29 March - County Gate crashes

This is the 22nd blog about County Gate, a road I have never been to see but it is some sort of short-cut on to the A20. There have been protests about the traffic problems that it causes since at least 2007. Photo 2 shows a bunch of Labour Party Councillors and supporters outside the old Civic Offices in June of 2011. The lady in yellow lived on County Gate.

Bexley Council has put forward a multitude of solutions over the years and one by one they have been thwarted by Greenwich Council whose boundary lies nearby. Their residents are not affected by the traffic and presumably like having a shortcut to the A20.

Councillor Craske memorably provoked a News Shopper headline (see image below) accusing a Greenwich Councillor who he said lived in the next road of selfishly blocking his proposals. Greenwich Council refuted the claim.

By 2016 Bexley Council faced an additional problem. Sadiq Khan became Mayor of London, a man unafraid of showimg his preference for Labour controlled Councils. And so Greenwich Council acquired an ally in its dispute with Bexley; but it didn’t stop Bexley trying.

Councillor Lisa Moore tried her luck with a petition in 2021 but it got her nowhere thanks once again to the Royal Borough’s objections. More recently Bexley Council completely caved in to their demands. @tonyofsidcup, maybe unaware of the long history, asked why, and Andrew Bashford, Head of Highways, kindly provided him with a lengthy explanation.

He reveals that Bexley had agreed that Greenwich could study the problem and make a proposal but after two years of delay they had done next to nothing. Bexley reacted by putting forward a simpler watered down, compared to earlier proposals, solution to which they felt Greenwich could not reasonably object; but they did. Bexley then considered, bearing in mind the history of such things, that Greenwich would inevitably refer the dispute to the left leaning Mayor and there was little or no chance of prevailing over an uncooperative neighbour.
The whole idea is now shelved.

Being of small mind I find it amusing that so many Labour supporters, some directly affected, have been given a kicking by Sadiq Khan.

News Shopper headline from way back in the days when they reported Council meetings.

 

28 March (Part 2) - Another Bexley Council failure

In 2006 the house next to mine was sold to a man from Lagos. He told me that he would only ever rent it to Nigerians which I suspect is illegal but he has been as good as his word. New tenants every year or two and every one of them Nigerian. Like all neighbours they come in all varieties; from Sunday church attendance in all their finery through to drug dealers.

The family that left last August was really lovely and we still swap messages on What’sApp. Their replacement has ignored me totally, never once acknowledging a Good Morning and not even a glance if we happen to be at our respective front doors at the same time.

One thing all fifteen or twenty of them have had in common is a total disinterest in recycling. One family simply threw their rubbish from the front door and formed a literal rats’ nest. Even the best of them would never remember to put their bins out so I fell into the habit of doing it for them.

Last night at 22:45 the white lidded bin had not been put out and when I did the job for them I noticed that it was contaminated with plastic water bottles and a Coke can. I transferred quite a lot of stuff into the correct bin and crushed the cardboard down as best I could; then retired to bed, the day’s good deed done.

What a waste of time that was, CountryStyle didn’t bother to empty it. It is not red tagged so I assume the slightly open lid was not an issue.

Personally I don’t believe a word of Richard Diment’s proud claim about 99% collection success. Someone is likely fiddling the figures before he sees them. Bexley Council’s flytipping problem is largely self-inflicted.

Bexley Magazine Spring 2025.

 

28 March (Part 1) - It doesn’t compute

When you know that there are madmen at large ready to take you to the High Court for making comments which even their own solicitor recognises as being broadly supportive and demands the removal of photographs which are in my opinion quite flattering, it is easy to conclude that there are more enjoyable ways to recover from a health issue than writing for Bonkers.

(For the record I complied with the idiotic removal requests because although the Free Speech Union is ready to help, why should I publish favourable comment if the complainant doesn’t like it? It doesn’t compute!)

To that end I have been indulging my interest in computers and built myself a new one with the intention of replacing this eight year old PC which is beginning to show its age.

With Microsoft pushing us towards Windows 11 it needs a thorough refurbishment and update to the new Windows version despite it not meeting Microsoft’s minimum hardware requirements. It was in its day a very powerful computer and will run Windows 11 with ease if Microsoft’s unnecessary restrictions are circumvented.

Having made something between 30 and 50 computers for friends etc. over 30ish years I tend to attract old machines for repair or cannibalisation. There is rarely anything inside an old PC worth keeping and they go to scrap. However this time, as a practice run for refurbishing my own, I took a computer made in 2012 and running Windows 7 (upgraded to 10) and put Windows 11 on it.

A deliberately cut down version of Windows 11 devoid of so called bloatware and no need for a Microsoft Account or a sign on PIN. It works perfectly well and whilst it wouldn’t suit someone into computer games or video editing it would be OK for web browsing and maybe a bit of letter writing. Perhaps a young person who wishes to tinker and learn?

If anyone has a use for it, please let me know. It is currently running Windows 11 Pro which needs activation for around £20 but I am going to downgrade it to Home Edition and see if it picks up the old Windows 7/10 Home activation code.

I wonder if the aforementioned madman has chased Private Eye to request removal of one of their articles or is the vendetta reserved for just me?

 

26 March - Dragging their feet

Since my spell in hospital a certain amount of lethargy has enveloped life. I am still not confident about leaving home but if all goes well I will give it a go tomorrow.

Meanwhile I fall back on the Bonker’s staple of Bexley Council’s poor parking policies.

Under pressure from residents who were supported by Labour Councillors, Bexley put out a Consultation on a CPZ last July. The likelihood is that residents living close to me were in favour because they all have their own off-street parking spaces and Liz line commuters are often totally inconsiderate of the need to maintain access.

There has been no obvious sign of progress since the Consultation, now said to be not a Consultation at all despite it being clearly labelled as such. On 21st October 2024 the Parking Design Manager said residents would be told the result in November. On 15th January the story had been changed to “in the coming weeks” and there would be yellow lines by Summer. But once again nothing happened.

On Monday 10th March, Belvedere Councillor Jeremy Fosten (Labour) said that the Cabinet Member had not even received a recommendation yet and didn’t expect to for a couple of weeks at least.

What the problem is I do not know. My guess is that near to me residents voted in favour of a CPZ while further away from Abbey Wood Station they did not. Implementing one locally will cause a displacement problem.

Photo 1 above shows a van that caused some difficulty for four days on the trot, may have been longer, it was there when I returned from hospital. Photo 2 was taken yesterday and the car was parked on the footpath from around 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. I didn’t bother to report it, what’ְs the point when Bexley Council enforces things by whim rather than the rule of law. It did not get a PCN and clearly no CEO made a spot check. £60 the Council could have earned but didn’t.

I seem to be in a ‘don’t care’ frame of mind. I will try to get over it.

 

25 March - Under pressure

Close followers of this blog will know that I have mixed views about Reform UK. On the one hand I supported the party at the 2024 General Election, voted for them and encouraged friends to do the same. True there was not huge enthusiasm on my part but compared to the lamentable Conservative Party and the unspeakable Labour Party they represent hope in a political scenario in which hope has largely disappeared. Reform is far from perfect as recent events have demonstrated but in my view there is currently no alternative to the Uni-Party.

And then on the other hand one of their senior people - well, senior enough to get Radio/TV interviews - demanded £4,800 in compensation for BiB’s election coverage perceived as negative to a Reform UK candidate. Then came a further demand that an almost ten year old story, entirely favourable towards the complainant, be expunged from Bonkers; a request to which I agreed. This was followed by a further demand that every last word about Reform and any reference to the ‘senior person’ be removed including six unspecified blogs written just before the 2024 General Election.

Bearing in mind that there has been nothing especially negative about the aforementioned SP anywhere on Bonkers; indeed the most severe criticism was one use of the word ‘silly’ in 2018, this was all rather peculiar. Under constant threat of expensive High Court Action, I went along with all the demands apart from paying the £4,800.

Some blogs were extremely favourable towards the SP and why they had to go I have no idea.

I speculated that eventually I would be put under some sort of legal gagging order to prevent me talking to anyone about the person in question and that is the way things are moving now. I have been asked to sign such a legal undertaking.

Reporting these events on BiB would I hoped attract the attention of even more important Reform UK personalities; and it did.

They were curious and naturally sceptical that such things could be happening under their banner and asked who the mysterious SP was. I didn’t tell them but I suspect they knew anyway. They also asked if I could provide a little evidence that I was not making up such a far fetched story while at the same time saying they were perfectly happy with my General Election coverage and asked that it be kept on the record. (It is currently withdrawn.)

I am totally perplexed by why it is, ten years after the SP first came to notice here and six years after a reference to a Court case involving SP was removed from Bonkers, the issue has been resurrected. I am perfectly happy to remove everything and have pretty much done so and told SP’s solicitor that if he can identify any I might have missed I will attend to those too.

Why would I risk being dragged before the High Court in defence of a tuppenny halfpenny blog especially one which has ploughed a lonely furrow by being broadly supportive of SP?

The fact that SP is now effectively expunged from BiB history is not the issue, few will notice and I do not much care. The real issue is why would someone fairly prominent within Reform UK be so keen on having every record of the past being wiped from the history books and then go on to prevent me talking about it to political friends. (I meet up with a group most Thursday evenings and they can be an inquisitive bunch.)

I have my theories and no doubt readers with an interest in politics will formulate their own but if I am dragged before the Court I have a huge bundle of documents which would be put before the Court and thereby into the public domain. As things stand now they merely gather dust in a remote corner of my computer where I had hoped they might stay undisturbed for ever.

Despite the legal attack I am adamant that there has never been anything remotely like severe criticism of SP on Bonkers, the one use of the word silly is the most severe that could ever be found and everything related to that disappeared from view  six years ago, The threatening letters acknowledge the generally supportive tone but the requirement is that I am totally silenced.

I must emphasise that my new Reform UK contacts are entirely supportive of my reporting and have said so in writing and do not want me to remove anything, but then they are not constantly at the end of of Injunctions and the like and are apparently reasonable people.

The Free Speech Union has been kept informed but the decision to comply with the demand to remove all the old blogs was mine and not theirs.

Reform UK has serious problems lurking within their midst.

 

23 March - Gown but not quite forgotten

Well there was a warning but I could not be too specific on dates for fear of attracting every burglar in Bexley and in the meantime some people forgot and started asking questions about the absence of blogs.

Last week could have been better but now that I am home I am told I don’t look anything like as bad as the photo suggests; thank goodness for that!

The hospital was two hours away by train and looking back on it I was lucky to get back home without major incident. Things will slowly improve - until I go in again! - but normal BiB ‘service’ may resume tomorrow. There have been more Reform UK related developments. Will have to think about how much I can tell you given the legal threats.

The only disappointment was that not a single doctor or nurse followed NHS guidelines and asked if I could be pregnant. Otherwise all OK, food good, staff excellent. (Maybe one exception.)

 

17 March - Labour commands the high ground

In the past I have found Labour’s Larry Ferguson (Thamesmead East) a pretty decent performer at meetings and he began by reminding Howard Jackson that producing a balanced budget is nothing very special. The alternative is bankruptcy. Not too wide of the mark, he said that the financial problems Bexley faces were caused by the Tory Government. George Osborne has a lot to answer for. “To put it mildly we are in a pretty tight spot” and according to Councillor Ferguson the USA is now making the same mistakes.

The Labour Government has however done good things and is tackling the “destruction and devastation”.

“Nearly a million pounds for Bexley’s potholes”; but not yet he admitted. “A billion for SEND, which won’t fix everything and strikes are ended.”

Nearer to home, he asked what Thamesmead East is getting for their [CT] money. “Every year another 5%. Where is the CCTV? We have nothing but fancy announcements.” (It has always been the case that Bexley installs CCTV in the safest areas. Bexley Village was first on their expansion list 14 years ago.)

Larry is right isn’t he?

Councillor Anna Day (Slade Green) had a slightly different message. It was another year gone by with no affordable housing but instead money has been poured into “the Burstead Woods site [BexleyCo} which is not going ahead any time soon”. Section 106 money collected in Slade Green is not going into the local community. “Underspend in housing is propping up overspends in other areas. Incredible in the middle of a housing crisis with residents being shipped off to the North of England.” Residents both young and old in mouldy housing have phoned the Councillor crying.

It is not right that statutory services can only be accessed through on-line processes. It is in direct conflict with the Council’s stated policies.

The big increases in the amounts due under the Council Tax Reduction Scheme perfectly illustrate that this is “a pay more and get less budget”.

“We have lost nine months rent on The StoryTeller in Sidcup which had run into well documented difficulties in other London boroughs.” Disappointingly Councillor Day did not move into the area of more direct taxpayer subsidies.

The Government has given Bexley £327,000 to help veterans, the homeless and domestic abuse victims through the Winter and it is more than what has been given to neighbouring boroughs. The Renters’ Reform Bill will end no fault evictions and will penalise bad landlords. She then predicted a Labour win in Bexley in May 2026.

 

16 March (Part 2) - Jackson on Jeremy

Councillor Jeremy Fosten (Labour, Belvedere) did not immediately attack the Budget but thought having a go at newly Independent James Hunt was a better option. Juvenile stuff!

Then there came gloating over the election of a Labour Government followed by a reference to a name I had never heard of. Google told me he is an American rapper. Where the Hell is Jeremy going with this?

Ahh, the Budget at last. The Council has done well to close the gap it was facing but the gap will be three times as big next year and no steps have been taken to close it. “They are rearranging the deckchairs and the Council does not look any less unsightly.” On the CT Reduction Scheme the Council will be increasing enforcement costs in return for a minuscule amount of money. How will it make a dent in the deficit?” Then he went back to rap songs and some growth in the economy for which Rachel Reeves was given the credit. There was no reference to the growth being only a quarter of what the Chancellor had predicted on October 30th.

Apparently Income Tax thresholds have been increased to keep in line with inflation. (Where did that come from?) “Let’s not fool the public” he said immediately after doing exactly that.

Councillor Carew (Conservative Vice-Chairman of Adults Services) didn’t like the withdrawal of the Winter Fuel Allowance - who does? - and spoke about Bexley Boxes and freezing old people. There was in practice nothing said that you have not read here many times before.

Councillor Andrew Curtois (Conservative, Falconwood & Welling) for some reason gave a lecture on the convenience of modern technology and our reliance on it - if you have the money to buy it and are of a technological bent. Once again there was nothing much new said.

Howard Jackson (Conservative, Barnehurst) thought it was remarkable that Bexley Conservatives had produced 19 consecutive balanced budgets, forgetting for a moment that that is a legal requirement. The Labour opposition once again has not come up with ideas for the budget. “There are no suggestions, there is no amendment, all there is is Socialist fire, witty repartee and jokes mocking the Council, no alternatives, no ideas, no savings. Nothing. They just like making fun of us because they have nothing else to do. They have not been working hard and they didn’t work hard to deliver the Bexley Boxes even when we asked them to help.”

Councillor Craske said that on 31st March last year the Labour Group promised that a Labour Government would freeze Council Tax for every Bexley resident while in practice the only thing frozen was 34,000 pensioners. They are “cruel and wicked”.

They pledged that Bexley residents would see a £600 reduction in their fuel bills but bills have gone up three times since the election.

Labour Greenwich has been given an extra £3·8 million, Lewisham £5·3 million, Hackney £11 million and Tory Bexley nothing.

Then Labour had another go. Will there be jokes?

 

16 March (Part 1) - Conservatives speak in favour of their Budget

Conservative Janice Ward-Wilson (Crook Log) the Chairman of the Adults’ Social Care and Health Committee was the first to speak in favour of the 4·99% Council Tax increase. No guarantee of “future Government funding presents significant risks”. The Employment Rights Bill is an added burden and along with the NIC increases “the Care Market could be destabilised’.

Next was Lisa Moore (Longlands) who Chairs the Children’s Services Committee. Greater demands, increasing unit costs and more complex needs have created “a perfect storm. New residential placements have cost more than half a million pounds and the more complex ones are costing close to a million a year”. New EHCPs come in steadily all year at a rate 10% above what was anticipated and the travel costs have gone up by an average of 11%.

The Budget provides £9·7 million for Children in 2025/26, an increase of 18% over last year.

Next it was Labour’s turn again.

 

15 March - Labour’s initial response to the Tory budget

The first Councillor to respond to the new budget was Zainab Asanramu (Labour, Thamesmead East) who said that the Council Tax Reduction scheme is being made less generous (25% higher charges) because “it was chronically underfunded by the Tory government”. She then launched the near standard 14 years of “declining support” speech with which few would disagree. Austerity, poverty, potholes, service cuts and a Council on the brink of bankruptcy all got a brief mention.

The Labour Government is going to fix all those things and the news should be met with “jubilation”. Notably they are going to tackle the greedy childrenְ’s care providers charging £16,000 a week. Breakfast clubs and school uniform changes will save Bexley families “up to £500 a year whilst this Bexley Cabinet want to see more people suffer. Labour is in the business of rebuilding the country in the aftermath of a decade and a half of Conservative chaos and sleaze”.

Nicola Taylor (Labour) was next. “Erith needs homes not built on green spaces that most people of Erith cannot hope to own which are bought by buy-to-let landlords, but social homes where they can put down roots. They don’t want to be sent to Leeds, Corby or Gravesend”. No doubt very true. Labour controlled Gravesend is an absolute dump.

 

14 March - Fob Off Idiots

My attempt to rival @tonyofsidcup in the FOI stakes is not going well. The question about whether or not Bexley Council had an agreement to underwrite the costs of running Sidcup’s StoryTeller cinema, and by implication, is it using taxpayers’ cash to keep it afloat was not answered in any shape or form. A rudimentary knowledge of cinema suggests that keeping the doors open is likely to be costing around £20,000 a month, but Head of Economic Development and Skills, Brian Smith refused to answer the question, preferring instead to send me a Press Release about how wonderful the cinema is.

In another couple of weeks I will be able to report him to the Information Commissioner.

A much simpler question concerned parking across dropped kerbs. Sometimes the CEOs allow a margin of error and sometimes they don’t. Both cars pictured here were the subject of a web page report and inspected by a CEO. One was ticketed and the other was not. “It would be a bit mean.”

The FOI question was “What guidance on ‘grace’ distances is issued?”

Emma Weir, Parking Supervisor, took 16 days to answer and you might think in that time she would be able to come up with something comprehensive and maybe even intelligent. But you would be wrong. No answer, just a reference to the image on their website. (See below.)

In the past six months I have reported 16 badly parked cars to Bexley Council via their on-line reporting facility which means I have seen that picture many times. Too many of Bexley’s employees think that residents are as stupid as they are.

Maybe I should send in a lot more FOIs to see how many are needed before one is actually answered.

 

13 March - From Sixth Form to Re-Form

Well I said there would be some interruptions this month and that was the first of them. What has been going on in Bexley? Not a lot and thankfully no more meetings to report.

I was amused to see that the Conservative Group has been barrel scraping for a report that didn’t put Bexley at the bottom of some league table or other.

They have seized upon Bexley Grammar School being voted among the happiest in the country in a Times newspaper survey.

I assume it wasn’t achieved by abolishing homework and issuing free sweets so congratulations to Bexley Grammar’s head teacher Hugh Gilmore and his staff.

How Bexley Conservatives can claim credit is less certain. Bexley Grammar is run by the Penhill Academies Trust.

Reform UK has caused amusement too with their emulation of battle scenes from Mad Max. I have been both suspicious and admiring of Nigel Farage and voted for his parties a few times. I can’t quite forget that Richard Tice was a Covidiot and wanted to unreasonably restrict our freedoms but he has at least run the proverbial whelk stall in his time which few in Parliament could do.

But maybe they could better vet their key supporters.

As you may remember, one of their candidates demanded £4,800 in compensation for my 2024 election coverage followed by the more reasonable demand to remove every reference to the events of 2015 which Bexley Council had agreed to remove from their website. There didn’t seem to be a lot of point in BiB defending the candidate against criticism which Bexley Council has wiped from history so I deleted all my comment on the issue too.

However emboldened by my perceived capitulation, the candidate came back with more demands. I must remove all my election coverage and all my pre-2015 photographs and entirely complimentary comment or face High Court action.

I asked the Returning Officer if my election coverage was in any way unlawful and she rather unkindly - but correctly - said that there was no way a small blog could influence an election, but I removed them anyway. Far too expensive to argue and as the server logs confirm, no one reads old blogs.

I can’t help thinking that Reform UK candidates must be scared stiff of the truth ever getting out. I half expect to be the subject of some sort of gagging order next. Most of my former UKIP friends have gone to Reform UK.

The Free Speech Union is aware and supportive.

 

8 March (Part 2) - The Lessons from Labour

Earlier this week someone from Bexley’s Finance Department said that the Council is in a right old mess moneywise; well the whole country is but look on the bright side, Bexley hasn’t yet gone bust.

But with commendable foresight the Council Leader has appointed a man who knows exactly what to do if the worst happens.

Meanwhile our Labour Councillors are not too impressed.

Click image for the whole of the Press Release. (PDF)

The Garden Waste service is indeed a rip off. When the charge was introduced the Council said that separating garden from food waste would save £400,000 a year - even before the charges were imposed. They take us for mugs.

Get yourself a shredder.

 

8 March (Part 1) - The Gospel of David

By his standards Cabinet Member Leaf did not have much to say…

• Circumstances are difficult, tough and challenging.
• National and global issues are beyond our control. The turbulence shakes our borough and drains resources.
• Terrible conflicts overseas and damaging Socialist Government policies, imposing new costs and new burdens while shrinking Bexley’s share of funding. It is out of our hands.
• Providing for the complex needs of vulnerable residents presents a growing demand on services. Bexley is a compassionate administration.
• The budget will deliver for them and manage resources within the envelope we have.
• 9% of the General Fund is transferred to the support of key services.
• 5,000 children are being supported and adults with learning difficulties are being helped to live independently.
• Domestic abuse survivors are similarly helped together with the homeless.
• Waste, street services, parks and libraries are all run to high standards. The envy of other boroughs. Bexley is the finest and most attractive place to live and work in the country.
• Capital is being deployed strategically which unlocks £262 million of investment in housing, regeneration, SEND provision, highways, new CCTV and a new walking route along the River Shuttle (David’s ward.)
• The Budget delivers for the present and looks to the future, To govern is to chose. To appear to be unable to choose is to appear to be unable to govern. [© Nigel Lawson.) This administration in 19 years has never once shied away from the responsibilities to govern with which the people of Bexley has entrusted us.
• We face head on the risks and challenges ahead with vigour and determination. We stand with the people, businesses and communities to support their aspirations and ambitions. We choose to campaign for and promote or great borough and we choose to Make Bexley Even Better.

By my reckoning there are only two things there that have not been reported already.

 

7 March (Part 2) - They win, you lose. It’s the Bexley way

A lady from Bromley was telling me how she found a dead fox on the private road which serves the garage at the back of her garden. She phoned the Council and they came and collected it. “That’ll cost you” I said to which the reply was “No”.

I looked it up on bromley.gov.uk and sure enough their dead animal service is free. Normally they ask that the body is put in a sack and left on the footpath from which they will collect when notified but on this occasion they went beyond the call of duty.

Bexley by contrast will charge £75 for the same thing. How much less is the Council Tax in Bromley?

At the very moment I was looking at Bexley’s dead fox page the following slightly related email popped up

Hope you are on the mend. [Thanks but it was deferred.]
Just had a chat with a neighbour who had an interesting time with the Council regarding garden waste. On Wednesday his mum’s garden waste was not collected. He checked the Council’s website and it said “garden waste - not out”.
Doesn’t appear to be a way to report a missed collection online anymore so he called the garden waste hotline and was told they would have to email proof that the bins were put out. Pretty much impossible to do after the fact so it couldn’t be done.
You could try it yourself. Just say you put the bin out but it wasn’t collected. They will say it was not out. Then see what they suggest.
Residents are now filming each other putting the bins out. What have we come to?

A surveillance dictatorship? I had wondered how Cabinet Member Richard Diment could claim that 99·9% of bins are collected. Simply dismiss reports of missed bins presumably.

In my own situation I have no idea how they would be able to tell if a bin had been put out or not. As described in numerous parking reports, I share a frontage of only 16 feet with a neighbour. With four bins out it’s not possible to tell theirs from mine. Any distinguishing registered code number the bins may once have had is long since gone as the bins get muddled (by the bin men) along the street. My neighbour used to have a 240 litre green bin but it has been 140 for a long time. This causes an overflow into my bin which would otherwise be near empty. On top of that my neighbour never remembers to put his bins out so it is me who does it. And I am not particular about which order I line them up in.

There is no way the bin men can tell which belongs to who. (Clue, the smelly one is not mine!) Fortunately the bins never seem to get missed or Richard might end up in my bad books. Short of photographing the bin next to the same day’s newspaper I’m not sure how one proves it was out on time. No, even that won’t work. The bin could’ve been put out late and in any case the EXIF data in digital photographs is easily edited.

This looks like another case of Council wins, you lose to me. That is exactly how Bexley likes it.

Note: My three, occasionally four, tame foxes last showed up together just after Christmas. Two would eat out of my hand. Then they all simply disappeared. No idea why. Saves me a fortune in cheap chicken legs!

 

7 March (Part 1) - The word according to Saint Teresa

This is what Council Leader Teresa O’Neil had to say about the budget on Wednesday.

• Bexley Council has successfully managed their meagre finances through challenging times.
• Residents have been put first.
• We have lived within our means.
• When corrective action was required it was done.
• It is statutorily required that the budget is balanced and it is.
• Bexley has not had to apply for exceptional support like Barnet, Croydon, Haringey, Havering, Lambeth and Newham.
• When monitoring budgets no data is used until we are sure of its validity. Planning is an iterative process.
• Contrary to Labour’s claim, Bexley did not apply for a Capitalisation Order before the pandemic however it was prudent to apply during the pandemic but it was never called upon.
• Since the General Election the funding of Social Care (Adults’ and Children’s) has become uncertain. There has been no multi-year settlement.
• There is now a major discrepancy in grants between Inner and Outer London. If Bexley’s funding met the average it would receive an extra £63 million a year.
• The Government gave London a £69 million recovery grant but it only went to Labour boroughs.
• The Government has landed Bexley residents with two new burdens; no Winter Fuel Allowance. 34,000 Bexley residents lost out to a needless cut.
• Secondly the increased National Insurance Contributions will hit the Council and its suppliers. The Government provided an insufficient £1·6 million in compensation which will not be available next year.
• Bexley is the safest borough but it has the money to invest in new CCTV.

Note: Whilst this is not a verbatim report all the important words recorded above are the Leader’s.

 

6 March - Bexley under siege by a Labour Government

The figures coming out of the Council Chamber last night suggest that that is not an unreasonable headline and at ten o’clock last night Bexley Council formally confirmed what has been known for a month or two. They will raise Council Tax by the maximum amount permitted by law, 4·99%, to which the profligate Labour Mayor will add even more. CT up by more than twice the rate of inflation for the umpteenth year in a row. Twenty odd years ago when Council Tax was being racked up to ever higher levels I calculated how long it would be before the whole of my pre-triple-lock pension disappeared down that particular drain. Not as long as you might think. Perhaps I should run the calculation again.

Listening live caused me to conclude that any fool could balance his budget if he borrowed ten million to cover the deficit.

Maybe I will change my mind on a re-listen but some, well one at least, of the speeches had me cringing in embarrassment and, something I often wondered about, some Labour supporters do actually believe in the financial nonsense coming out of 11 Downing Street. The voices of demented youth I thought but then the two young chaps from St. Mary’s & St. John’s came along to restore some credibility to the debate.

Two and a half hours of speeches will take a long time to summarise. Reporting is likely to be in short dribs and drabs over the coming week. There are too many higher priorities at the moment.

5 March - Bottom of the class

Bexley Council is very fond of telling us that it is high up in the various league tables that London Councils (their private members’ club) waste our money on and how senior officers from other Councils flock to Bexley to see how things should be done. (Surely the inadequacy of Bexley’s senior staff (with a few exceptions) has been done to death here already?)

Very selective League Tables. Recycling, Crime levels. Anything else?

As the number of compensation awards from the Local Government Ombudsman would suggest, Bexley is pretty bad when it comes to looking after SEND children, although it has to be admitted that child care costs can be eye-watering. £16,000 a week to look after just one badly behaved child. I think I might put Donald Trump in charge of that one!

The teachers’ newspaper, Schools Week (where’s the apostrophe?) highlights Bexley’s failures in this week’s issue. Pupils excluded from school for their unacceptable behaviour should, by law, be found another place by the Local Authority, within six days. Bexley simply doesn’t achieve that most of the time.

The most extreme delays to place a child in a new school are not in Bexley but on average Bexley is the second worst performer in the country.

Maybe it has something to do with email to the Cabinet Member for Education always - no exceptions in my experience - getting the following response.

 

4 March (Part 4) - The quickest £100 (nearly) I ever earned

I have not paid Vehicle Excise Duty since I bought a tiny Kia in March 2012. Under £10,000 - those were the days - and under the 100 gramme CO2 limit which exempted it from VED. Then I went electric in September 2018 and literally own the oldest model of my car still on the road. It has been absolutely faultless and has also been VED exempt.

Until Rachel Thieves came on the scene of course. She wants to charge me £195 a year and the new rates start on All Fool’s Day. Small vans like the ones Royal Mail use will be £395.

Thanks to government greed, if you sell a car you lose any unused VED and the new owner has to pay it a second time. But you may in effect sell your tax exempt car to yourself, forfeit the VED already paid - nothing! - and tax it again at the old rate. Nothing! Play the bastards at their own game.

Just go to www.gov.uk/vehicle tax with the eleven digit number from your V5C document, enter your registration number, ignore the warning that you have already paid - nothing! - and pay nothing again.

In my case an extra six months free of VED. It literally took around 30 seconds to do.

Anyone with an older vehicle than mine (before 2017) that is currently free of VED will only be paying £20 from April and owners should research the situation for themselves. In some cases SORN may be advisable as that way you get overpaid tax paid returned. Sorn lasts a minimum of five days before you can tax again.

Electric driving used to be cheap but in approximate terms and because my car is very little used, VED will cost around six pence per mile, insurance in the region of 32 pence and rising, annual servicing another six pence, tyres about 2 pence and fuel well under a penny.

Not sure it is worth it to be honest, but I will not give in to effing politicians.

 

4 March (Part 3) - Cyclists are disposable in Bexley

The last time I had a message from a Greg was in January 2018 when one wrote to say that he was battling the same named crooked copper as I was at the time. Probably this is a different Greg, a parent of a child attending Gravel Hill School perhaps.

Greg version two drew my attention to a News Shopper report on bad parking outside that school. In the cycle track no less! Never having had a parking ticket in more than 62 years of motoring I think I can just about get away with a sanctimonious response. These drivers are beyond contempt.

And so perhaps is Bexley Council’s response. (See below.)

Head of Highways Andrew Bashford accepts that parking in the cycle lane is wrong but as the Council has no money there is little he can do about it. The lack of money is true and parking enforcement is currently a loss maker but to dismiss the safety issues because cyclists are only put in danger twice a day seems to me to be somewhat iresponsible.

Maybe I am biased. Long term readers will know my history with Mr. Bashford. In stuck record mode, he quoted my son’s Transport Research Laboratory report back to me and came unstuck.

Today Mr. Bashford is making unfortunate comments to a News Shopper reporter and - stand by for unforgiveable boasting - my son is in China at this very moment advising the Chinese Government and their truck industry on safety issues.

Note: I find many cyclists to be absolute bloody nuisances who offer no consideration to other road users but so are many motorists. Why are so many in such a damned hurry?

 

4 March (Part 2) - Rough times ahead?

If ChatGPT says that David Leaf, Cabinet Member for Resources, is not the financial expert among our Councillors, then who is? With the possible exception of Councillor Andy Dourmoush’s, who used to run a large business in the borough, all eyes glaze over when David starts to reel off the numbers; as do mine. Next year we will lose Andy’s expertise and be even more rudderless.

From inside Bexley Council came a message prompted by Councillor Leaf’s 36 minute speech of doom. Spelling it out in detail risks identifying the source but a summary of “we are in deep s***” is maybe not enough. So hereְ’s the message, more or less.

I’ve been trying to balance this council’s budget and Bexley is in a bad place. Worse is that the whole story is being avoided. Money is borrowed and money is moved but it cannot hide the Council being £5 million in the red. Next year we have to find another £30 million. Nobody admits the truth and Councillors have their heads in the sand hoping the problem will go away. The Leader is upset that people don’t believe her. Officers are unhappy. They have been battling but she isn’t listening.

That is by no means a verbatim quote but all the important bits are unchanged. It isn’t clear to me even on the original what exactly the Leader is not being believed about. That all is Fine and Dandy presumably.

Jane Richardson. Caroline Holland and Catherine Peter, all capable people according to various reports, have all buggered off and Bexley has recruited a new Finance Director with experience of declaring Councils bankrupt.

Hold on to your hats!

 

4 March (Part 1) - Give ’em an inch

Bexley Council refused to take action against the motorcyclist (Photo 1) who regularly parks on the footpath in Sidcup and the word has got around. Now he has a friend. Photo 2.

The indefatigable @tony has sent in another complaint.

Maybe I should do the same and see what is happening about our CPZ. The last information sent to me by the Parking Design Manager was that “residents will have an update in November [2024]”.

GM23 UDS forced vehicles exiting Carrill Way into Abbey Road to wait on the wrong side of the road so that its occupant(s) would have a 6 metre shorter walk up the hill to Lesnes Abbey. Entitled and selfish.

 

3 March (Part 2) - Leaf lays it on the line

As promised, herewith Cabinet Member David Leaf’s marathon session at last week’s Cabinet Meeting. He is Bexley Council’s star performer in front of a microphone.

He began by thanking the staff who had helped construct the balanced budget, in particular Caroline Holland who is “outstanding” and Catherine Peter who is the “lynchpin”. Both are leaving the Council imminently and may already have done so.

He said he was presenting his seventh draft budget and each and every time “the risks, challenges and pressures grow. Our borough is at the mercy of funding decisions taken by Government” and this has been the case since the turn of the century. New laws, new responsibilities and funding distribution all dictate how budgets are set.

At the last Cabinet meeting the update was given based on what was known last December but now it can be based on the final settlement. Bexley will get £5·4 million more this year than last but it includes 1·6 million of NIC contribution which is far lower than what is needed. In the previous three years the grant increases have been £8m, £11·2m and £8m respectively, hence the budget gap increasing.

Bexley got nothing from the new Government’s so called Recovery Grant whilst Greenwich got £3·8m, Lewisham received £5·3m, Hackney £9·7m and Newham £11m which has been allowed to increase its Council Tax by 8·99% plus an extra handout of £50 million. It was funded in part by removing Bexley’s Services Grant. Bexley is getting the lowest per capita grant in London.

The new formula is such that next year “Bexley will receive an even smaller slice of the pie. It is a serious risk”.

The total support for Children’s Services is only £11,000 higher than it was for last year and there is no assurance that that grant will continue into next year. The schools settlement “is among the lowest in the country”.

The Health settlement is “broadly in line” with national averages but the Public Health Grant is lower than both the national and London averages and insufficient to service the borough. £46·07 per head in Bexley is only 54% of the London average. The amount of the Household Support Grant is still unknown just a matter of weeks before residents will need that support and because of the withdrawal of WFA, residents need it more than ever. Nationally the overall amount has been cut by 13·5%.

The Council Tax freeze funded by a tax on the energy companies promised in the Labour Manifesto has not been forthcoming despite the energy companies being subjected to the extra tax. It is one of many broken promises from “the shoddy, shambolic, self-serving Socialist Government.”

63% of Bexley’s spending comes from Council Tax receipts. In Greenwich it is 38%" reflecting how much more generous Governments are to Socialist boroughs.

At Band D, Council Tax will have to rise by £1·62 a week (4·99%) but the GLA will push the real figure higher than that.

To achieve that, all fees and charges have been increased by an average of 2%. The expected income is £53 million. It is anticipated that Adult Care expenditure will be able rise by 6%, 18% extra for Children and Education, 6% more for Places and 9% more for Corporate Services and this will come from drawing down on Capital “which is not ideal”.

Lightening the tone a little, Councillor Leaf said he had no intention of asking AI to write his speeches but he had experimented with ChatGPT. He asked it if David Leaf was an expert in Local Government finance. It replied that he was “not generally recognised as an expert in finance. His focus has been on Environment Policy and Public Service as he has served as Cabinet Member for Environment at Bexley Council”. Clearly ChatGPT needs further work.

Undeterred, David asked another question and was similarly insulted. I think his message is that AI in Council use may be a risky business.

On current assumptions the budget gap could rise to £43·9 million in 2028/29 but equally well it could be a lot lower depending on Government decisions and that unknown is a major risk. National Insurance contributions are another major risk, the increase will cost more than £1 million per year with a further effect on “third party spend” not to mention the increase to the National Living Wage and the NJC wage claims which is for a minimum increase of “£3,468 at each pay point, a two hour reduction to the working week and an extra day of annual leave”. If agreed it will cost Bexley an extra £10 million.

David said he has taken time out of balancing the budget to assess Councillor Nicola Taylor’s request for him to fund free school meals for every pupil, some of whom already qualify under various existing schemes. Of the 40,000 pupils in Bexley about 12,000 do not qualify under one of the aforementioned schemes. Their breakfasts would cost £6·7 million a year. The Councillor had also asked that Bexley Council takes over the pier and paths rubbish clearance responsibilities from Erith Morrisons who she presumably thinks are not doing a good job.

Despite the general lack of money, some will be made available to increase Councillors’ allowances by 2%.

I am not sure how Bexley Council justifies sending nearly £17,000 a month to keep the Sidcup StoreyTeller going. A face saving operation presumably after Councillor Craske embarked on such a risky enterprise. Does David Leaf even know about that outflow? I was told it was one big dirty secret.

 

3 March (Part 1) - Legal lunacy

Although nobody commented, connoisseurs of FOIs may have wondered why I submitted such an obscure question as the one about Minutes and Agendas disappearing from Bexley Council’s website. It was prompted by a letter from a solicitor a month or so ago who demanded that I remove all BiB references to a long forgotten event which had its origins in 2014. The demands were backed up by a mock up of a High Court writ to be actioned if I did not comply. The letter said that Bexley Council had removed a particular Agenda and Minutes because it offended against GDPR. GDPR was not effective until 25th May 2018 so it is difficult to believe that something published in the final days of 2015 offended against the much later law - but that is perhaps irrelevant. It was said that Bexley Council had caved in to legal pressure, and it has.

Whilst the offending Minutes were not exactly flattering towards the complainant I almost immediately took the view that it was all a storm in a vindictive teacup. The late Mick Barnbrook submitted 14 FOIs which were mostly refused but they did reveal that there had never been a complaint about the subject of the Code of Conduct Minutes. This was in direct contravention of Bexley Council’s own rules. I managed to uncover a plausible reason for what may have motivated Bexley Council into their then trademark vindictiveness and via the blog offered what little help a small time journalist could.

For this I was reported to the police - and charged - for making a false reference to the Minutes. If only Sergeant Robbie Cooke had checked the Council’s website. He will never make Detective will he?

Eight years later I found myself under pressure to remove those supportive blogs the last of which was published in September 2016.

I have taken the view that supporting someone against a ‘crime’ which Bexley Council has wiped from history is a complete waste of time and removed all references to the ancient incident thus complying with the legal threat, albeit not because of GDPR.

The Free Speech Union is aware.

 

2 March - It was all about the money

There was another Cabinet meeting in Bexley last Monday which according to the Chairman boasted a lonely member of the public in the audience. It wasn’t me. As usual the subject was the difficult financial situation; an hour and fifty minutes of it.

For the period October to December last year the Council had spent £3·9 million more than it bargained for. Expenditure has reduced a little since then but the constant rise in the number of EHC Plans is unwelcome. Bad debts (excluding parking) stand at £281,000 and not part of the £3·9 million. Capital expenditure is down, mainly in the Places Directorate and there may be more slippage before April.

Cabinet Member Leaf said with commendable brevity that “the challenges and pressures are significant”.

A cheeky Stefano Borella (Labour Leader) asked when the Council was last showing a break even position. After a period of silence the Leader responded with a “not sure but it might be two years ago”. Stefano said he believed it was in August 2022. Councillor Leaf who knows everything said the Council last came in under budget three years ago.

The Leader regretted having to propose a 4·99% Council Tax increase for 2025/26 and the National Insurance increase imposed by Rachel Reeves has had an impact on that. There has been some mitigation from Government for this year and some Councils were given extra, but not Bexley. The mitigation will not be forthcoming next year.

Caroline Holland the much praised outgoing Director of Finance said the budget is balanced this year but there are widening gaps over the next four. £43·9 million by 2028/29 assuming no changes to present day support etc.

The Council recently borrowed £10 million, something that was always expected and the interest rates were favourable. The Dedicated Schools Grant is of particular concern. If the override is not extended before the end of the forthcoming financial year, the deficit of £17·406 million will exceed the Council’s reserves. EHCP requests now arrive constantly and not just at the beginning of term as used to be the case, They represent one of Bexley’s biggest risks and a lot of Councils are in the same boat.

Cabinet Member David Leaf then set out on one of his marathon speeches which went on for 36 minutes. I found it interesting when listening live but something of that length merits a report of its own. Cabinet Member’s Cafer Munur and Melvyn Seymour presented more manageable reports.

Cafer said that getting people into work is his priority as it not only saves money but improves health and wellbeing. 829 residents are currently in his back to work program and now he has a new one called Trail Blazers. It will run for a year targeting single parents, ex-offenders, care leavers and people with low level of skills and will offer training and in-work support. A strong relationship with local businesses has been established.

Councillor Seymour said the pressure on hospital discharge funding remained. It is expected to rise by another 10% in the coming year but no information on Government funding is yet available. The biggest spend is on domiciliary care but dementia support is creeping up. The Government deciding not to exempt care providers from the NIC increases will have a massive impact on costs. As a direct result of that policy residents will be paying more.

38,000 pensioners in Bexley had their Winter Fuel Allowance removed “by this cruel Government” which was countered by the Bexley Box scheme organised in conjunction with Age UK and assisted by Conservative Councillors. Labour boycotted the scheme. “Millions of people across the country had their quality of life degraded. Reprehensible.”

 

1 March - State secrets

Rather a long time ago while working for BT I had a strange feeling that something odd was going on. Over several months speaking to many people and listening to ten or a dozen fairly innocuous stories I began to link them all together and paint a much more interesting picture. To cut a long story short, a £12 million (BT’s estimate, not mine) fraud was lurking just below the surface.

Not on the same scale but I felt similarly uncomfortable after speaking to Council employees, parents of SEND children who have had meetings with social workers and going through a whole load of @tonyofsidcup’s FOIs; not all of them are featured here but I read them all. I gained the impression that Bexley Council is expending a great deal of effort into hiding as much from prying eyes as is possible.

It was always thus but the techniques may have changed. I tried my luck at a probing FOI.

• For how long does the Council retain email messages of people who leave Council employment for any reason? Answer 93 days. @tony had been told 30 days and refused FOI responses for that very reason.
• For how long does the Council retain the email messages of Councillors who resign or lose office? They are encouraged to save anything particularly important to SharePoint but after that their accounts are deleted after 93 days. (SharePoint is a Microsoft storage facility.)
• At what stage if any is written correspondence shredded? It depends on what the [unspecified] legislation demands.
• When are the telephone calls recorded for training or any other purpose erased? Answer, after 40 days.
• Webcasts are lost to public view after three months. Are they archived for later retrieval if needed? Answer, only for a further three months.
• For how long are Zoom/Team recordings of meetings retained? Answer, they prefer not to record them at all but if they do, except in very special circumstances, the retention time is 24 hours. Council Officers had said 48 hours and an SEND parent said he had experienced Friday meetings being unavailable for viewing on the following Monday.
• Agendas and Minutes are available on the Council’s website for many years. Have any ever been removed for any reason whatsoever because of a request by an individual? Answer, there has been only one such request and the Agenda was removed on the grounds that it was more than six years old and contained personal information. (Surely many must do?)

A serious omission was not asking how long emails generally are kept when no resignations etc. are involved. My Council informers say they are wiped after a year. There would be no excuse for it if true.

Data storage is dirt cheap. I can remember when a nine gigabyte disc cost £1,800, I have a thousand gigbyte disc being delivered on Monday. I think it was about fifty quid. I have all my emails going back into the previous millennium. why can’t Bexley Council afford to do that?

My guess is that throwing data away prematurely is part of the secrecy regime and minimises the risk of having to release anything important via FOI.

Note: A 300 megabyte disc cost around £350 in 1987. BT paid for mine! A thousand gigabytes (a terrabyte) is 3,333 times bigger than 300 megabytes. Scaled up the price would be well over £1 million had the capacity been available in 1987.