8 November - Several questions, rather fewer answers
Unusually I listened to the Full Council webcast live and the initial impression was that
it was a longer than usual meeting which contained little of interest, apart from
David Leaf
becoming Leader and referred to as such before he was actually approved by
Full Council. Understandable while the Conservatives have an overwhelming majority.
Next day I bumped into a Councillor in Broadway and he agreed with my
assessment; let’s see if there is anything significant that can be dragged out of my audio recording.
Inevitably Dimitri Shvorob had a question. What is the total area of parks
bulldozed or about to be bulldozed by Bexley Council in the past 17 years? A
question addressed to the outgoing Leader. In three minutes and 20 seconds of
waffle no answer was forthcoming at which point the Baroness switched to
attack mode by admonishing Dimitri for “his obsession with Members’ enquiries”.
She said his statistics were worthless and Councillors often help residents in
ways which are not recorded as enquiries. Indeed she has personally helped
Dimitri in such a way. (She has, and I know what the help was, but if she wants
to keep quiet about it then I will have to leave you to guess.)
Mr. Shvorob said that neither Bromley nor Greenwich has sold parks; why does
Bexley have to be different? The weasly answer was that Bexley had not sold any
parks, it had instead “invested” in them. How did BexleyCo get its mits on our
parks if Bexley did not sell them to the supposedly independent loss maker?
Dimitri then posed a sarcastic question to the Cabinet Member for Places
congratulating him on his last place in the Healthy Streets initiative and
School Streets league table. I’m surprised the Mayor allowed the question and
Richard Diment wisely didn’t bother answering it instead saying he was proud of his Highways Team.
The next question came from resident Stephanie David who was aggressive from the outset
and we have
heard much the same question before. She is aggrieved by Bexley’s pension
fund investing in Israel. Specifically “What is being done with a legal opinion
that was sent in August to all local councils by the Palestine Solidarity
Campaign detailing culpability with respect to pension fund investments in
companies complicit in Israel’s apartheid, occupation and genocide in Gaza?” And
“Why were the requests to support Palestine and other black majority countries
denied at the full Council meeting last April, whereas every support and
political argument that could be mustered was given to white-skinned Ukraine?
Howard Jackson who chairs the Pension Committee said that contrary to that
assertion, nothing had been heard from the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign.
Howard suggested that the constant reference to white-skinned
people and the unspoken implication as to his character was unwelcome. He
was very diplomatic and I am not sure it was deserved.
Councillor Steven Hall put a question about the Crayford MP’s juvenile game of
bombarding FixMyStreet with politically motivated pot hole reports. 150 of them
in fewer than ten days. Richard Diment responded with pretty much a repeat of
what he said in Cabinet and
what he wrote to the News Shopper. The word “misled” featured many times.
Official statistics show that Bexley’s roads are in a very much better state
than other London boroughs despite Sadiq Khan, in contrast to Boris Johnson, providing
maintenance funds in only two of the last seven years.
Labour Councillor Anna Day couldn’t see what the problem is with bombarding
FixMyStreet with reports (70% of which were unjustified according to Councillor
Diment) and thought that Daniel Francis MP had done Bexley a favour.