versus reality

Places Scrutiny naturally includes housing, a subject that the Chairman forecast is going to be with us “for the next few years”.

Councillor June Slaughter (Conservative, Sidcup) was concerned about the possibility of the new Government trampling over the Green Belt. Even the “scruffier” parts of it form an “important buffer between suburbia and beyond. The Green Belt Review is a worry”. Planning decisions being taken away from Local Authorities is another concern, “Developments should be local plan led.”

She very strongly supported Bexley’s response to the Review. The Cabinet Member took the same view. Planning needs to stay local.

Councillor John Davey (Conservative, West Heath) said that his colleagues were absolutely right and we want our residents to move into beautiful houses. (Angela Rayner said that was not a requirement only three weeks after her election.)

He said that a lot of Bexley was Metropolitan Open Land. How will that be treated? Answer: We don’t know yet but it may be in jeopardy.

Councillor Mabel Ogundayo (Labour, Thamesmead East) was much more optimistic about building wherever possible. It might be better to build on the smaller sites and it should be encouraged. The houses do not have to be poor quality and Green Belt is not always beautiful. Much of Peabody owned Thamesmead is MOL and we should avoid being NIMBY.

Cabinet Member Cafer Munur said that Bexley had always been open for business so the changes may not make a lot of difference. It is up to developers to make their approaches.

Councillor Cheryl Bacon did not share Mabel’s optimism for the “Government’s new and wonderful planning policy framework”. It puts numbers before need and it has inherent problems within it. We need to build more houses but we must consider the demographic but the Policy is one of numbers and only pays lip service to local requirements. “It is a set up for failure.”

Councillor Munur agreed that a formula for housing numbers is not the right way to be going.

The 29 year old Chairman said that within his lifetime average house prices had gone from three times average salaries to twelve times. Building “Small and Tall” does not get anywhere near meeting Bexley’s housing needs. Three times as many one bed flats are being built compared to population demand with four bedroom properties underprovided by a factor of four in order to meet targets.

He was told that one bed flats is where developers make their money while “68% of demand is three bed plus”. The Council does its best to fulfil residents’ needs but the law works against us.

The Planning Officer said that some parts of the Government’s plans and assumptions relating to the Green Belt were “hilarious”. A comment from another senior officer was to the effect that the people who are going to make the most money from housing were planning lawyers.

 

21 October - Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence

The plan to produce another Places report went off the rails because of unexpected events so it is trivia for today.

Bexley Council let me know that news of the five new Belvedere Controlled Parking Zones should reach residents some time next month. Local Councillors are being consulted now and then a recommendation will go to the Cabinet Member. Presumably two Councillors will be aware of the commuter parking problem because they toured the area and pushed for a solution 18 months ago. The Cabinet Member took a look as soon as he took on the role a month later.

Our four day old Councillor from Welling is probably clueless but the same would apply whichever candidate was elected last Thursday. Meanwhile two bins in the road has proved to be effective.

Every time I have been to Bexleyheath in the past two weeks I have seen men out cleaning gum from the pedestrianised area. This photo was taken on the 14th October but it was not the first sighting. There were two men working opposite the library but I only got the one on camera because I was getting on a bus and there was no time. I’d seen them in Broadway a few days earlier and today they were by the Clocktower.

The cleanup has been funded by Keep Britain Tidy with a grant of £27,000.

Less Bexley related is news of Abbey Wood station. The Next Train indicator I called for a week after the Elizabeth line opened has - according to Murky Depths - been belatedly installed.

It definitely wasn’t there last Thursday as I was one of a party of three which spent a few seconds working out which train was due out next and on Saturday I did the same, albeit by myself, but with the concourse indicators telling me the train on Platform 4 was due out in two minutes, it is possible i failed to see the enormous big sign as I descended the stairs, but I doubt it.

There needs to be one by the escalator and the west end bridge too.

Nothing to do with Bexley but wasting a couple of hours was a banking tussle. My only credit card which I can trace back to 2008 expires next week. I thought I would enquire about the replacement not turning up. I found the bank no longer has a phone number. App only. I had the App on my phone but it told me that it needed to be updated, I did that but it then said it couldn’t be registered. Tried again - same thing.

I tried the web page Chat on a PC but the Artificial Intelligence was useless. It eventually asked if I would like to chat to a human called Megan. Megan took five minutes to wake up and was just as useless as the AI; so I gave up. MBNA (now part of Lloyds) has already lost quite a lot of my business because I have had to use my Debit Card for so called ‘pre-orders’ due for payment in November and later.

The ongoing losses will be very much higher. I found my current account provider was still happy to talk on the phone when necessary although I actually signed up for the CC over the web. Easy.

I am not a total technology duffer but if companies expect me to use it with no alternative available in the event of a failure; then stuff ’em. So that’s Amazon, Royal Mail and MBNA all on the boycott list within about a month! Who’s next?

Bexley Council said a couple of weeks ago it was going to move more into the realms of AI. God help us.

 

20 October - Libraries not to be shelved

Next to be subjected to a Bexley Council Strategy at the Places Scrutiny meeting was Libraries. I think the first Councillor to question it was Anna Day (Labour) but I could be wrong. The audio feed failed momentarily as Chairman Cameron Smith introduced the speaker, the webcast Indexing had failed totally and since not attending meetings in person my voice recognition skills are not what they were.

Councillor Day, if it was she, wanted to know what data would be collected from the proposed user survey. She thought it should go beyond age and postcode and include at least ethnicity, sex and housing status.

She was told that the survey allowed the optional inclusion of such detail.

The distinctively voiced Councillor John Davey (Conservative, West Heath) said the survey asked six questions with sub-sections, one with 14 of them all of which he thought were similarly important. It might be helpful if respondents were asked to indicate their top three priorities.

He queried how any survey could reach library users and non-users alike.

The Council Officer said she would take the ‘top three’ suggestion on board and the survey would be publicised on various social media platforms. Councillor Ogundayo (Labour, Thamesmead East) thought a free text response should be considered. Another good idea to be adopted.

Councillor Rags Sandhu (Conservative, Bexleyheath) was concerned for residents for whom English was not their first language. (About a third of them in the Northern wards.)

Councillor James Hunt (Conservative, Blackfen & Lamorbey) suggested that simply using Ask Bexley may not be enough and were the Community Libraries to be included? Blackfen Library for example was already very much a Community Hub. He was told that the Council is talking to their library partners and will build on their success.

Councillor Cheryl Bacon (Conservative, Sidcup) suggested that the survey should give more information about the services on offer as non-users would not be aware of the wide range of possibilities.

Councillor Brian Bishop (Conservative, Barnehurst) who presumably chaired the Strategy Committee - the report does not say - thanked everyone for their suggestions.

 

19 October - The Glee Club

Taking a day off from blogging I found myself sitting in the Directors’ Box of a Rugby Football Club. A long story but not bad for someone who only knows the most basic of rugby rules. Hard seats so not a Starmer standard of freebie. On the other hand I am probably less a fish out of water at a freebie rugby match than the Prime Minister is at a freebie Taylor Swift concert.

Speaking of which - an obscure in joke there which few will understand - the mobile beeped and this image arrived to spoil my day.

The recent comment to the effect that those I used to believe were mainly decent but misguided people are now endorsing if not rejoicing at the prospect of poor people possibly dying of hypothermia, not to mention the likelihood of everyone being taxed into total penury on the 30th, had provoked a mischievous friend into sending me a photo of them celebrating such a doom laden future.

Two MPs, two former Bexley Labour Leaders, four current Bexley Councillors, someone who was thrown out of the Co-operative Society for fibbing and an activist who threatened to sue me if I ever mentioned her name.

Who needs the sort of friend who tries to ruin my day?

Should I take comfort from the fact that Stef and Sally are not among this group?

 

18 October (Part 2) - Business up - except in Erith

The Places webcast began with Councillor James Hunt pontificating on footfall in shopping centres but this was yet another technical problem. Whilst the recording was the same the following morning it has been subsequently corrected up to a point; it still lacks the on-line indexing.

The first subject for discussion was the Business Improvement Districts. The Council has looked again at the BID Strategy written in 2019. Councillor Cheryl Bacon (Conservative, Sidcup) said that shop vacancies were high and so was footfall. The latter appeared to be “incredible”; how confident were managers in the statistics?

Vacancies come from a manual shop front count every six months. Footfall is a best estimate based on mobile phone data. Shoppers are no longer counted by sensors but phones are tracked and the trend is upwards. Spend data has been requested from the GLA but it “has fallen on deaf ears”.

Councillor June Slaughter (Conservative, Sidcup) was also “surprised by the rosy picture”. It has been a difficult time for High Streets, Covid, the financial situation, on-line shopping and the High Streets now look very different to a few years ago. Many more eating places.

Parking is a big disincentive to shopping in Sidcup. The spaces are mainly reserved for residents. Councillor Slaughter was disappointed that Sidcup BID had complained about communications with Councillors. She was not sure what more Councillors could possibly do.

The Sidcup BID manager was clearly perplexed by the comment. It may have appeared in the report but she disowned it.

Councillor Philip Read said that coffee shops are all very well but “they are peripheral” and not what attracts footfall; that is down to proper shops - the anchor tenants - attracting people who want to buy.

In Erith the decline began when a Labour administration in the 1960s replaced the traditional shopping centre with “a concrete monstrosity that nobody but them liked”. Restricting road access had done nothing to help either. Many residents have decided that it is easier to go elsewhere. Without improved access Erith will fall further from favour. The strategy is disappointing for Erith which needs constructive thinking. It was not a poor relation before it was razed to the ground.

The responsible Council Officer dithered and blustered but the Cabinet Member was less reticent. Cafer Munur said that there was no money available to fix Erith’s problems.

Philip Read was clearly disappointed. The closure of Avenue Road ensures that the bulk of local residents who should be able to drive to the shopping centre in five minutes now find it quicker to go to Bexleyheath.

Councillor John Davey took a similar view. “Tinkering around the edges will be a failure.”

After 23 minutes the revised webcast returned to Councillor Hunt who was being sceptical about the mobile phone data. In Sidcup large numbers of phone owners use the railway station without spending any money and in Bexleyheath huge numbers of school children swarm through the shopping centre every weekday. What is the the effect on footfall data?

The Council Officer resorted to bluster again. The numbers cannot be split off but “some of the schoolchildren will be spending”. The BID manager confirmed that some do. HMV and snacking are attractive to them.

The new M&S Food Store in Sidcup has reported that trade is more than 20% above expectations but Council Licensing fees are a serious disincentive to running events. Market traders and the events arrangers have simply given up and gone away. Bexley Council has not responded to any question on the subject.

The BID Strategy referred to Nuxley Village, a term which annoys every Bexley purist because the place doesn’t exist and Councillor Read rightly wanted to ensure that the Council does not give the term an official blessing.

This is what he had to say…

Barely audible interruption from Councillor Bacon removed.

Note: Somewhere on BIB I am on record as saying that I only shopped in Bexleyheath once a year - for last minute Christmas presents. Now I am there once a week at least and the reason is two fold. A much quicker bus service and a decision to use Amazon as little as possible. 200 orders and many more items last year, four so far in 2024.

 

18 October (Part 1) - Business as usual

I had to stay awake until 12:15 this morning to see the result of yesterday’s election in Belvedere. It was as my Councillor friends had predicted. The unpopularity of the Conservatives in the North of the borough outweighed the unpopularity of Labour nationally. And as reported by Bexley Council, 34% of my neighbours don’t speak English as their first langauage.

I now have at least two Councillors and an MP who would be content to see me freeze to death in the coming months. Some might say who can blame them.

As a result of the late night I was up and around later than usual this morning and found that the dustmen and the parker who blocks my neighbour’s drive had already been and gone.

The election result was Labour 862 votes, Conservative 713, Reform UK 378, Green 157 and Lib Dems 127. Turnout 18·5%. 2,237 voters of which almost exactly one third voted by post.

The Conservatives did rather better in Eltham where they beat Labour 48·8% to 31·5% of the vote.

 

17 October - Polling Day in Belvedere

I normally vote before 9 a.m. because the Polling Station is literally next door to me in a westerly direction but today was different. There were too many things to fit into a crowded schedule. While it was still dark outside I began listening to last night’s Adults’ Scrutiny meeting. Towards the end there was a bit of politicking; Councillor Wendy Perfect (Labour) referred to the overspends and said “we can’t go on like that. Something has gotta give, we’re gonna run out of money"”

Cabinet Member Melvyn Seymour said Wendy’s figure for the overspend was wrong, it was not £6·83 million it was £2·642. “We must hope that the Funding Review is fair but you are right all budgets are under pressure. Increasing numbers of residents are requiring our services.” He hoped “the new Government will get a grip. We are the lowest recipient of health care [funds] in London and fourth lowest in the whole country. We manage our budgets very well. Now is your chance to lobby your Government. Money is there for train drivers and from taking it away from pensioners”. This provoked loud but largely unintelligible shouting from the Socialists opposite.

The Cabinet Member said the Government had choices to make and their decision was to rob pensioners of their Winter Fuel Allowance. I heard “thousands of pensioners would lose it” before a number of Labour voices drowned him out and the Chairman called for order.

Personally I cannot get my head around the fact that Labour Councillors who I once rewarded as normal decent human beings are clamouring for many fellow residents to freeze to death. Few will be able to look at them in the same way again.

I returned home around 1:30 to find two Conservative leaflets poked through my letter box so after 20 minutes or so I went out to vote against Labour’s inexperienced candidate who has the misfortune to be standing for election immediately after the disaster which has been Labour’s first 100 days. Nothing but lies and broken promises.

A formal report on that meeting is several days away.

Note: I am going to exclude Leader Stefano Borella from my list of Labour disappointments because I have not heard him supporting freezing pensioners - and I still think he is among the friendliest of Councillors.

Taking up a little of today was this van. There has been a problem with clapped out vans clogging local roads for the past couple of years. There is one parked on the pavement outside my house right now. I doubt they ever pay the fines, there are so many PCNs it would bankrupt the owners.

Another was added to the fleet yesterday and it immediately attracted my attention because the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice is based in Farnham, Surrey and the 01252 telephone code is etched in my memory because it was once part of my own number.

More to the point, my sister is a volunteer there.

When the van was still there this morning I called her to ask why one of her vans was in far away Belvedere. She called the charity boss and he called me around mid-day.

The van had been condemned and sold to a scrap merchant who said he would strip the engine for spares and crush what was left.

Clearly he reneged on the agreement. The charity boss was aware that it had made its way to Belvedere because the police had tracked him down via its registration plate. The old van had been involved in a crime and I was told that the engine lost all its oil so it had been pulled into a car park where the crew had been seen draining the sumps of parked vehicles, Then it disappeared.

By a series of lucky chances it has been found again. The charity has informed Bexleyheath police so it is very possible that nothing more will be done about it; stuck in a queue behind Hammergate. The owners won’t be reading this blog because they are not English speakers - I have tried!

If it begins to get tickets for footpath parking Bexley Council may as well not bother.

 

16 October (Part 2) - Expensive children

Councillor Davey (Conservative, West Heath) had chaired a sub-group of the Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee targeted at seeing if the number of EHCPs (Education, Health and Care Plans) could be reduced and maybe eliminate the Dedicated Schools Grant deficit. He briefly spoke of its recommendations and an extract from the written summary may be seen below.

One of the improvements called for is greater involvement of local employers and finding more job coaches.

When listening to Council meetings there is usually something that stands out as interesting and quotable but this particular meeting came across as a muddle with unclear questions and rambling answers. Apart from being able to report that SEND Transport costs are worryingly high and the cost of looking after the most difficult children can be a million each with a bed for a single night hitting £900, nothing of great note came to the surface.

However it did became apparent that Bexley is not immune from children identifying as something their parents didn’t think they were. “Significant numbers and terrifying” according to one Councillor. “Horrifying” according to another.

It should be noted that Bexley only just missed out on an Outstanding Award following its Youth Justice Inspection. The manager who achieved the Good rating is Severine Aare.

 

16 October (Part 1) - For how much longer?

I am not sure how much longer Bexley Council plans to keep Belvedere residents waiting for their Controlled Parking Zones and the much needed yellow lines. Meanwhile someone is trapped most days by inconsiderate commuters. The white Nissan arrived around 7 a.m. this morning, at least I assume so. I just managed to squeeze through the gap (Photo 2) at 7:15.

Next door but one could get out of his drive by shuffling over the pavement (Photo 3) but between us the owner stood no chance at all.

Absolutely acceptable according to the incompetents who manage Bexley Council. It is an offence to park more than 50 centimetres from the kerb but Bexley Council does not enforce that rule, so drivers can park 50 centimetres out from a dropped kerb with impunity. It is blocked just effectively as if the driver parked five centimetres away but no one at Bexley Council is bright enough to see that for themselves.

And who was it that designed the crazy road layout in the first place?

The four badly scuffed wheels suggest that parking more than 50 centimetres from the kerb is not the norm for this driver. Not just inconsiderate but careless too. Unfortunately Bexley’s consultation proposals will not entirely kill this scenario although it will deter commuters. If Bexley ever gets around to implementing the restrictions.

All four wheels buggered.

 

15 October (Part 2) - Cabinet Member reports to Finance Scrutiny meeting

Councillor Leaf is waiting for Rachel Reeves budget and has “sent in a barrage of letters” to various Ministers. He said that Black History Month had been celebrated with speeches, food, singing, dancing and a quiz.

There is a Council Tax Reduction Scheme consultation active until 30th October. The Household Support funding has ended but he wasn’t sure how many had benefited. The removal of the Winter Fuel Allowance is the subject of “added focus” to see how the Council might be able to help.

Councillor Steven Hall asked how many Bexley residents were affected by the withdrawal of WFA and “how can we assist”? Councillor Leaf did not have a precise figure but had done some calculations. For last year it looked like the number eligible was in the region of 38,000 of which all but three to four thousand will lose out this year. He said that canvassing in Belvedere revealed not only the elderly worried about the cut but also younger people worried about their parents. The Council’s ability to help is “limited” and there is no easy way of identifying who have been only just caught by Labour’s cut and who may need assistance.

The £1·5 million household support grant was not intended to cover the loss of WFA but it may be of some help.

Councillor Stefano Borella (Labour Leader) said that withdrawal of the WFA was in the Conservative’s 2017 Manifesto and they had subsequently suggested that it should be means tested but he regretted its withdrawal.

He feared that Bexley Council will reduce the benefits provided by the Council Tax Reduction Scheme; why else would there be a consultation?

Cabinet Member Leaf with his encyclopedic knowledge of political trivia said that the 2017 Manifesto did not promise the withdrawal of WFA (but there was to be a new Social Care formula) and on the contrary, Labour’s 2015 Manifesto promised a cut for wealthier pensioners. A General Election in which Councillor Borella stood as a candidate.

 

15 October (Part 1) - Spot the difference

Another quick trip to Bexleyheath yesterday. Quick because there was just one thing to collect from HMV but also because I don’t want to be subjected to buskers delivering more than 95db of noise in an enclosed space. I have a sound pressure App on my phone - doesn’t everybody? - and it was the same last week. Who licences these ear splitting performances?

The workers had moved on to tinkering with the Highland Road roundabout (Photos 1 and 2) and Townley Road (Photo 3) was finished. I have no idea what has changed from Photo 4 taken on 30th September 2019. Presumably the new grass will soon die off like it did last time Bexley Council spent our money for no very obvious reason.

I have in my files a letter from the Chief Highways Manager which promises a resident who lives barely 100 yards away that he would definitely be restoring the bluebells that grew on the roundabouts before the 2017 reconstruction. Needless to say, he never did. Destroying bluebells is a criminal offence.

Roundabouts: Highland, Highland, new Townley, old Townley.

 

14 October (Part 3) - Bexley Council sets the management bar low

One of my few remaining Council contacts emailed to say that my suggestion that the new Human Resources Manager, Lorraine Barlow might be doing a good job was somewhat wide of the mark. Clearly he read the blog before the name was corrected but the points he made are not rendered entirely invalid although his message has to be tilted in a new direction.

He said that Ms. Barlow has been on the Bexley scene for 20 years working under the hapless - hopeless? - Nick Hollier and is now facing in a very different direction under Kate Bonham. He speculates on why she happily pursued his HR policies and is now seamlessly embarked on a totally new strategy. One might have thought that someone who worked with Nick for such a long time whilst harbouring doubts about the way HR was being managed would have found a more amenable employer.

However there have been lots of reports over the years that Mr. Hollier could be very persuasive and acquired a loyal following in certain quarters.

The latest informant says that £100 plus Long Service Awards were abandoned a long time ago when too many people were qualifying for payment. They were replaced with ‘Stars’. Stars is a name much favoured by Bexley Council. When BiB first started someone provided the link to a hidden staff website called Stars so that I could see what Council management was up to; but that also fell by the wayside.

Apparently former Chief Executive Gill Steward, she of Press Table removal fame, introduced a new Stars scheme which was basically nominate your mate for a lapel badge. It faded away as soon as she did. My correspondent wonders if there might have been no one left in post who was good enough to deserve a badge but I detect an element of facetiousness. None is apparent when he says that the luckiest of those awarded a badge were given a cup of tea and a sandwich too. (†)

As has been said here before, this is children rewarded for attending Sunday School stuff.

How many poor managers are there in Bexley? The Chief Executive himself has a questionable history in Barnet and the oneSource partnership and the Finance Director followed a similar path. How many things has the Highways Manager got wrong? Crossings next to roundabouts, roads narrowed resulting in accidents and roundabouts from Welling to Ruxley via Albion Road which buses cannot get around. And then there is the Director of Children’s Services who has attracted criticism from the LGO to Bexley almost countless times and defends his staff no matter how wrong they are. No wonder the LGO has had a field day.

But now I have to eat humble pie again. Having seen some good in what Ms. Bonham is trying to do, @tonyofsidcup reminds me that it was she, just two months after arriving in Bexley, who decided that making too many FOI requests was vexatious. A decision contrary to law as belatedly confirmed by the Information Commissioner.

One can only conclude that even the better managers at Bexley Council are really not very good at all. I recall that while attending my first Bexley Council meetings I was struck by how poor the managers were compared to those I encountered while working for BT. Their inadequacies will have cost taxpayers a great deal of money. As has been said several times recently, nothing is done right first time.

Kate Bonham declares @tonyofsidcup vexatious.

† Towards the end of my time with BT an awards scheme was introduced. It offered a generous £1,000 but no pin badge. I was on the receiving end in its first year of operation for uncovering a £12,000,000 accounting fraud which no one else had noticed. The scheme soon fell foul of corruption as bosses nominated their mates. (£12 million was the official estimate of the losses. I doubted it was that high but at the most senior level, managers never seem to know anything.)

 

14 October (Part 2) - Panel beating

This extract from the Conservative’s latest by-election leaflet attracted the attention of a long term Police Panel Member. He says that the Panels already exist in every ward and asks why Christine Bishop doesn’t know.

The Panels work alongside the separate Neighbourhood Watch organisation to help the police determine what their priorities should be.

The quarterly meeting sets three objectives, one chosen by the police and two more from Panel Members.

Why didn’t Christine Bishop know that Panels are an existing thing or is it a simple promise easily fulfilled? A bit like Bexley Tories claiming to have fulfilled every Manifesto promise since 2006.

Unfortunately a search of the Belvedere ward police website does not reveal anything interesting. Maybe the Belvedere Panel has gone AWOL and there is a job for Christine to do after all?

 

14 October (Part 1) - Oh B! I got that wrong

A fairly major clanger was dropped within yesterday’s Finance Scrutiny meeting report. I was working from an audio only copy of the webcast and was unsure of who Chairman Dourmoush was addressing. Ms something beginning with B.

Ever since I stopped attending Scrutiny meetings I have tended not to refer to Council Officers by name. Being there makes one familiar with their names and faces and the webcast makes them comparative strangers. Safer to not identify them by name. However since I was about to issue rare praise naming the speaker was appropriate and fair so I went to the Agenda to see who had written the People Strategy report. It said that the Contact Officer was Lorraine Barlow Head of Corporate HR. Ah, something beginning with B as the Chairman was saying. It must be her.

Wrong. Having checked the webcast again I discovered that the lady speaking on HR matters at the meeting was Kate Bonham, Deputy Director of HR. Yesterdayְ’s report has been amended.

 

13 October (Part 3) - Reform UK delivers their by-election leaflet

Returning downstairs after writing Part 2 I found Reform’s by-election leaflet folded through the letter box.

Three of the four promises are exactly the same as those the Conservatives promised yesterday. Cleaner streets, better policing and better transport. Reform gets top marks for actually saying what many people think. The police have been politicised which is undoubtedly true as is Reform’s criticism of unnecessary 20 m.p.h. zones. Are there any in Belvedere?

Maybe Nuxley Road is restricted - it is not a place I visit - but when can you do more than 20 there anyway? I am not aware of being held up by 20s anywhere in Belvedere unlike the nonsense of 20s in Greenwich on dual carriageways that are without adjacent residential properties. Nothing but Socialist spite in action.

Whilst I wouldn’t lose any sleep if the Conservative Party was wiped out nationally as retribution for filling its ranks with liberal wets, locally one only has to look at neighbouring Socialist boroughs to see the pitfalls that Conservative Bexley has managed to avoid.

After the old lady died in East Ham aged 100 I have not visited Socialist Newham very often. It was a dump when I did and it is a near bankrupt crime-ridden dump now. Bexley has not quite gone down that route although some might argue that its Chief Executive had a hand in setting Newham on its downward path.

Fortunately Bexley escaped from its partnership with Newham in the nick of time.

Labour promises better transport and cleaner streets too but is stronger on housing issues and has been trying to counter its disastrous first 100 days of government with a list of 14 achievements. They may appeal to its hard-core supporters but only five of them appeal to me. For the remainder I am at best indifferent but mainly against.

I will vote Conservative next Thursday because I don’t think any of the opposition parties can have an impact on the direction Bexley Council is taking us and whilst far from perfect that direction is quite obviously not as bad as in several Councils not very far away.

Reform UK is handicapped as far as I am concerned by the ultimatum that I must pay its Old Bexley candidate £4,800 because of my obscure reference - but respecting the sensitivities; not a link - to a Council web page which their candidate wishes did not exist. As if BiB is big enough these days to influence an election!

The deadline for payment passed ten weeks ago. Meanwhile I will not be voting Reform at local elections.

 

13 October (Part 2) - HR STAR Quality

Running side by side with the Customer Service Experience through recent Finance meetings is the People Strategy.

Councillor Borella (Labour, Slade Green & Northend) opened the batting with what he termed a “pedantic” complaint that the Strategy did not get unanimous support from the Cabinet on 16th April, there was no vote and only Councillor Leaf obviously did so. (Confirmed by the BiB report. The Council minutes will be clarified.)

He said that Council capacity had been reduced dramatically across the board and “if the Community is to get stronger there must be a bit more focus on how we build capacity in this organisation in the areas where we are going to need it”.

The response confirmed that HR staff numbers have been increased and that staff generally are being celebrated and appreciated more than was reported last March. Ignored, bullied, harassed etc.

Bexley Council has created a Leadership Academy to endeavour to improve the occasionally abysmal performance of its senior managers. The current Corporate Services Manager, Kate Bonham, has given the impression at this and past meetings that she knows what needs to be done. There is plenty of scope for improvement. What was the previous Manager, Nick Hollier doing for the past 15 years apart from blaming complainants for his failings? (He told me that complaints about staff who lie to the public were not acceptable. Fortunately the police took a different view and sent a Misconduct in Public Office file to the CPS.)

The full response reveals that Hollier objected to the single use of the word ‘lie’.

Councillor Chris Ball (Labour, Erith) said he was going to venture carefully into extending the Council’s Obesity Strategy to the Council’s own workforce and then didn’t actually mention the subject referring instead to the abuse, sometimes of a racist nature, that the Housing staff in particular suffer from residents. The latter problem is regarded as a Health & Safety issue. The recording of which residents might pose a threat to Council staff is not comprehensive. “In some areas only and not shared.”

There were no more questions.

Note. An earlier version of this blog referred to Lorraine Barlow, the writer of the People Strategy Report. The meeting speaker was in fact Kate Bonham.

 

13 October (Part 1) - Labour isn’t working

I have no idea what Belvedere people think about having a Labour Government because I have spoken about it to literally no one with a vote next Thursday. I know what some in Dartford, Greenwich, Thamesmead, North London and Hampshire think and if the same views are reflected locally the Conservatives may be in with a chance. The Conservatives evidently think so too and yesterday a third leaflet was delivered to me. Still nothing from Labour or Reform UK.

Click image to see the whole leaflet.

Lib Dem leaflet here.

 

11 October - The Customer Service Experience in Bexley. It needs to improve

It’s three months since the last Finance Scrutiny meeting and Chairman Ahmet Dourmoush began this week’s one with “We have no Members of the Public so that helps” which from a usually friendly Chairman must have been no more that an off-the-cuff remark but one must wonder how it helps, if indeed it does, However he soon got the meeting underway in his usual efficient manner.

The first discussion was on the Customer Service Experience which had been previously noted as not being very good and Councillor Chris Ball (Labour, Erith) had some questions. He was concerned that a lot of money was being spent with Price Waterhouse Coopers (now known as PwC) on the project and more generally, with catering for the hard of hearing, elderly and disabled. Were the reducing number of complaints due to it being made so difficulty to make them? (To which I might add answering them in a dishonest way and causing complaints to be abandoned as being hopeless in the face of managers prepared to say black is white.)

There was an acceptance that the response rate (664) was “disappointing” but not entirely unexpected, but PwC has “huge expertise” and the “skills and talent” is not available within the Council. They give “value for money”.

Whilst Children’s Services complaints are relatively few in number a high proportion go through to Stage 3 which presumably confirms the uselessness of the management so frequently reported to BiB by dissatisfied parents.

Labour Leader Stefano Borella was unhappy that the Front Door to the Contact Centre was not very accessible or visible and in similar vein the number of abandoned telephone calls is far too high and getting worse.

Residents become “unnecessarily annoyed” because their complaints are not handled in a timely manner. “The statistics are poor. The target is 95% answered on time and the actual score is zero.” The Chairman had some sympathy with Stefano’s concerns.

The responsible officer said the abandoned calls statistic is in fact improving and the dashboard figure that Stefano referenced was some sort of statistical freak and the 25% abandoned figure was actually under 10. (Should poor management be mentioned again?)

Average telephone answering times were down to about 90 seconds. (As I have said before, the first GPO telephone exchange I managed had a target of five seconds to answer and missing it meant big trouble.)

There are plans to improve access to the Contact Centre by next March and make it more welcoming and the number of staff chasing complaints will increase from three to five.

Deputy Leader Councillor David Leaf reminded his colleagues that he is always ready to help them with complaint cases if they feel it would be beneficial to residents.

Councillor Howard Jackson (Conservative, Barnehurst) said residents were often unhappy with the way Fix-my-Street works. The Council officer said he was aware of the problems with the interface to Council systems and they have been addressed and ready to be switched on. Tests will be held jointly with residents within the next couple of months to ensure that everyone is happy with the changes.

There is currently a lot of investment being made in new technology including Microsoft CoPilot, Microsoft Dynamics, new mobile devices, i-pads and Ask Bexley. Additionally trials are being undertaken to produce meeting Minutes via Artificial Intelligence but Bexley Council will watch a handful of other LAs go first as there are potential difficulties.

Missed bin reports which currently cause 150 to 200 phone calls a day might well be handled by AI before too long.

 

10 October - Bexley Council. Wrong again

This comment has its origins with the man from New Road who asked why Bexley Council never gets anything right the first time. He was referring to the third phase of the fence post renewal around Lesnes Abbey Park.

Next day Bexley confirmed his view by saying that it was going to replace all four Albion Road roundabouts because the ones they installed in 2017 were not safe.

Belatedly I took a look today travelling in on an SL3 bus which was once again badly held up outside Bexleyheath station. Blue Badge users on double yellow lines again.

In Bexleyheath the bus did not stop outside the Library as Bexley Council said it would but instead carried on to Highland Road where it doubled back to Townley Road stopping pretty much where shown in the photograph. No big deal.

However returning to the Library half an hour later the Library stop said an SL3 was due and the bus stop appeared to be in use, indeed an Arriva bus driver confirmed it to me but the scheduled SL3 turned left from Townley Road into Albion Road and was never seen again. (Photograph taken at 15:10 today.)

So Bexley Council’s notice below is not accurate. Maybe TfL led them up the garden path. (Second thoughts: the cones completely prevent any vehicle getting from Townley Road to the Library. So it is Bexley Council’s mistake. I should have known better.)

Fortunately the reconstruction job should be finished tomorrow but if the site remains empty I would not like to guarantee it. What have they done anyway; nothing is obvious yet?

Original 2018 Albion Road publicity leaflet.
Letter to nearby residents.
Admission that the 2017 roundabout construction was not done correctly. (May 2018.)

 

9 October - Selective leafleting

I was sitting in my neighbour’s house when his letter box rattled and the long awaited Labour by-election leaflet arrived. I asked if I could borrow it in case the Labour lot had been too lazy or too stupid to deliver one to me and he said I could have it anyway. Like many people he is not an enthusiast for our new Government and he read not one word of the leaflet.

My own quick verdict was that It seemed to be a reasonable effort in need of a better proof reader and my mind drifted towards putting a positive spin on it. Am I much bothered by who is elected in Belvedere? Not really but to see Keir Starmer humiliated again is never unwelcome.

As expected no leaflet had dropped on to my own doormat which caused the idea of a positive spin to take something of a back seat.

A Labour Councillor having the support of the local Labour MP is not really much of an “honour”; it is to be expected. Belvedere still needing a “strong [Labour[ voice” could be construed as a criticism of the 30 man years of Labour support that has brought Belvedere to its present position. Did the Labour candidate really mean to say that the Thameslink trains are polluting Belvedere? Despite living only 50 feet or so from the railway line I was unaware that the trains are noisy although triple glazing may help.

He rightly says that there is a local housing problem but where isn’t there? An ordinary house like my own rents for £2,300 a month or more. That is plain silly but I was unaware that Belvedere was blighted by fly tipping. To be fair it must be a year or more since I last walked around the Nuxley Road area.

It is not a big problem in the vicinity of Lesnes Abbey. Maybe that is a credit to its Labour Councillors.

 

8 October - One of us? Who knows?

I returned home to see a flash of red and the word Labour sticking through my letter box but I was disappointed to discover it was not the Labour candidate seeking election in the Belvedere by-election; it was an unfortunately folded Conservative leaflet again. Without hearing anything directly I must assume that the Labour candidate is in favour of freezing his grandmother possibly to death and giving things away to Communist aligned states. Exactly what will he be able to claim or promise for Belvedere residents? Maybe I will never know given his reluctance to let us know.

If I had to pick holes in the Conservative leaflet I might point out that none of Belvedere Beach, Lesnes Abbey Park or the refurbished Tennis Courts were actually funded by Bexley Council although they must have lobbied for and secured the money.

The last time Christine Bishop owned up to living in the borough her address was in Welling, same as the Labour candidate, and it is perhaps gilding the lily to say that pensioners are going to lose “hundreds of pounds” under Labour. It is £200 for most and £300 for some. But whatever the case, Labour deserve all the opprobrium that can be mustered, if not because of the money but for the political naivety which will be remembered for many years to come.

Their people are not really so wicked as to risk killing pensioners are they? Dunno; but they voted for it on the back of a financial black hole, that if it exists at all, they created.

 

6 October - The lull before the meetings storm

“Why so quiet when there is so much to report?” was the gist of a recent message and I was unsure whether the writer was being sarcastic or not. Is there something important going on locally that has escaped notice? Nationally there is a lot that could be said but anyone who wants to read about UK politics can choose from a plethora of websites and YouTube videos which expertly condemn the Starmer regime almost hourly. Everything from serious analysis of the disaster that threatens to overwhelm the UK to Spitting Image type mockery. BiB’s feeble effort may be read here.

Fortunately there are some Council meetings imminent and with the local Press having largely given up on politics BiB should probably continue to keep an eye on what Councillors are up to. After sitting on their hands for two months there are suddenly four Scrutiny meetings in the space of two weeks and a Public Cabinet meeting the week afterwards.

Belvedere by-election
Despite having a handful of contacts looking out for election leaflets I still only have the Conservative and Liberal Democrat’s to add to the Archive. Who would be a Labour candidate right now when the Party is losing seats across the country to Conservatives, Reform and even the SNP? There is no way I will vote for a Party that is happy to field an extortionist as a candidate and who in their right mind still backs a Party that pays to give away sovereign territory and votes in favour of killing Grannies as both my Councillor and my MP have done? I stop short of saying they are personally in favour of killing the elderly but spinelessness is not an attractive quality either.

I will vote Conservative but only because experience suggests that it is the only way to give Belvedere a voice in Council. Not that 2010-2014 inspires a great deal of confidence.

Poor management again?
I can’t remember where I first saw it, probably the Telegraph or Mail on-line although it may have been Twitter, but I read about a Child Psychologist who was going on strike in support of Local Authority Children’s Services which she sees as inadequate. Everyone who follows such things, either here or elsewhere, will know that Children’s Services soak up a ridiculous amount of money with figures like £16,000 a week per child being bandied around.

The LA (Local Authority) reference could well be to Bexley.

For some reason the Psychologist’s name rang a bell and eventually I tracked down why. When the SEND parents were with the help of the Local Government Ombudsman being compensated by Bexley Council’s Children’s Services one of my correspondents complained that the striking Psychologist assessed the children and reported them “in a vague manner which was completely useless driving me into the hands of private practitioners” which is exactly what the striker is now complaining about and what Bexley SEND parents had to do.

Click image to read the Psychologist’s complaint against Local Authorities.

The Psychologist complains that Councils’ lack of resources forces them out of the profession while parents complain that the Psychologists are “useless”. One might have hoped that conscientious professionals would try to improve things from the inside rather than seeking riches in private practice.

Right Royal rip off
I paid my £1·50 fine to Royal Mail on 28th September but if I had not been able to do so on-line they would have demanded I paid for a stamp to return the card to Dartford thereby doubling the size of the fine. The useless bunch said they could not deliver the missing package until Tuesday 1st October. They failed to do so and on Wednesday the postman walked straight by my house.

I took a walk to where he had parked his van and waited for his return. When I explained the situation he was very sympathetic and rummaged among the loose stuff lying on the van floor. He found my insufficiently stamped letter and five more items - one of which was not junk mail. None of it would have been delivered if I had not chased after him.

Royal Mail has become an absolute disgrace.

Note: It was not my regular postman who is on leave.

Hammergate
It’s not over yet but it is probably unwise to go into any detail at present.

 

3 October - Maybe the multi-skilled Mayor needs a better Abacus

After featuring the Mayor of Bexley on these pages twice in a week someone suggested I look at the Erith North Heath News Facebook page to see what was being said about her there. As is the norm with Facebook there were some intelligent questions followed by silly answers. Some commentators didn’t know the difference between (mainly) Ceremonial Mayors in the London boroughs and the political Mayor of London. Boris Johnson was criticised for closing fire stations and police stations when the facts are that Boris reduced fire cover when the incidence of fires was falling; fewer smokers and fire retardant furniture etc, and Sadiq Khan closed police stations while the crime rate was rising.

Someone complained that (NOT) Johnson’s closures saw the police Custody Suite moved from Bexleyheath to Plumstead when the truth is very different. The Bexleyheath Suite was refurbished and reopened in 2020. Plumstead was just a temporary measure while the builders were busy.

Perhaps the most interesting thing was the Mayor’s own contribution to the thread. For those sceptical of the need for a Mayor it is worth a read

The role of Mayor is a historic one - all London boroughs have one as do all Districts in Kent and this is mirrored across the country.
The Mayor is the first citizen In Bexley after the King. Only locally elected Cllrs (I have represented Bexleyheath Ward for eight years) can become Mayor and they are appointed by their Group annually.
I have lived in Bexley for 40 years and my children/grandson were born and still live and work here. During that time, amongst other roles, I’ve been a charity Trustee of local groups, school governor, have worked for both BVSC and Bexley Council, a volunteer Magistrate for over 25 years and received an MBE in 2009 for voluntary services to disabled children and young people in Bexley, so have local links with and genuinely relate to residents. My eldest son was disabled so I am particularly supportive of carers and parents of children with SEN.
I’m also a qualified teacher and work in Public Health supporting the mental health agenda.
The Mayor has four distinct roles: to represent the borough i.e. at Remembrance, Citizenship and other Civic events, to chair annual Council meetings, to support the local community and to fundraiser for charity.
The Mayor only visits organisations on invitation and this week there are twelve engagements over six days ranging from school presentations to WI coffee mornings, care homes, churches, voluntary groups, and businesses - so about 36 hours.
In terms of remuneration the Mayors allowance is set every May at Annual Council so a matter of public record. This year it’s £15,970. I receive approximately £225 a week (after tax so about £6·25 an hour) - no expenses are claimed and any events I attend (including my own fundraisers) I pay for myself.
A car is used to enable the Mayor to travel between engagements safely quickly and reliably particularly when wearing robes and the chain. This is standard practice. across the country.
I came into this role in May and it’s an absolute honour to have the opportunity to meet and support our residents and the wider community - both young and old really do value the Mayoralty. If they didn’t, there would be no invitations! I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed every event I’ve attended and have been made very welcome at all of them.
The Mayor of Bexley facebook page details all the events I attend and the variety of people I meet.
My charity this year is Counselling Matters Bexley so I’m hosting a variety of events to raise money for them as they support both adults and children locally who need support
with their mental health and often can’t access this.
I hope this information is helpful.

Cobblers of course. The Mayor chairs five Council meetings a year and both Newham and Tower Hamlets have Mayors elected by public vote. What’s more I could have sworn that Sue Gower was first elected as a Councillor in 2018. (Yes, just checked my emails. I sent her a congratulatory message when the Leader came to her senses and approved Sue’s selection!)

Note: The link to the Mayor’s Facebook and Charity pages taken from her own FB contribution appear to be broken.

 

1 October (Part 2) - Oh no. Not again!

It’s only a couple of days since my New Road correspondent was complaining that Bexley Council is constantly wasting our money by rarely getting anything right at the first attempt.

But his fence posts are relatively small beer.

This morning Bexley Council announced that all the Albion Road roundabouts are to be remodelled because they are not safe. It is only seven years since they were installed with a fanfare of positive publicity. (PDF)

The redesign was widely criticised at the time and the cycling representative at the Transport Users Sub-Committee has criticised them ever since. Too many cyclists in hospital apparently.

Without a hint of humble pie the Council has announced that work will start to try to fix the problems next Monday.

To minimise disruption the work to upgrade safety features will be carried out in phases however road closures and diversions will need to be in place.
Phase one starts on Monday 7 October and lasts until Friday 11 October at Townley Road roundabout. Traffic travelling east/west along Albion Road will be unaffected. Traffic needing to turn and travel down Townley Road will be diverted and will need to go either to the Oaklands car park roundabout or the Highland Road roundabout and make an about-turn at these.
Phase two will begin on Monday 14 October at Highland Road roundabout – Traffic travelling east / west will be unaffected but turns into Highland Road will be via Townley roundabout and the Gravel Hill roundabout.
Phase three will begin on Monday 21 October southbound on Gravel Hill. Gravel Hill will be shut southbound between the Broadway roundabout and the Albion Road roundabout. Diversions will be signposted.
Phase four will begin on Monday 28 October at the Albion Road and Broadway roundabouts. Albion Road eastbound from the Albion Road car park, Gravel Hill between Albion Road and Broadway and westbound into Broadway from the roundabout will be closed. Diversions will be signposted.
Phase five will begin on 4 November at the Albion Road and Broadway roundabouts. Further details will follow on any diversions needed once known.
No bus stops will need to be closed during any of these safety improvement works. TfL buses will follow the main diversion routes and journey times may be longer.

Road designs in Bexley were once described by the Chairman of the European Union’s Transport Committee as recipes for head on collisions. Will they get things right this time?

 

1 October (Part 1) - Charity begins at…

When I went to the Paul Holloway Show last Wednesday the Mayor was there as the support act and she allowed him to dress her with all the chains and wotnot. Seems like an interesting job this year Paul, better than some in recent history that I can think of.

Mayor Sue Gower took the opportunity to plug her chosen charity and left some leaflets which had all been taken by the time I left. I messaged the Mayor to ask if I could have a copy and you may read it all here.

Not technically perfect at the time of writing but I will see if that can be improved over time. But for now everything apart from the QR code and the Pledge Form are probably good enough.

As the image here says - it may be more easily read if you click on it - Sue is supporting Counselling Matters Bexley which I had never heard of but it offers low cost or free mental health assistance.

You may have gathered that Sue has been kindly disposed towards BiB during occasionally difficult times and I shall have to work out to what extent I should return her generosity.

Sue Gower and her Court Jester Paul are hosting a special event at Danson House next Saturday at a cost of £28. Probably not my scene if for no other reason than Canapes sounds like gluten to me and in any case I have an engagement elsewhere but Paul is going to repeat his presentation which will definitely be worth hearing.

When there were six of us running BiB, all but one of the gang contributed £10 a month towards a legal defence fund should any one of us be attacked for truth telling and of course the F lady duly obliged.

When we were particularly unpopular in certain quarters we decided to send a decent sum - a hundred quid if I remember - to the then Mayor’s chosen charity. It was as you might guess a mischievous act more than a charitable one and we were rewarded with exactly what you might expect. Total silence.

I contributed to Rob Leitch’s Sidcup Garden project too but that was on condition of anonymity which was respected. Rob was Deputy Council Leader at the time.

Who is going to help Sue ‘make a difference’?