25 July - The Leader’s report to Council. (Football references omitted)
The
Leader’s written report to Full Council ten days ago was 28 pages listing every
conceivable thing the Council may have done. The induction of new Councillors,
smoking and health, autism, family hubs, libraries, community safety, domestic
abuse, homelessness, green belts and grey belts, Superloop buses and Bexley’s plan
to add more stops, EV chargers, recycling, weed control, volunteer litter
pickers, illicit tobacco sales, tennis courts, AI driven chatbots for phone
callers, and Pride in Place in Slade Green.
I doubt anyone reads it end to end but if you are into that sort of thing it
starts on Page 11 of the meeting Agenda.
Councillor
David Leaf began by thanking the electorate for delivering “another strong
mandate and a record breaking sixth consecutive term in office”. He said that he
is proud to promote the new initiative “Bexley’s Got Parks” supporting the borough’s open spaces.
Once again I must ignore the innumerable footballing references and jibes at
Nigel Farage and Count Binface must suffer a similar fate. Totally irrelevant to
a report by a Council Leader who presumably expects to be taken seriously.
He has been supporting child fostering and unpaid carers while fighting
transport cuts and “this awful Labour Government which are hitting Bexley hard”
all of which is “just the tip of the iceberg of what we do for Bexley residents”.
Councillor Peter Craske (Conservative, Blackfen & Lamorbey) wanted to say that
Blackfen Community Library is now ten years old with 8,697 members and that
the Labour Group had voted against it. “It has been a huge success.”
Labour Leader Stefano Borella - or Borello if you subscribe to the Mayor’s
Italian to English dictionary - commented on the age of local trains. The
Networkers date from 2006 with others from 1993 and he was very proud of our
nationalised railway services. “British Rail was not as bad as you guys opposite make out.”
He
thanked the election staff and for the avoidance of “the disaster of a Reform led
Council”. (If Reform had fought in Labour wards and not Conservative ones analysis
of the data shows that the result might have been very different.)
Stefano
correctly said that the Conservative vote share went down so Councillor Leaf was
not given “a ringing endorsement”. He praised “the proper use of St. George’s
flags to celebrate the football, but “will the Leader commit to remove the torn
and tatty illegal flags attached to lampposts? They are not patriotic and will
he prosecute those who put them there?”
Councillor Leaf said he liked flags.
Councillor Borella continued.
BexleyCo is officially recognised as being a financial risk. Will the Leader
formulate a new plan? “If he had listened to Labour in 2018 there would have been
no need to build on Old Farm Park and West Street, Erith. Stop slagging off the
Mayor might help to gain his support.”
There was a brief argument about who had saved the 96 bus to Bluewater and
Darenth Valley Hospital which was allegedly to be ‘taxed’ out of viable
existence by Kent County Council. The 96 uses their dedicated bus track. Bexley Council was in effect powerless and its
letters to KCC and TfL were ignored. The route is now safe until at least 2030.
Councillor Nicola Taylor (Labour, Erith) asked that someone should remove the 20
or so shopping trolleys which litter the river mud banks below Riverside
Gardens and Councillor Oscar Harrison (Conservative, Longlands) praised the 200 plus volunteer litter pickers.
Councillor Barcock (Conservative, Sidcup) asked about vaping. The immediate detailed
response from the Cabinet Member with reams of statistics strongly suggests this
was yet another staged question. Vaping stands at around 9% of Bexley residents.
An estimate based on national statistics. Local surveys in schools suggest that
child vaping may be decreasing but not all schools co-operate with the survey.
Apart from another diatribe from Councillor Leaf about Nigel Farage and Reform
and their understanding of Council finances, that was pretty much it.