26 October - Teresa’s last Cabinet
I initially planned to go to the Public Cabinet meeting last week because it
was to be Teresa O’Neill’s last appearance as Chairman although the webcast
means the main advantage is better photographs. However my SLR camera is broken
and then I got an irresistible offer to be elsewhere. So that settled it. It’s the webcast again.
We heard that the number of complaints closed on time was higher than expected -
they changed the rules -
the percentage of household waste sent for recycling was
up, the number of people in full time employment was up, child drug use
treatment is down - is that good? - attendance at Leisure Centres is up and suicides were down.
Bexley’s Planning Department has been rated ‘Premium’, by whom was not stated.
All good news.
The subject of Building Regulation Control being done by private companies was
raised by Councillor Slaughter. She referred to them being both more efficient and
cheaper. Cabinet Member Cafer Munir said that Bexley Council does its Building
Control work “properly and by the book” which safeguards residents leading to
the best possible building quality. From personal experience in Bromley where
the Council has washed their hands of Building Control I can confirm that its
private contractor was shockingly bad about three years ago.
The finances are not brilliant as you might expect. Blame Social Services. A
£2,184 million overspend is forecast which is just a little bit better than it
was three months ago. Highways are spending less than forecast, who would have
guessed?. Cabinet Member Leaf said that it doesn’t help that our Labour MP gives
false information to Parliament about Bexley’s Highways expenditure leading to
the Prime Minister saying he might reduce our funding. I immediately suspected it was Daniel
Francis because the Thamesmead MP doesn’t seem to do anything, but Councillor
Richard Diment confirmed it. He said that Mr. Francis’s comments in Parliament
were “outrageous, cavalier and deliberately misleading” (not all in the same
sentence) and he has put Bexley’s roads’ maintenance at risk and repeated his comments in a Radio 5 Live interview.
The extract from Hansard which appears alongside is quite obviously misleading
and does not reveal that it was the MP who wrote to the News Shopper first.
Outrageous seems to be an entirely reasonable response from Richard Diment.
Specifically Daniel Francis has been reporting potholes via FixMyStreet at a
rate of around 50 per day and nearly all of them out of office hours
causing considerable expense because a technician is sent to inspect every one
immediately, out of hours included. Every FixMyStreet report was accompanied by
inappropriate political slogans which had to be removed. Only a quarter of the
pot holes merited attention and fewer than 5% immediately.
The Chief Executive told the MP that his activities were causing a great deal
of unnecessary expense and there were other ways by which he could make his
reports. Like within Office Hours for example. Daniel Francis did not comply and instead
went to the News Shopper claiming Bexley’s roads were in a worse state than our
neighbours. National statistics (The Highways Comparison Report) say they are in
an incomparable better state than all of them. At least ten times better than Greenwich for example.
It’s obvious to any driver who strays across the border.
The MP ‘fiddled’ the statistics by referring to the sum of invoices actually
paid to contractors and not the sum of invoices in the pipeline for work already
done. The Cabinet Member said that all the Government roads grant will be spent. In other words the MP is
untrustworthy, a cheat and unworthy of his elected position. The Leader said
deliberately wasting taxpayers’ money was an “absolute disgrace”.
Richard Diment will write to the Prime Minister to correct the MP’s treachery towards the borough.
Interesting stuff. Check for yourself; someone is misleading us and it probably isn’t Richard Diment.
Cabinet Member Caroline Newton said that Daniel Francis MP
took a similar unhelpful position on SEND issues.
Labour Councillor for Erith Chris Ball raised the issue of the totally
inadequate bus stops outside Abbey Wood station where the shelters are
ineffective [and in the case of Stop D not even close to the Stop]. Do we have any
money to improve things? He pointed out that the pot hole spend seems to be
running behind schedule on a month by month basis but did not attempt to justify
the MP’s misinformation. The Leader said the money came through late and
therefore a month by month comparison is flawed.
Interestingly the Leader said that the bus stop opposite Abbey Wood station is the
only one in the borough that belongs to the Council and that is one reason for
such a major stop not having a departure board. The reason for the ownership
situation is lost in time but is being discussed with TfL.
Here is Bexley Council’s response to the Prime Minister’s threat to withdraw road maintenance funding.
Well done David!