4 April - Their own worst enemy

Bexley Council really is its own worst enemy at times. It is nine months since they consulted residents in the North West of the borough about the parking problems caused by Elizabeth line commuters and I have heard Councillors from both parties complaining that they are getting far too many residents’ enquiries about what is going to be done about it and need a quick answer.

As recently as 10th March my own Councillor Jeremy Fosten told a neighbour that he had that very day spoken to Cabinet Member Richard Diment and been told that “a recommendation will be put to him formally in the next couple of weeks”. However it took a random Council website search by John Smith of MurkyDepths fame to stumble across the relevant document. It is dated 27th February and effective from 7th March.

Can you believe anything that is said by Bexley Council? Why the secrecy on a subject which they accept is of great interest to many residents?

No one would deny that the decision must have been a difficult one. The Consultation covered a wide area with very different parking problems. Few commuters park on Woolwich Road and wait 20 minutes for a 469 bus to Abbey Wood station but in my own road, literally the closest to the existing Abbey Wood CPZ, is full every day with often inconsiderately parked vehicles about which the Council does nothing or even encourages them. As such, opinions on the desirability of a CPZ varied widely. Of the 1,453 addresses consulted 271 said they did not have a problem and 162 said they did.

Those most affected were in “Elstree Gardens, Abbey Road/, Coptefiled Road (sic), Abbotswood Close, Raglan Road, Sampson Road, Carill Way, Mangold Way, Heron Hill, Treetops, Woodland Way, Plympton Close, Laymarsh Close all citing commuters”. Nine months to discover what is obvious to every Traffic Warden every day.

Bexley Council has chosen to implement a CPZ on an experimental basis (an ETMO) for 18 months in Abbey Rd, Abbotswood Close, Beckett Close, Blakemore Way, Bright Close, Carrill Way, Coptefield Drive, Elstree Gardens, Gilbert Road, Hadley Road, Halifield Drive, Holcote Close, Kingswood Avenue, Laymarsh Close, Plympton Close, Sampson Close, Shortlands Close, St. Augustine’s Road and Turnstock Way (sic).

Their document does not reveal the hours of operation or whether there will be marked bays without which roads will continue to be obstructed. Will they really install all the signs and road markings and be prepared to change then 18 months later?

I have come across an Experimental Traffic Management Order before when Newham Council ran into 100% opposition to a CPZ and offered an ETMO and consult later to see if it should be retained. As you would expect, the second consultation never came. I suspect residents here will not allow Bexley to get away with anything like that.

You may wonder why no one at Bexley Council has bothered to keep residents informed a month after the decision was made. I have been in touch with the officer who made the recommendations more tyhan once. The answer as usual is all Councils are useless and Bexley is no different.

Note: Picture above. The van arrived first, then the red car parked so close that the van door cannot be opened and then the white car driver did the same to him. Brain dead drivers and the Liz line appear to go hand in hand. Both pictures taken today.

1 April - X rated Tweet?

It wasn’t Councillor Davey’s best joke ever, that must be the one about Sadiq Khan being the worst thing to hit London since the Luftwaffe but suggesting that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe (the Iranian political prisoner) should perhaps be sent back to Iran after her understandable disdain for Boris Johnson led to her joining the Labour Party ran it a close second. The Left flew into a rage and even issued a Press Release on the subject when John was reinstated six months later. (PDF.)

Another bunch of humourless Lefties had removed John from the Governors of Bedonwell School. Schools are well known hotbeds of unbridled Socialism so that was not unexpected but what was surprising is that Bexley Conservatives withdrew the whip from Councillor Davey and then refused to say what had got up their collective noses.

BiB appears not to have made much of John Davey’s readmittance to the Conservative ranks which may indicate the degree of interest it had in this storm in a teacup.

Not for the first time @tonyofsidcup took a less relaxed view of Council shenanigans than I did and submitted an FOI asking of what was John Davey accused. He got the usual brush off from Bexley Council and the same from the Information Commissioner.

So off to Court @tony went.

The Tribunal’s judgment reveals that the Monitoring Officer decided against referring Councillor Davey to the Code of Conduct Committee. That decision in effect led to Councillor Davey being protected from public scrutiny and the Localism Act does provide for such a thing when a complaint has no merit. Had the complaint gone to the Code of Conduct Committee the Council would have been obliged to publish its conclusion but the complaint did not reach that stage. Presumably because the Monitoring Officer believed it had no merit.

Two of the three judges therefore backed Bexley Council’s decision that it could legitimately adopt its usual secretive position, but the third felt that was unwise. He was of the opinion that an accusation of racism is so serious that the correct decision would be to be open and transparent and thereby remove the suspicions which Councillor Davey has suffered. However the Court ruled two to one that “processing is not necessary for the legitimate purpose of dispelling publicly circulated rumours”.

Can we conclude that Bexley Council would rather let one of their Members continue to live under a cloud rather than see their procedures exposed to public view? And which Tory clown ordered him out of the local party?