14 March (Part 2) - Conservative Bexley is more tyrannical than Labour Greenwich
Two local websites have covered what they call Greenwich Council’s shameless attempt to curb democracy.
Murky Depths and
The Greenwich Wire.
What neither seem to have recognised is that even after the clamp down,
Greenwich Council will be no worse than and in several respects better than Bexley Council
has been since the Conservatives were elected in 2006.
Greenwich is going to ask for a week’s notice of questions while Bexley has
always asked for seven days excluding both the day of the question - and only
then after they have got around to looking at the email - and the day of the
meeting. So both are much the same. Greenwich is restricting Councillors to only two
questions while in Bexley they are squeezed into any time the public has not
used from their 30 minute allocation which comes around only five times a year. In Greenwich they have seven opportunities.
Greenwich will no longer allow questions in excess of 100 words long but Bexley Council has always done that.
Call ins by opposition parties are to be restricted while in Bexley they are not
allowed at all. It is based on a mathematical calculation and that is the way it
works out when the Conservatives hold a large majority.
In Greenwich Labour Members will be encouraged to ask soft questions designed to
put the party in a good light. In Bexley they have always planted easy questions in order to initiate a party political broadcast.
The Greenwich Wire
Nothing will ever beat Bexley Council’s decision to accept questions only
from residents who agreed to allow the full details of their name
and address to be published on the
Council’s website. This inhibited questions from residents who were
living at home with parents who might wish to exert a controlling influence. It
also completely prevented anyone living in a hostage for abused partners as it revealed their whereabouts.
I cannot remember now whether it was me or Mick Barnbrook who reported Bexley
Council to the Information Commissioner who came down on them like the
proverbial ton of bricks.