20 March - I think they must be worried

The election is only 48 days away and my leaflet collection is looking very thin; one Conservative, one Reform UK and James Hunt. Nothing from my neck of the woods. However when I showed up in Bromley this morning at some unGodly traffic beating hour, I spotted an election leaflet in my friend’s waste bin. (For the record, 24 minutes there and 63 minutes back.)

If it was not for the fact that I knew the name Ian Payne I would not have known which party the leaflet was from. “Bunch of liars, I won’t vote for any of them” said my friend dismissively. I asked why. “That Sunil Gupta comes around asking how he can help and goes away making promises, and then you never hear from him again. Useless”. So I took the leaflet home to study it carefully.

It consists of four A4 sides and the word Conservative appears only four times. Once in the tiniest of fonts giving the legally required address. A Facebook link which includes the C word, a small heading including the name of their Association and a single occurrence in the four pages of text.

It is almost as if they are ashamed to let on who they are. In Sidcup the Tories have delivered a far more professional leaflet.

Reform UK however is listed 26 times, including the graphics, so if the electorate didn’t know who they were, they will now.

They are slagged off of course. It is alleged that Reform UK claimed they would cut Council Tax when in reality they have, on average, only raised it less than the Conservatives.

Bromley follows Bexley with the justifiable complaint that The Labour Government has lied about the funding formula, and again, like Bexley, are trying to fix pot holes. The borough has 547 miles of roads and will spend £5 million on them in the coming financial year; I doubt it will make much of an impression. (Bexley 354 miles and £9 million.)

I think Bromley is in for an even rougher ride than Bexley.

The Reform Members on Bromley Council come in for some personal stick. They allegedly have a poor attendance record at meetings. It might be true. There are three of them, all defectors from the Tories.

Sour grapes and a a little bit frit? You may very well think so.

 

19 March - Shameless

BiB is occasionally asked to feature a perceived injustice which the requester believes will shame Bexley Council into action. My answer is always the same, I am happy to do so but warn that Bexley Council is beyond shame and will do nothing. In the worst case they may take revenge and make things worse. This may be why such requests are fewer than they used to be.

You cannot shame a Council that after a blog stating that two plus two equals four and quotes Bexley Council’s website as evidence one Councillor complains to the police that in fact the answer is five and the police, incompetent as always, don’t bother to check and charges you with spreading misinformation.

Then when you seek support from every Councillor, all of whom know that two plus two is four, only two bother to reply and help. Councillors June Slaughter and James Hunt if you must know. All the rest shamelessly defend the indefensible by default. (This predates the last election so don’t tar the recent young intake with the same brush. Ditto Labour Councillors.)

When another Councillor was arrested by the police and the C.P.S. recommended he be charged, Bexley Council called in favours with the Tory Mayor and the police magically de-arrested him. When I challenged the police with this thought they refused to deny it and the Councillor was restored to his Cabinet position. Shameless again.

Need I go on?

I have been attempting to collect evidence on the latest complaint for several weeks and even now it may fall a little short of what is required. It concerns the Bowling Club in Russell Park. It’s off Long Lane not far from the bus garage and I didn’t know it was there.

Like most of us I have driven down Long Lane many hundreds of times and occasionally wondered why a road with houses on one side only, all of which have off-road parking spaces for one or two cars, should be so clogged with additional vehicles.

Maybe I am dim but I never thought that drivers at the nearby bus garage might be responsible. They are not allowed to park on site so where else are they going to go? On three occasions I have stood and watched them.

The problem is that the 70+ mainly elderly folk who pass their time playing bowls cannot get anywhere near their ground as a result of which the Club might have to close. Visiting Clubs refuse to come.

There is a simple solution, park on the green’s own car park; but it belongs to Bexley Council and allegedly those shameless enemies of the people won’t let them even in return for a fee. The only use the car park gets is when the Mayor turns up in the Council limo to award prizes.

Maybe next May will bring forth a more responsible Council? The suspicion right now must be that Bexley Council would like to see the Club close so that they can build over it.

 

18 March - A Transport of Delight

I have seen a wide variety of Chairmen perform in the Chamber since I began Bexley Council watching in 2010.

We have had one who illegally moved her public meeting to a private room and barricaded it because she did not want her words to be recorded. The lies told about that incident were so extreme that they resulted in the police sending a file to the CPS.

Then there was another who encouraged Councillors to switch off their microphones so that the Hearing Loop didn’t work and two deaf people in the public gallery could no longer follow the meeting. The Equalities Commission stepped in to prevent a recurrence.

Another Chairman reprimanded a member of the public in a letter to his home address because she deemed him not sufficiently enthusiastic about her performance. I suspect that breaking into Council records to find his address broke all sorts of rules but that particular Chairman was never very interested in following rules.

Most meeting Chairmen have been perfectly OK if unremarkable. Towards the other extreme Andy Dourmoush would always welcome me to his meetings and on my not very frequent attendances at a Planning Meeting, Chairman Peter Reader would come over to shake my hand. (All of these Councillors have gone or announced their imminent departure.)

And then there is Cameron Smith. (Conservative, St. Mary’s and St. James and Chairman of the Transport Sub-Committee.)

He used to invite me to sit alongside him until he noticed I always declined his kind offer. He also allows me to participate in the discussion if I feel so inclined. He is unique in both respects and I particularly like his tendency to say what most of us are thinking. He is his own man willing to represent residents without being too much of a whip aware party slave.

Within a few hours of me admitting missing his Transport Users’ Committee meeting through my own stupidity he was in touch to tell me what I had missed. Not much on the police and bus front apparently but the rail authorities made some interesting announcements.

The pre-Covid six Southeastern services an hour will be restored on all three cross-borough lines, The Bexleyheath line will get more Charing Cross services while the Greenwich line will get loop services to Sidcup off-peak and Saturday too. “So delighted” he says.

Cameron takes issue with me on Lane Rental. I say take issue but in reality yesterday’s blog was deliberately escalated into a bit of a rant. I am not unsympathetic to Cameron’s view but I really hate Thames Water who refuse to talk to me about them never fitting a street stopcock outside my house. As every driver knows, getting across the borough is an extremely frustrating experience and I am not immune from it.

For your benefit, the Chairman is of the opinion that “charging utilities may very well act as a deterrent but it is effectively a tax on investment. Ultimately, bill payers would pick up the tab and it would deter mains water replacement etc. that we need to stop the cycle of endless road works caused by failing infrastructure”.

“My hope is to secure the mains replacement Bexley Village needs so we can substantially reduce road works. Perhaps not a popular view, but it’s short-term pain for long-term gain. The politically difficult but right thing to do is to encourage the real investment we need to replace our ageing pipes. The alternative of taxing investment or just saying no which isn’t usually possible, would just mean more of the same. Old pipes, breakages and road works ad nauseam.”

True, but I am not sure I will live long enough to see the improvements!

He adds that the map of forthcoming works will not disrupt life all at the same time. It depicts what is in the pipeline if you will excuse the pun.

Cameron had nothing to say about buses so I will fill in for him. They are everywhere but not terribly reliable. At 6 o’clock yesterday evening there were eleven double deckers stuck in Gayton Road, Abbey Wood and overflowing into Florence Road.

I was at the Clock Tower at ten to three yesterday and unusually caught the scenic route home because I wanted to take some photos near the bus garage. So I got off the 229, looked for what I had been asked to photograph - and failed - and went back to catch the next 229.

The bus App said it was due in eight minutes and 20 minutes later three turned up at the same time. The first was full but I squeezed on to the second one and stood next to the stairs opposite the priority seats.

At the next (near Silverdale Road) stop, a frail old lady got on and stood in front of me. The two chaps in the priority seats took no notice as she swayed perilously.

I was tempted to photograph the back end of the bus, crowded but with sixteen school kids visible to me, but you can’t take pictures of kids in these woke times so I didn’t. All but one were black. Probably things would be no different if they were white British but not for the first time I wondered why you see mainly black children on buses. How do the others get home?

The three 229s travelled in convoy to Lesnes Abbey and beyond but by then mine was heading the queue. It arrived around quarter past four. Well over an hour after leaving the Clock Tower.

Earlier the same day I took an SL3 home  from Lion Road. I was literally the only passenger on board. It travelled non-stop to Florence Road via Nuxley Road because of the incessant road closures. It even missed Bexleyheath station and the oncoming bus on New Road where the parking is idiotic.

Note: Showing my age here but the blog title comes from a 1957 comedy song by Michael Flanders and Donald Swann. I recall it included the line, 97 horsepower London bus, the Routemaster had 115. About half that of my electric car. I seem to have nicked all my sister’s records.

 

17 March - Bexley is FUBAR

OK, I admit it. I had the Transport Users’ Committee meeting down for tomorrow, I had even charged my recorder batteries and packed a notebook and pencil, but it was last Thursday,

Maybe it is just as well as I had in mind saying what I thought of the Committee. Bexley is too often close to a standstill. I did one of my Bromley return trips yesterday before 5 a.m. to avoid a couple of hours on the road. Unfortunately I had to return in the late afternoon. Brampton Road is shut and last time I tackled Sidcup at that sort of time it took 25 minutes to get from Waitrose via The Green to the hospital. Yesterday I thought I’d give it all a wide berth.

From Lesnes Abbey to Picardy Road, along Nuxley Road and out to Long Lane. From there Gravel Hill to Bexley Village and North Cray Road to the A20 and Bromley.

But it was not to be. Bexley Village was shut again so I had to return to the traditional Sidcup route. I wasn’t going to risk the 25 minute QEH delay again so I planned to go via Knoll Road and down Sidcup Hill to Footscray and the A20.

No such luck. The traffic queue started at Rectory Lane. On Sidcup Hill there was the half hour queue of traffic trying to get to Sidcup and past the hospital and in the easterly direction there was a half hour queue of people like me who were trying to avoid it.

The queue on the Bromley side of the hospital extended to within a few hundred yards of Chislehurst station and the works are scheduled to take 18 months.

Now I know that these problems are largely not directly Bexley Council’s fault (Greenwich Council trying to fix the road they closed last November. Gas and Thames Water yesterday) but come next May I will not give them the benefit of any doubt. The roads are a shambles and they are ultimately responsible. Irrational or not, it will make me feel better.

Oddly enough the Committee was due to discuss the London Permit Scheme and Lane Rental which would allow utilities to be charged for wrecking local economies. I would think Thames Water should be paying £2 million a week for what they have done to Sidcup. Has it not been brought to a standstill every weekday over the past two months? £10,000 a week for more minor roads too, although I think that is beyond the scope of the Lane Rental Scheme which Bexley Council says it is considering.

The rather blurry map below shows in blue where Thames Water has or shortly will have, its road wrecking schemes.

Disruption everywere.

While on the subject of the appalling Thames Water; on 1st March I asked them for a copy of their 2025/26 tariff. ie. the current one. Next year 2026/27 is on the website but not this year.

On 11th March they agreed with me, it isn’t publicly available - but they couldn’t tell me what it is. As soon as the weather improves a bit I will repeat last year’s protest of running the garden tap continuously straight down the drain. A drop in the ocean compared to what they waste but until they agree to give me a stopcock in the footpath outside…

 

16 March - You didn’t imagine it

Parking fines are up 33% in Bexley in just ten years, among the lowest increases in London. Despite that Bexley Council admitted at its last Cabinet Meeting that the new CPZs had made a significant contribution to the budget deficit, but this is apparently permit take-up rather than fines. But I am sure every little helps.

Greenwich is an odd one; in Abbey Wood (which is mainly in Greenwich for non-locals who may be reading this) the complaint is that commuters park with impunity.

This image has been ‘stolen’ from Mr. Mustard, the Barnet based PCN guru. It probably took him hours to prepare and discuss on his website so I am not going to repeat his analysis here.

Go and read it for yourself! (Link.)

 

15 March - Don’t be deceived

Yesterday the News Shopper reported that the Council Leader and Mayor has unveiled a plaque to those whose death was attributed to Covid. It was in effect a republication of a Bexley Council Press Release because no local paper can afford to cover such events with their own reporter and photographer.

As such, readers might be forgiven for thinking that we owe the plaque and the garden in which it stands to Councillor Leaf. “It was important for us to establish a permanent space where our community can visit to reflect on their experiences and remember those no longer with us. This garden is a tribute to the resilience of our residents and the tireless acts of kindness shown during an unprecedented time.”

The former Leader Baroness O’Neill gets a credit too.

The whole truth is rather different and may be found on Bexley Council’s own website of all places! The idea came from Bexley resident Gordon Davis who sought the help of Independent candidate and Councillor for Blackfen & Lamorbey, James Hunt. James was assisted by his ward colleague Peter Craske.

Mr. Davis said; “I’m really pleased that my suggestion for a commemorative garden has been acted on. I felt it was vital to have a scenic place in the borough to visit and spend time thinking about loved ones we have lost, or who may have suffered as a result of Covid. I am delighted to be involved in such a positive project and look forward to spending time enjoying the new space we will be creating as a community. This park is an ideal choice and I thoroughly enjoyed walking the site to see the new playground and various wildlife habitats promoting greater biodiversity of flora and fauna. I thank the Councillors and the Mayor for embracing this idea and bringing it to fruition.”

From the August 2020 News Release.

As the Council acknowledged in 2020, the Mayor at the time was James Hunt but not a word about that from the current would-be electorate deceivers now!

 

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.

 

14 March (Part 1) - Where’s Melvin run to?

Not a lot has registered with me about who the Conservatives plan to stand for election in May. I know the names of the Sidcup three and I know that Frazer Brooks has done a runner from Falconwood to Blackfen and been criticised in certain quarters for doing so. I have no idea why; it is standard procedure in Bexley; but of the others? I should have taken notes. (I suspect I would find a few if I carried out a thorough search.)

However thanks to an X post from former MP David Evennett we know who is going to take on Crayford. “Local Conservatives were out campaigning in Crayford this morning to support Council candidates Cllr Geraldene Lucia-Hennis, Andrew Credgington and Jonathan Gillespie. Our GLA member Thomas Turrell AM joined us.”

Geraldene has been a Crayford Councillor for a very long time; since before 2010 anyway. (The precise date is unknown because the Tories website page on her is broken. P.S. 2006.)

However her colleague and Cabinet Member Melvin Seymour, while present in the photo, does not otherwise get a mention. Has he done the chicken run? (P.S. To West Heath.)

I am not sure why he should be worried. In a fit of extraordinary stupidity, Crayford elected a Labour MP in 2024, one who is in favour of killing viable nine month foetuses and thinks we are short of juries, not Court rooms or the judiciary to run them; and is happy to undo 800 years of history.

Crayford doesn’t need any more buffoons and might be well advised to stick with those they know best.

 

13 March - In a bit of a flap

While the Prime Minister creates a new clown show on a daily basis it is a relief to find something from local Labour politicians with which one can agree; up to a point. They want to see the end of flags on lamp posts in part because as they age, they make the place look untidy, which is true, but also because they make health workers feel uncomfortable working near to the British and English flags. Allegedly.

Their Press Release goes on to say that the Union and St. George’s flags are symbols that unite the nation but they are not inclusive. You may care to think hard about the juxtaposition of those two statements.

Presumably the Press Release is entirely in tune with the Government’s Social Cohesion Strategy which branded the Union Flag a tool of hate.

Being a reasonable Labour politician trying to toe the line imposed by the most tyrannical government in history requires the highest skills of funambullism.

There was an earlier Bexley Labour flag Press Release. The problem with getting rid of flags is that it is too expensive.

Click image to read today’s Press Release. (PDF.)

 

12 March - The first of the election leaflets arrive

Four years ago the Conservative had the first of their election leaflets out by the beginning of February and they were first out again this year unless one counts the London wide circular issued by Nigel Farage back in December. But Reform UK is not to be outdone, two leaflets through Bexley letter boxes already.

Newly Independent James Hunt is working up his campaign too and was featured in MyLondon today.

 

11 March (Part 2) - Well I got that wrong!

It didn’t take long for those in the know to bring the big goof in this morning’s blog to my attention. Dave Curtois is not the father of Councillor Andrew as I had assumed, far from it. Let’s just say that if, in the unlikely event of both being elected on May 7th, Bexley Council will be back in couples territory. Not as many as the five we had some years ago, given the present mood that I sense is prevalent in the borough, the Conservatives will be lucky to have five couples in the chamber, married or not.

If apologies are due they are freely given, but what is the Mayor Catterall Consort Curtois link?

 

11 March (Part 1) - Monkey business

There is a proposal to build some sort of play park in the wooded area of Danson Park. Ropes and zipwire type things hanging from trees. 25/02342/FUL.

We had the same courtesy of the British Army when I lived on the edge of Aldershot in the 1950s. Kids could use the Paras’ training facilities when there was no live firing in progress

The difference now was that Aldershot was free of charge and Danson Park won’t be. No wonder Councillor Nick O’Hare was ridiculed by Nicola Taylor for complaining that Bexley Council keeps flogging off its green spaces and his comment that when it is gone it is gone.

Children’s playgrounds are not the sort of thing that interest me greatly but as I have a friend who lives more or less opposite the park I asked if she could do me a favour and report back on the protest meeting.

The report didn’t amount to much and is reproduced here. It looked like a David Curtois was going to seek election in May and is best friends with Mayor Christine Catterall all of which is perfectly legitimate.

I had forgotten about the Catterall Curtois link, but it is not a secret, and guessed that David was related to Councillor Andrew Curtois. But once again; who cares? There was a time when five Bexley Councillors were related to another five and no one much cared about that either.

Then someone who keeps an eye on Planning applications found 26/00396/FUL. (The search button returned Not Found for me but a search for the address, West Lodge, Danson Lane does the trick.)

That application comes from Mr. Andrew Curtois who has some extensive alterations to his home in mind. Unlike one of his predecessors he declares himself a Councillor as he is required to do. A certain lady Councillor not renowned for her honesty failed to do that. Such a declaration ensures that the application goes to the Planning Committee so that everything is beyond reproach. And of course 26/00396 is.

But this Go Ape park is right next door to West Lodge which is not at all nice for the Councillor who lives there. An awkward situation if ever there was one. It might not go down well with Bexley Council to fight the Go Ape plans but maybe getting one’s father, who it might be, to run the protest group might be a neat way out of the dilemma.

West Lodge top left of both pictures. Google Earth on the right.

Some are saying this is a bit of a scandal though I cannot quite see how. I asked the friend who attended the meeting if Dave Curtois said anything about West Lodge and she thinks that on reflection he probably did say he lived nearby.

Andrew Curtois is not a Councillor who has ever showed any interest in Bonkers, if he had done so I might have asked him about his interest in the Go Ape application but as it is, I think those looking for another Bexley Council scandal will be sorely disappointed.

 

10 March (Part 2) - Cheering on inflation busting tax rises

A balanced budget when a Labour Government is doing its best to wreck the economy with extra taxes on residents and more of them unemployed due to tax policies may have been difficult but not something to be applauded by Conservative Councillors; but they did. A balanced budget is a legal requirement but clapping loudly at the prospect of residents facing an increase of more than twice the rate of inflation must surely be the very pinnacle of poor taste. Maybe MPs attending a dance event rather than a debate on the Middle East war runs it close.

Do we have a serious Council ready to root out the underlying problems or is it tired of life?.

After rejecting the Labour Amendment to the budget - changing BexleyCo’s focus, spend £11 million on roads, create a Community Vision, improve Scrutiny procedures, raise about three grand by charging Councillors and the most senior executives for parking and welcoming recent Government initiatives like breakfast clubs and reducing electricity charges to rather more than they were in July 2024 - the Council moved on to debating its proposal to raise Council Tax by as much as is legally permitted.

There were several derogatory references during this second half of the meeting to members of the public who had drifted away early but when the clock heads towards 11 p.m. it is not particularly surprising. Listening to self congratulation by Tories seeking Brownie Points from their Leader is not the most inspiring of spectacles.

Councillor O’Hare (Conservative, Blendon & Penhil) spoke first. His chosen subject was parks and open spaces. “A vital infrastructure where families breathe and children play. Once they are gone they are gone for good. [West Street anyone?] This budget puts money into parks and playgrounds.”

After a long list of benefits lost by the gradual erosion of green spaces through planning applications; all good stuff, he was applauded somewhat unenthusiastically by his colleagues.

Cabinet Member Cafer Munur reiterated the legal obligation to set a balanced budget and was pleased that there were “no excessive Council Tax rises while keeping front line services stable”.

“Unlike other Councils which are effectively bankrupt Bexley has prudent management and a relentless focus on value for money. Look at Kent County Council, bold claims made about efficiencies but governing proved very different.”

More Conservative applause.

Councillor Lisa Moore (Conservative, Longlands) listed the achievements in Children’s Services, fostering, Education etc. all of which are probably true. She hoped that the Government would eventually come up with the money they had promised to fund it all. Loud applause.

Councillor John Davey (Conservative, West Heath) said he didn’t think much of the Labour Budget Amendment and he thought it likely that they would be annihilated in the forthcoming election. Polling suggests that the Green Party will wipe them out except possibly in their Thamesmead East stronghold. ”Labour put up Council Tax by nearly 45% following which the Conservatives froze it for six years. Khan increases his precept every year while Boris put it down. Bexley keeps taxes as low as we can. On one side, the Greens will take over Greenwich and on the other Reform splits in Kent and joins splinter parties.”

“Both of our Labour MPs do nothing at all to help; one has disappeared and the other prattles around with pot holes.” Lots of applause and shout of Well Done.

Labour Leader Stefano Borella was allowed to get a word in. He said that Daniel Francis MP fights for the people of Bexley while in Bexley the statistics are skewed to come up with the 7th best claim. “16 boroughs scored more Green ratings than Bexley. Bexley residents do not believe the nonsense being spouted.” Councillor Davey had referred to the Chancellor as “young Rachel” which had provoked indecipherable abuse from the opposition. Stefano doubted that John would say that about a male Chancellor and his chosen adjective was “disgraceful and absolutely appalling”.

(John Davey is 82 years old, just a few months younger than me, and probably regards everyone under the age of 65 as young. I know I do.)

“He should be proud of her” opined Stefano.

He rightly ridiculed Councillor O’Hare for his comments on parks after selling Old Farm Park, West Street and Wilde Road. It is disgraceful that Councillors get free parking in nearby car parks while staff do not. “The budget shunts problems forward to a future administration” which is exactly what Reform UK has been saying.

Councillor Rags Sandhu (Conservative, Bexleyheath) spoke about highway maintenance. He related how one of his residents was pleased that Bexley Council had resurfaced his road and had written to his MP to thank him. An MP who argued for less money for Bexley. [Labour jeering.] (I am still inclined to think that voting rights should be proportional to IQ levels.)

Councillor Andrew Curtois (Conservative, Falconwood & Welling) said that the Labour Government has landed us in a financial mess while Reform UK is a protest party. At this point he made an unwarranted reference to the Reform UK people in the public gallery. Bexley Conservatives on the other hand drive sensible efficiencies, balancing budgets and living within our means. Bexley achieves the second lowest of any Council in its spending on local services. It was presented as a plus point but opinions may differ. Prolonged applause.

Councillor Howard Jackson (Conservative, Barnehurst) was next to his feet. Roads was one of his chosen subjects and “the impressive £9·167 million investment on 354 miles of roads”. Investment in Libraries were in for similar praise.

Councillor Janice Ward-Wilson (Conservative, Crook Log) trotted out the sort of figures we have heard too often before. Bexley gets £46 a head from Government (down again) for public health which is only half the London average. More applause.

Labour Councillor Zainab Asunramu (Thamesmead East) said that the Labour Amendment would have strengthened the budget and “took umbrage” at the inaccuracies in the responses by Councillors Newton, O’Neill and Seymour who had dodged or otherwise misinterpreted Labour’s questions and comments, Standard practice surely?

Councillor Bola Carew (Conservative, Bexleyheath) said her residents tell her that they enjoy living in Bexleyheath, “It is a nice place to be” and the [much reduced in number but updated] CCTV coverage makes them feel safe. I am going to assume you don’t want to hear any more of this despite the loud applause given.

Councillor Brian Bishop (Conservative, Barnehurst) whose appointment to Cabinet was described to me as “barrel scraping” by one of his colleagues was mainly concerned with deriding the Reform UK supporters in the audience some of whom had left at the half time stage. Reduced grants, more money for libraries and the reduced CCTV coverage all got a mention as did the word Reform a creditable seven times, not including the alleged early departure. Is he worried or something?

Councillor Steven Hall (Conservative, East Wickham) managed a joke or two and said the Conservative budget was responsible, stable and puts resources where they are needed most. As a tail and speaker it must be hard to come up with something original so it was the usual stuff on pot holes, social care, recycling, green spaces and a defence of a £1,855 Band D charge. Bexley Council part only.

Cameron Smith (Conservative, St. Mary’s and St. James) said that replacing the outdated CCTV is very helpful to the police and additionally covered his pet subject, road maintenance and the little known fact that Councils pay for the Freedom Pass. He said that balancing the need for road maintenance and the constant utility works was highly complex and the Highways team was really impressive. Applause obviously but maybe more deserving of it than some.

Given the length of this blog, extreme brevity is now required. (The Chairman Mayor asked for the same thing!)

Councillor Caroline Newton (Conservative, East Wickham) said that she and her team had done “pretty well”.

Councillor Nicola Taylor (Labour, Erith) said that Margaret Thatcher sold off water “and look how well that has turned out”. No one will disagree. An easy target was the selling off of green spaces, When “they are gone they are gone”. She took the pee out of Bexley Tories and their green policies in a way that only Nicola could; and she was absolutely right.

Councillor Jeremy Fosten (Labour, Belvedere) took the mick out of the Council blaming unfair funding for their predicament when for 14 of their 20 years it was a Conservative Government in charge. Right again. He asserted that, the budget may be balanced but residents will not see any improvements. FixMyStreet reports of fly tipping go six months and more without action.

Councillor Chris Ball (Labour, Erith) thought the Highways team was “exemplary” suggesting that he does not talk to his MP, Daniel Francis. Mrs. Thatcher was “an extraordinary leader” but “demeaning Rachel Reeves by calling her “a young girl is not acceptable”. The budget is balanced but only by robbing the reserves. (Councillor Ball once told me to my face that he didn’t think Bexley’s Chief Executive was paid enough. Maybe he is not a real Socialist.)

Like me he has no real problem with flag flying but they have become “tatty” which is not good and “it is time they came down”. I said the same three months ago. Maybe I am a Socialist!

Lastly Councillor Baroness O’Neill (Crook Log) said nothing you would not expect. Bexley under the Conservatives has been fantastic etc. and pot holes are fixed in a timely manner.

Council Leader David Leaf corrected some of Labour’s statistics from his encyclopedia of facts and ridiculed the £2,500 improvement to the budget that would come from charging Councillors for parking. He said the Conservatives speeches were “excellent” while Labour will shortly vote against things that they want.

Once again the only Independent present voted for the Conservative budget.

Note: For the record, this blog took three hours and 40 minutes to write - before I go looking for typos and ungrammatical nonsense. Another 30 minutes.

 

10 March (Part 1) - Something missed yesterday evening

Yesterday’s blog.

 

9 March (Part 2) - Third time lucky!

At the end of last month Bonkers briefly mentioned the rumours circulating about the leadership of Reform UK’s Bexley branch. It seemed likely that Tom Bright who was their Parliamentary candidate in Bexleyheath & Crayford in 2024 was on the way out. Whilst I believed It to be fairly certain, no one would definitively say so. But now they have. The stepping aside is for personal reasons; obviously.

Tom Bright will follow the dreadful Fothergill woman, who was Chairman in Old Bexley & Sidcup until last Spring, into political oblivion, or maybe like her, the failed Councillors’ life raft which is Restore Britain.

I know who is going to replace Mr. Bright but it is not my place to make the announcement before the new man does. A much better choice in my opinion who I have met a few times and he lives in the middle of Bexleyheath rather than far flung Sevenoaks or Woolwich.

I expect to see the new Chairman take a seat on Bexley Council in May bringing with him much needed business experience.

 

9 March (Part 1) - Local boy dun good!

Only five days ago Councillor James Hunt floated the idea that he might stand as an Independent Councillor in Blackfen & Lamorbey next May and he tempted me into a rare look at Facebook where I saw he was getting some support. However I don’t get along with Facebook because I can only rarely find anything again, and that is the situation right now. Perhaps his supporters have had second thoughts and withdrawn their encouraging comments!

You may wish to spend a couple of minutes catching up with him on video. He and his parents still live where he was born and bred.

Blackfen & Lamorbey is a ward where Independents are in with a chance as the late Mick Barnbrook showed in 2014. Only narrowly edged out by UKIP who were on a roll at the time.

At a personal level I would be happy to see James push Peter Craske aside. Long term readers may recall the infamous Obscene Blog in which a Council insider accused me of committing lewd acts in the old Civic Offices and the Cinema car park opposite. Before the police traced the offender, James came around to my house to apologise on behalf of the Council. Well maybe not exactly that as he probably had no such authority to do so, but he was as disgusted by it as most people were. To this day I have no idea if he knew if the obscenities were the work of a ward colleague and his apology has never been mentioned here before.

Revealing it today cannot damage his relations with the Conservative party any more and it can only demonstrate that he is far more worthy of your vote than they are. Common decency in a politician is not as common as it should be.

 

8 March (Part 2) - The neurologically disabled are out in force today

Today we have the monthly farmers’ market in Lesnes Abbey which is a great opportunity to show how Bexley Council’s parking restrictions do nothing to discourage cretinous behaviour.

Recent blogs have shown how it is possible to entirely block New Road and not run foul of any parking laws. Fortunately most drivers take things only to the very edge of acceptability and no further but not the entitled few with a Blue Badge. As can be seen below the Blue Badge is not a licence to be stupidly inconsiderate.

The driver of BA19 DLZ (Photo 1) was far too lazy and probably unintelligent to reverse back 20 feet to a less dangerous spot. Not entirely Blue Badge rule compliant as it is opposite a junction but better than creating a major hazard to other road users (Photo 2) who have to exit a junction on the wrong side of the road.

In New Road EU22 NFE ignores the rules about making roads narrow and GF17 YJD is not a lot better.

Lower down the hill the roads are passable with care (The bus in Photo 6) which is not always in evidence. UA18 UAF (Photo 7) had to reverse out of trouble. Fortunately there were no buses behind him.

Some people are desperate to park as close to their destination. The owner of the wheel (Photo 9) is arguably on a double yellow but definitely across the dropped kerb leading to the park.

The little GEM in the final photo, DN74 HZR,  is a collector of PCNs. On a double yellow with yesterday’s PCN resting on the dashboard. I was only out for half an hour but in that time there was no enforcement in evidence.

The worst of the danger is caused by inconsiderate parking but the congestion is created by the incompetence of Bexley’s Highways Department. Bus drivers have every right to hate them.

 

8 March (Part 1) - Excuses, excuses

Life in general and maintaining Bonkers too easily fall into arrears. This is a mini-rant about it and an apology to those awaiting emails to be answered. You don’t have to read what follows.

Sometimes, particularly in the Summer and the months before and after Christmas, there is a dearth of Bexley Council news and at other times there is a deluge.

Right now there is not a huge deluge although it will build up during the approach to the May elections but for several months past there have been three days, occasionally four, each week when there is no time to fire up the computer at all. This is becoming quite a problem and there are several emails originated by this website awaiting a reply and two other large websites I manage. Fortunately neither of those need daily attention.

On Bonkers there has been lengthy correspondence on an HMO. The occupants are allegedly disruptive, damage property and keep everyone awake. The usual stuff one might fear if the house next door becomes an HMO. I have literally years of emails which appear to prove that Bexley Council is not in the slightest bit interested. To be honest I do not think Bonkers can help. Bexley Council is shameless.

There is another involving a bowling green and parking which I have not had time to really look at yet. And some less complicated ones too.

It is slightly annoying to have readers querying my assertion that Bonkers takes a great deal of time to maintain. I started yesterday’s budget report before 9 a.m. and it didn’t go on line until after 2. Listening to the Council meeting, deciding which things are worth reporting, summarising it and correcting the typos takes ages. If quotations are condensed for brevity one must be absolutely sure that the nuances are maintained. Several Councillors who spoke were not mentioned at all because no one wants to spend more than five minutes reading a blog, but one still has to listen to them to be sure. If someone can do it quicker they are welcome to try.

In the old days when there were six of us behind Bonkers it was easier. The budget report was more than five hours of my Saturday gone and the meeting is only half covered.

As one gets further into one’s eighties there is the inevitable tendency to only have younger friends. They seem unable to understand that life slows down and complain that their ‘helpful’ suggestions may be cast aside for lack of time. Time to meet them becomes almost impossible to find and I think only one of them knows about Bonkers.

Gardening and house maintenance take a back seat and I don’t like living in a tip so the weekend is often clearing up time. It is frustrating that there is never time to keep an eye on investments. Probably the largest monetary cost of running Bonkers is not domain registry fees and the like but not keeping one’s savings in the right place.

And I have renewed my war with Thames Water. My assessed bill for the coming year is less than 2025/26. I asked them to justify 25/26 at the time and they told me they would not correspond with me. I have asked again with no response. It looks like I shall have to leave my garden tap running 24/7 again in protest.

Actually the water main serving my road runs under my front garden. Hmm. Now there is an idea!

 

7 March - Labour puts forward an alternative budget

On the Monday before last, Bexley Council’s Cabinet approved their budget and the inflation busting Council Tax increase it requires. All that was necessary to legally raid your pocket was the nod through by their Conservative colleagues at Full Council on Wednesday, Their job depends on total acquiescence. So all done and dusted within 20 minutes; right?

Not a bit of it, so much grandstanding, rehearsed speechifying and applause is necessary that they managed go for an extra three hours! (Much of it in the next report still to come.)

It started with Leader David Leaf moving that the 2026/27 budget be approved. Simple enough but he spun it out for more than seven minutes saying very little of note while finding time for a word or two about Rachel from Accounts [Complaints?] and the two party before residents Bexley MPs who voted to cut the borough’s grant.

New in this new budget, £30 million for Highways, freezing the cost of parking permits - at a level six times higher than when this blog commenced a few years ago - £2·5 million on playgrounds and £2 million for libraries. “BexleyCo will provide millions more.” The Leader is going to make Bexley Even Better while few can see any improvements.

Cabinet Member Melvin Seymour said it was a Budget for People while ignoring the poor sods who have to pay the bill out of their inflation ravaged incomes.

Labour Leader Stefano Borella had heard enough and put forward an Amendment to the budget which is included in his subsequent Press Release. The Finance Officer said its figures did add up OK. After Councillors considered it, or maybe not in the case of the Conservatives, for seven minutes the debate progressed.

The Labour Leader said his amended budget represented aspiration. Potholes would be fixed and a new Housing Strategy introduced focusing more on affordable housing and social rented properties. No more selling of the family silver, notably parks and open spaces. There are 50,000 residents in Bexley renting privately, Bromley gets Government grants to help them, Bexley doesn’t bother to apply. Sidcup would qualify but its MP attacks HMOs instead.

Scrutiny Committees in Bexley do not work, sometimes major decisions are not scrutinised at all, “Absolutely appalling,”

“The Conservatives are proposing a 12% increase in 30 minute parking charges but Councillors are allowed to park in four car parks without charge.” [Tories have been going public with a claim that parking charges are frozen.]

Councillor Jeremy Fosten (Labour, Belvedere) reiterated the affordable homes and social housing aspirations and said that BexleyCo’s performance had been pathetic. In what was supposed to be a criticism he said that Reform UK locally wanted to see BexleyCo scrapped. “That would be money down the drain.”

The pothole team would be augmented to speed up pothole repairs.

Cabinet Member Chris Taylor said that at a time when the Labour Government {and Sadiq Khan] was failing to meet its housing target the Amendment was “a silly plan and he was not going to allow that horrid Labour Mayor to build on green spaces across our borough.”. He failed to explain how he would stop Khan over-ruling them as he did in Abbey Wood but he did remind us that the last Labour administration raised Council Tax by 40%.

Councillor Peter Craske (Conservative, Blackfen & Lamorbey) said that a year ago Labour forecast that their 2026/27 Budget would be one of ambition, vision and new plans and all we got was more broken promises and seven new ideas and the biggest of them would be to charge people who do not own a car £57 not to use a car park. It was “Labour summed up”. In 2023 they voted against an investment in 300 roads; investment which resulted in the recent good report from the Labour Government and instead proposed cutting it by 3%. “In 2024 they proposed spending zero on road repairs.”

They are “ULEZ loving, LTN loving Lefties and we we know what will happen to them on 7th May”.

Councillor Anna Day (Labour, Slade Green & Northend) said residents’ main concern is potholes. She said that in 2023/24 press reports were that Bexley did not repair a single pothole.

Labour Councillor Baljeet Gill said the hard pressed businesses in his Northumberland Heath ward were angry about the further increase in short term parking charges and asked for a change of heart by Bexley Conservatives. [For the record, 50 pence ten years ago and £1 now. Inflation in that time 40%.]

Councillor Nicola Taylor (Labour, Erith) spoke about the new Labour housing strategy. Whilst residents see housing as a top priority for a Council, Bexley gave all theirs away leaving it powerless to introduce necessary improvements. Instead we have Housing Associations profiteering by selling them off. Cabinet Member Chris Taylor thought the reference to housing in poor condition was funny. But then he also thought the reduction in pay for care workers was something to rejoice in.

Cabinet Member Caroline Newton said there was nothing in the Labour Budget to say how they would manage the £11 million plus SEND transport budget supporting 1,200 young people. [£10,000 each.] She said that the all caring Labour Government only pays enough for two Bexley schools to get free breakfasts.

Councillor Brian Bishop (Conservative, Barnehurst) said that Bexley was one of the best performing Councils for temporary accommodation and ridiculed the Labour MP for shifting his attention from potholes to the closure of Community Centres. “But who was in charge when the keys were handed back at Belvedere? Who ran it into the ground? It was Daniel Francis MP. Desperate Dan the Pothole Man is now picking on Community Centres which are safe in our hands.”

“The Amendment will not make a blind bit of difference to the budget”, in which case one might argue, why not accept it?

Councillor Cameron Smith said the Amendment was “a good piece of fiction” but it was “so confusing”. They ask the Conservatives to welcome more Government money for potholes in Bexley while the Labour MP asked the Prime Minister to withdraw it. They want higher affordable home targets in Bexley while the Labour Government and the London Mayor are busy reducing them. They want less overcrowding while Sadiq Khan cuts the family homes target. They complain about parking charges while Bexley has among the lowest in London. In Greenwich and Lewisham parking costs up to £8 an hour. [The same as in Abbey Road and New Road close to the station. Unlike in Greenwich and Lewisham there is no reduction for clean vehicles.]

“They are as confused as Kier and Rachel and would like to be the party of builders but Sadiq Khan has been responsible for building for ten years and he has been an absolute disaster.” In nine months of last year only 3,248 homes were built in London and the target was 80,000. London is supposed to provide a quarter of the country’s 1·5 million home requirement, He has made it too expensive and too complicated to build in London. The London plan is 500 pages and 123 policies.”

Councillor Chris Ball (Labour, Erith) said it was not absolutely true that the Council gave away its housing stock, it actually sold them for £8,000 a piece and the Government of the day spotted the interest earned and took it from the grant. The Council was at its best when it was run by cross-party sub-committees and not via the current Cabinet and Scrutiny system where Councillors are rude to each other and the public is largely ignored. Hence the Amendment below.

Councillor Melvin Seymour (Conservative, Crayford) objected to the alleged neglect of the North of the borough, “absolute hogwash”, and pointed to the efforts being made to reach out to ethnic groups on health issues and their attitude to women but the health grant is three times lower than in the City of London.

The Mayor asked the Council Leader if he would like to accept the Amendment and got a resounding “No”. He went on to say the Labour Amendment was “a lengthy piece of rhetoric”, a subject upon which he claimed to be an expert. It had “no substance whatsoever.” Even by Councillor Borella’s dodgy arithmetic Bexley is 34th best in the country for potholes. The Amendment comes from a party whose two MPs backed the cuts for funding of Bexley’s grant. A party embroiled in sleaze and scandal. A party that promised billions for social care with none forthcoming. A party that promised to freeze Council Tax but failed to do so. A party that boasted it would boost growth but which according to the OBR is falling, unemployment is rising and inflation remains above target. A party that betrayed pensioners and businesses with huge tax rises. It is Smoke and Mirrors and it is nonsense and we need to vote the Amendment down.

The vote was as expected with the only Independent present, Nigel Betts (Falconwood & Welling), siding with the Conservatives.

The debate on the Conservative budget will follow.

 

6 March - Poor Rupert. Who is going to tell him?

Supported by disloyal confidence leakers, a forger, a fraudster and accomplished Judge condemned liar.

Reform UK belatedly discovered the truth; how long will Restore Britain take?

Proper people? Rupert must be a well meaning joke.

 

5 March - Bexley Labour proposes an alternative budget

Note: The Press Release was updated at 23:00 hours today, around seven hours after the original posting.

I was unable to listen to last night’s budget setting Council meeting and as it went on for three and a half hours there has been no time to listen today either. However the Labour Group has commented via a Press Release (PDF). Their alternative budget was inevitably rejected by the Conservatives.

 

4 March (Part 2) - Will he or won’t he?

Just over a year ago, Councillor James Hunt was uncermoniously deselected as a Conservative for the May 2026 election. 20 years of loyal service counts for nothing if you get on the wrong side of Bexley’s Tory top brass. Just a few years earlier his collegaues were confident enough in his loyalty to make him Mayor for two years in a row.

Someone had it in for him sufficiently to break the selection rules which enabled an appeal but that was never likely to succeed, and it didn’t.

Since then we have exchanged many a message but I was never very sure if James would stand for election again. Clearly he was sympathetic to Reform UK but he never formed an especially close relationship as far as I could tell.

The whispers were that some in Bexley Reform may have seen him as an unwanted distraction who might steal the limelight. They may have been right, James is not afraid of putting himself forward as a community leader.

He has been pretty senior within the Scout movement and has had connections with both the Air Training Force and Army Cadet Force. Pretty knowledgeable about the NHS and the Artistic community too. He was recently pictured in the News Shopper alongside his senior nurse wife.

As I have said before, James was the first to welcome me into the Bexley fraternity, albeit as a persistent critic in the early days and maybe that illustrates perfectly how he is willing to put the community and democracy above party politics.

James has lived in Blackfen and Lamorbey ward all his life and clearly he thinks he still has something to offer and is taking the democratic approach once again. (See below.) Residents will have three votes. James deserves one of them and maybe that’s better than putting all the eggs in a Reform UK basket. A balance of unreined enthusiasm and a lifetime of experience.

 

4 March (Part 1) - Totally Bonkers

For further proof that Bexley Council’s Highways Department is either incompetent or malicious (as my son put it after a visit), may I recommend a walk up New Road?

How many variations to parking restrictions are acceptable within a quarter of a mile? Is the intention to confuse or are they the product of the aforesaid incompetence?

In CPZ AW1 the incompetence led to warning signs on some roads but none on others so that drivers may be unaware that they have entered the Zone, and in other places you get CPZ Exit notices where there is no Exit and five hour Parking Permits were sold to residents living in a six hour Zone.

At the bottom of New Road, lorry parking is banned but cars apparently not. I assume that is what the first sign means. Further along you can park opposite a bus stop for nothing or pay £15 for permission to impede 30 odd buses an hour.

Then you can’t unless you are a resident.

After that there are several more resident only bays before anyone can join in for the extortionate fee. But then it gets to be more complicated. You can park for free but only for four hours and then it is no lorries again. Can cars park there all day every day? Will you take the risk?

Then it is a return to anything goes except at lunchtime before things change entirely as you pass the hidden CPZ WH sign.

Especially confusing is that one long bay is subject to both the 11 to 1 and the 8 to 6:30 restriction. I imagine that it was originally two adjacent bays but white lining does not last for ever. And why would one long bay in the middle of a wood have two different rules anyway/ Unless of course Bexley Council truly is Bonkers.

Note: Only one notice has a text number. I wonder it that still works?

 

1 March (Part 2) - The end of Public Cabinet

After the Council Leader had finished condemning the Attention Seeking Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford for voting in favour of Bexley’s reduced Government Grant…

“What he said in the Chamber of the House of Commons was wrong, what he said about my colleague Councillor Diment was incorrect and because he said it in the House of Commons he thinks he can get away with it but the reality is that when we hold him to account and question and challenge it, he runs scared and complains about the fact we are issuing statements correcting the misinformation that he has given and as I mentioned earluer, the fact that he couldn’t even be bothered to thank our Officers and Operatives for the work they do just says it all, that it was nothing more than an Attention Seeking Stunt Made by a Desperate Member of Parliament craving attention and to camouflage the fact that a couple of weeks ago he voted to cut funding for Bexley.”

“It is disappointing that we cannot rely on the Labour Party in Bexley to champion our cause with the Labour Government.”

…there were exactly 30 minutes of the meeting left to run. It was spent discussing the Bexley Economic Growth Strategy and the Culture Strategy. The former will be formally launched on 23rd March. There were several minutes of waffle about stakeholders from the Council Officer but not a single item which will interest the ordinary resident. Consultation responses included the lowering of Business Rates but Leader David Leaf said that was unfortunately the responsibility of “our tax grabbing, business bashing, job destroying Government but the Strategy sets us up for going against those headwinds and saying Bexley is open for business”.

I’m not sure why it was relevant to the discussion but readers may wish to note that Cabinet Member Melvin Seymour said that “I haven’t got a problem with diversity, it actually makes us stronger and isn’t anything to be afraid of. Some national parties would have you think different but they are a one trick pony with a one man band and they are going to be found out. I know colleagues on both sides of the chamber believe that”.

It was puzzling that this was immediately followed by “we have done a lot to try reach out to our harder to reach cultures but we have to be honest, they do not want to reach out to us for whatever reason and many of those cultures do not value womenhood in the way that they should, so we need to do more. Sometimes I knock on a young woman’s door [campaigning for votes] and she will say to me, come back and ask my husband.”

Labour Leader Stefano Borella said about the two strategies, “there are a lot of things we would agree with” but there may be changes after the May elections. He too wanted to see “more emphasis on celebrating diversity”.

Councillor Nicola Taylor (Labour, Erith) linked culture to parks and asked why the Council had chosen to build over the West Street park and every one of the flats built by BexleyCo are still empty and unsold. “Do you value our Green spaces?”

“Since you outsourced public real rentals to Event Umbrella communities have found it a barrier to booking cultural events and we stand to lose key events because of that bureaucracy. I am sad to see that there is no report [in the Strategy] of Erith Playhouse in my ward which has been going since 1947 and every year has sell out shows.”

Cabinet Members variously said that Councillor Taylor was “in favour of nationalising everything, ideological, dogmatic, controlling, Dickensian, horrible speech”.

Councillor Chris Ball (Labour, Erith) said he couldn’t care less if things were “externalised” or not so long “as the quality is there” but {Event Umbrella] is making things difficult. “There are clearly experiences which are not positive. We need to look at that.”

100 pubs and three theatres.

 

1 March (Part 1) - An Index to Indices

Ever since Bonkers’ infancy there have been requests for search facilities and there are none, but in an effort to be helpful some recurrent subjects have been provided with a quick access Index, a very few of them accessible from the site menu above. For example the never ending Leather Bottle demolition and its subsequent neglect. Index menus and even the Indices themselves have always been somewhat random and dependent on circumstances prevailing at the time of their creation. Some give latest news first and others last and that will be time consuming to rationalise; and which is most logical?

Because of that ‘a mess’ might be a fair description.

Menus have grown in number to 38, many of them created by request for a single researcher and some for my own convenience. Unless you know the URL (link) they cannot be found and if they were all added to the menu it would become unmanageably large and bloat every page with unwanted code.

Hence the new Index to Indices accessible from the ‘Indices>Blog collections’ menu above. Just click on ‘Blog collections’. The submenu remains unchanged and becomes a duplication but I imagine that will be reduced in size pretty soon.

I am hoping that no one objects to the change. There is no new content but some becomes more easily accessible. A few years ago a Conservative, Independent, Reform UK, Independent, Restore Britain Councillor reported me to the police for creating an Index pointing to misdemeanours relating to forgery, fraudulent behaviour, theft and a Judge's verdict on them, thinking that I had made a special case for one bad apple but it was just standard Bonkers’ practice. Nevertheless the police charged me for the perfectly legal ‘crime’ of reporting Court proceedings without comment. Fortunately the CPS thought they were nuts.

As already indicated, some of the newly revealed Indices require serious overhaul. Those created following an individual request often include every reference to a single keyword and could do with a good weeding out for general consumption. Maybe time will be found for that and maybe it won’t. Meanwhile a whole area of forgotten Bonkers has been opened up to curious historians.