21 May (Part 3) - Mental

For a Group which has been trying to convince us that it doesn’t manufacture false Facebook Profiles to go and create a false Administrator account bearing my name and references to this website would appear to be the height of stupidity proving once again that Labour activists can be absolutely mad.

Some readers have suggested that a complaint to Meta (Facebook owner) is in order but my view is that every scrap of evidence that Bexley Labour has taken leave of its senses should be preserved for posterity.

To that end the site banner code has been amended. It has always randomly chosen banners from an occasionally changed selection of images placed in a favourites folder. The choice has been reduced to just two images.

Pushing my fading coding skills to the limit, one has the familiar Bexley Council is Bonkers logo overlaid and one doesn’t. (First time I have had to write proper php code in years!)

So now, with repeat page refreshes, Bonkers will randomly display, with and without the BiB logo, the Labour Group’s juvenile minds for all to see for as long as I consider reasonable .The blank version bears an appropriate pop-up message.

Don’t these people ever think of the possible consequences of their deceptions? Apparently not.

 

21 May (Part 2) - Speeches

I don’t know what came over me when embarking on a transcription of all the Councillor’s goodbye speeches at the last Council meeting but having heard the Mayor saying on the last transcribing session that there was only one speech left and with an hour or two unexpectedly free this morning I set to at the keyboard.

Then when that was done I came to another Mayoral announcement. There was yet another speech and having ploughed through that too she said there were two more! They will have to wait for the weekend. I now understand why I decided to leave the 2022 speeches unreported.

Probably the most interesting speeches are the impromptu unscripted ones. They can be very revealing. If I can recommend only one it will be Melvin Seynour’s. With the implied suggestion of depression and his apparent confidence in re-election, I do hope he is OK.

He lost to Reform UK.

 

21 May (Part 1) - Council Tax

A little late but the annual chore of listing all London Council Tax rates is now complete. With every Council scrambling to increase taxation by the maximum allowed there are no surprises. The rankings remain unchanged. Only seven boroughs are more expensive than high tax Bexley.

As usual a number of Councils have last year’s tax rate on prominent display on their website with the current year well hidden. This is why it is never worth producing the list in April. The current rates simply won’t be there.

The Council Tax pages are not mobile friendly.

 

20 May - Ben and gone

Thanks to all the Facebook experts out there I now know that the reason I cannot see London Borough of Bexley News and Views is because the administrator blocked me.

Do you believe in coincidences? Immediately after Ben Hopton was exposed I received a Cease and Desist email from the Labour election candidate championed on that Facebook Group; the dubious FB banner was changed and I was blocked from looking at it. All three within a couple of hours of each other. It suggests a close connection.

The aforesaid candidate demanded I remove the blog dated May 5th which was a repost of the unkind X post put on line by her colleagues at Bexley Labour and to a limited extent I was critical of them for doing that to a lady.

The same candidate assures me she is not Ben Hopton. “I am also told that you think that Ben Hopton is me on Facebook, that person is not a Labour member, and being a party officer, I know that as fact. I only post on the Sidcup News & Views group because admin on the Bexley Borough group blocked me some time ago perhaps even two years ago.”

I have been through every pre-election report and failed to find anything regrettable. I removed the cat lady pun in case it was misinterpreted and a link back to an old blog. My comments were if anything more sympathetic than those that came from her own party. I’m not sure what else I can do to please her.

How is it that Ben, and maybe the candidate, has such influence over a Facebook Group’s administrators that I can be banned after posting only one comment which never to my knowledge got beyond ‘Pending’. Is that not highly suggestive of where the control lies?

If that is not enough evidence that Facebook in Bexley and Labour are effectively one and the same, how about the new Administrator’s name? (See image alongside.)

How can a FB group which is nothing to do with Bexley Labour produce a new Administrator on demand and one who fights the Labour candidate’s battle with juvenile comments?

The name and the Intro cannot possibly be coincidence. It can only be the work of an out of control Labour activist unhappy with my take on politics. I wonder what their Leader thinks.

As well as demands, there was a reference to reporting me to the police for harassing Ben Hopton but Ben has said nothing. One might almost believe he does not exist.

It is true that I began to think Ben was the Labour candidate because three recent election candidates and a former candidate told me that was so but I couldn’t say he was because none convinced me they were correct. How would a campaigning election candidate find the time to be a prolific Facebook agitator too?

If Ben Hopton is a totally independent vociferous Pro-Labour commentator unknown in the highest echelons of the local Labour party why did the self-identified Party Officer mention him in her Cease and Desist? Once again it makes one think there must be a very close link.

May I specially thank my new Green friend Anita Paris for her comments on this matter and help with getting around the ban. All I have to do now is convince her that drugs for all and open borders may not be a winning formula.

I may not know much about the technicalities of Facebook but I do know my way around my ISP’s mail server. Guess which email address was blacklisted last week. (But the contact form has to remain available.)

To simplify catching up on what has been said about Ben Hopton a new Index has been provided. It is mainly copies of what he has posted to his Facebook Group.

And for the record, during the short election campaign, the Conservatives were criticised for claiming they would not build on green spaces when quite clearly that is exactly what they want to do with BexleyCo, and their lack of leaflets. A Conservative Councillor contacted me to help then and periodically ever since. Reform UK was criticised for some poor quality leaflets and their Leader contacted me personally to agree and that better ones were in the pipeline. The Greens were criticised for being a policy free zone and it has resulted in eight friendly emails from Greens that have for the first time made me think I should look into their party more seriously.

But the Labour candidate goes on the warpath over someone she says is nothing to do with her party. Their Leader must be hanging his head in despair.

Note: A message received later today gave a new name for Ben Hopton. Not someone whose name has ever appeared on Bonkers but not unknown to those of us who watch local politics. All the evidence points to the London Borough Facebook group is Labour in Bexley disguise.

 

19 May (Part 2) - Fight fire with fire

On Friday 8th May I gave a disabled lady a lift and parked where there were no road markings or signs using her Blue Badge. It ended my 63 years of penalty free driving.

This morning I paid the exorbitant £70 and may not be so keen to do favours for old ladies any more. I simply do not have the time to contest it although I probably should have done. Next time the parking manager appears before a Scrutiny meeting I suspect there will be a harsh analysis.

As already stated I have completely abandoned recycling since getting that PCN as a low level retaliation. I expected to get some kick-back for doing so but there has been none. Instead there was encouragement. “You have to fight fire with fire.”  It is a mixed blessing. Chucking dirty tins away is strangely satisfying but conversely I have a large quantity of thick card to cut up and put in a black sack.

What I don’t think I have said before is that I have submitted a Freedom of Information request on every day since. All reasonable ones that should prove interesting when published here. If everyone reacted against Councils that hate us there may be some hope of ending the tyranny which is overwhelming the country.

 

19 May (Part 1) - Caravans No. Burned cars; perfectly OK

Whilst Bexley Council is keen to rid the borough’s streets of caravans both derelict and legal, it couldn’t care less about burned out cars.

 

18 May (Part 2) - Profile abandoned. Group abandoned?

I have often said that I do not like Facebook and I am certainly not an expert in its workings.

For the election I joined the London Borough of Bexley News and Views FB grpup and was intrigued by the enormous number of pro-Labour posts from someone calling himself Ben Hopton. The name was not new too me, it had first appeared here a year ago when it was revealed that his banner image had been taken from a travel brochure and by extension the Profile picture might be fake too.

Then at the end of last week three things happened at the same time. I received a ‘Cease and Desist’ from an unelected Labour party candidate, London Borough of Bexley News and Views dropped off my list of Joined groups and I thought (probably wrongly) that I had been blocked from the Group.

And a reader who could still access the Group said that Ben had removed his Profile picture, see associated image.

Yesterday I thought I would try to find out what was happening on London Borough of Bexley News and Views. A FB search now only comes up with ‘Bexley Borough News and Views’ with a different banner image and a message about the searched for Group not being available. There is no sign of Ben Hopton any more.

Should I believe that on the very day that I receive demands from Labour which refer directly to Ben Hopton, that he disappears? There are loads of Google hits for his name but they all link to ‘This content isn’t available’.

The group ‘Bexley Borough News & Views’ is unlikely to be new as it boasts 7,600 members. I don’t think it is a rebranding. Ben Hopton appears to have gone and taken his group with him.

Incidentally. Labour sources are insistent that Ben was nothing whatsoever to do with them which is something else which takes a lot of believing.

All one can conclude is that there is a lot of dishonesty within local politics.

If anyone more knowledgeable about Facebook can comment it would be appreciated.

 

18 May (Part 1) - Recycling abandoned

I was told in no uncertain terms by a group of seven friends that I was absolutely nuts to wash jam jars and their lids in warm water, soak the paper labels off, and separate the three items into the approved bins. Maybe they will revise their opinion of me now that I have completely stopped recycling except food scraps and garden waste which go into the compost. It makes life a great deal easier.

My immediate neighbour has never understood recycling and many’s the time I have dragged stuff out of his bin and transferred it to another. Last Friday I didn’t do that and as a result the blue lid bin wasn’t emptied. I suggested he just tip everything into the green bin. His blue bin is empty now and I do not know where the contents have gone. Definitely not to the dump, he hasn’t got a car.

Thirty years ago I forecast that if the police kept pursuing motorists, that eventually a lot of people would bear a grudge against them. Probably we reached that stage several years ago.

If other authorities set themselves against the population, like ignoring my Blue Badge a week and a bit ago, they will probably reap the same reward.

 

17 May - Really abandoned

In stark contrast to Kim Durrani¹s plan to impound a perfectly legal and road worthy caravan from the streets of Belvedere is this one almost exactly a mile away on Fishers Way.

It is on double yellow lines, slightly over the footpath, the door is open and you may freely wander inside.

It is adorned with one of Duranni’s notices but it is undated. A reader who works in one of the nearby warehouses says it has been there for at least two months.

There really is a severe shortage of brain cells in the higher reaches of Bexley Council.

 

16 May - Cease and Desist

There will only be the one blog today. I have reached the age when I either attend funerals or 60th Wedding Anniversaries. This celebration is for someone I have known since 1949.

Yesterday I received two emails within an hour of each other, both from unelected election candidates, one very nice, the other less so.

The Green candidate (not one I have heard from before) was commenting on yesterday’s blog and wished to say that the Reform candidates at the count were well behaved and his email praising Reform was entirely friendly. “Reform didn’t do anything particularly odd or unusual there.”

Alexander Cleak (Reform unelected) is identified as being pleasant and positive.

I expect Reform candidates felt nervous and inevitably out of their comfort zones but “in general showed up on stage (win or lose). They seemed pretty ordinary”. This is not what some members of the Uni-Party were putting about.

The other email was demanding and not very friendly. I must remove certain blogs which mention the name of the sender and it was suggested that the frequent reference to Ben Hopton might be harassment. If the sender is not Ben Hopton, and she insists he is not even Labour, why would the sender be concerned?

The sender was mentioned by name on Bonkers four times during the election campaign including the once when the intention was to clarify that the blog did not refer to her.

I know of four people who are convinced they know who Ben Hopton is, but I don’t so I have not been able to even hint at any links to the email sender.

By a strange coincidence I was thrown off Ben’s Facebook Group at much the same time as the complaining email arrived.

The Green candidate went on to say that among the most friendly Councillors at the count were the Labour trio from Thamesmead East. Larry, Zainub and Abi.

I am coming around to the view that politics might be better served if we got rid of all the Tories and Labour and replaced the Right and Left with Reform and Greens respectively. It took 70 years from the formation of the Labour Party for politics to degenerate to the sort of level it is at now.

We probably need another 70 years to climb out of the hole we have dug for ourselves.

Note. The blog title is also the complaining email’s title.

 

15 May (Part 3) - An Innocent Man

The following probably doesn’t need any comment. I was always sure James Hunt was innocent of the charges brought against him. His explanation to me made during the time the Scout’s Association rejected the same false claims seemed to be absolutely believable and the Judge in Bromley Court agreed. He should never have been subjected to trial by media or the subsequent death threats.

 

15 May (Part 2) - Funny business

In all the years I have been writing Bonkers I have only met one Conservative and one Labour Councillor away from Council premises and both were subsequently thrown out of their parties. Oh, I am getting forgetful again. The delightful Mabel Ogundayo helped me organise a meeting of Bexley’s oppressed parents and I bumped into her on one occasion in an Underground station.

But since last Thursday I have met up with two Reform UK Councillors, plus their Chairman who was not elected and Lynn Smith who just missed out in Blackfen & Lamorbey.

For several hours; and very interesting it was too.

I learnt a lot about their organisation, their campaign and why it may have faltered, their hopes and their disappointments and I am not going to leak a word of it here; but it is incredibly useful background information.

I opened their eyes to some historic injustices and implored them to watch out for dirty tricks from both established parties who will likely gang up with each other to do Reform down.

They had already noticed.

They were magnanimous in their praise for some of the old guard, Stefano Borella (Labour) and Frazer Brooks (Conservative) in particular who reached out to them and I am not surprised by either. In Longlands it was said to be the reverse where the lady winner (Conservative) and the lady loser (Labour) rebuffed their approaches. Disappointing and expected respectively.

This is all rather funny because I have messages from Conservatives to say that elected Reform Councillors rebuffed them, and yes they are the same people who had been praised by Reform.

Critics have been saying that Reform candidates either didn’t attend the count or wouldn't climb the stage for a declaration. In both cases this was due to health issues. I have a message from a Reform candidate dated the day before the count of the disappointment about not being fit enough to attend. In politics any old false story will be put around by opponents.

I took the opportunity to ask Eamonn Delaney about his very Irish name and his London accent. It’s because he was born here as was his wife and two children. He travels on a British passport. (He subsequently confirmed that it is his only passport.)

Ben Hopton, whoever he or she may be, is simply a misinformed troublemaker. A too effective troublemaker unfortunately.

 

15 May (Part 1) - Abandoned intelligence

You will recall that a caravan had been towed back to Bexley from the middle of Europe over the weekend of 2nd and 3rd of May and eight days later was designated abandoned by Bexley Council in a notice signed off by Kim Durrani who I can only assume is some sort of ill-informed and possibly moronic pen pusher.

The caravan is obviously road worthy, fully insured, displays its VIN and is registered with the appropriate agencies. The owner’s contact details are revealed in the form of the towing vehicles’ registration plate.

The owner informed Bexley Council in writing that the caravan was not abandoned and in good condition and yesterday they called her from an anonymous number which I personally would not have answered because I never answer calls from anonymous numbers.

The Council lady not only didn’t know anything about the caravan she didn’t even know where it was parked. There therefore could be no progress and she was asked to respond in writing.

Maybe Kim Durrani only employs people who do not outshine his own intellect.

The photos are of a man sticking Durrani’s notice on the caravan. On request I can tell Bexley Council where there are genuinely abandoned caravans rotting away for months.

 

14 May - Ignorance reigns

I have been trying to contact active local Reform UK members with some degree of success and will be meeting at least one this evening.

So far I have discovered that their Leader will be Sean Brackstone the newly elected Councillor for Northumberland Heath. One of the youngest Bexley Councillors. But not as young as Danny Hackett in 2014.

Mr. or Mrs, Hopton is still obsessed by Bexley Reform and has suggested that Reformers have facial deformities. The comments used the word ugly. B.H. is obviously totally ignorant of the fact that all photos posted to Facebook (and Social Media generally) are electronically compressed to reduce the load on their servers. The more detail in the photo, such as a sea of faces, the bigger the loss of definition.

All photos on Bonkers are similarly compressed but maybe not as aggressively as those on Facebook.

To help out the deluded lass and maybe set her mind at rest that Bexley is not about to be governed by the zombies who may occupy her wildest dreams, an enlarged version of the photo with less compression may be seen below.

I think, but not absolutely sure, that Sean Brackstone is the young fellow standing next to former Conservative Parliamentary candidate Amandeep Singh Bhogal. In the turban obviously.

Good fellow is Amandeep, met him a few times way back.

 

13 May (Part 2) - A den of iniquity

Returning to the ‘bastards’ theme for a moment, Bexley Council could be very hard on honest staff who were not prepared to turn blind eyes.

An office junior working in an environment where mothers and children passed through became suspicious of her manager. To get straight to the point, she suspected paedophilia and reported it. She was sacked for her impudence though very soon afterwards she was vindicated when the manager was charged with the offence. however he retained his job until he was jailed. The young girl lost hers almost immediately.

I would name names so that you can Google the details but by an unfortunate coincidence a man of the same name is currently employed by Bexley Council and it wouldn’t be fair to implicate him.

The young girl took Bexley Council to a Tribunal and I attended every hearing. The Tribunal dismissed her case and Bexley Council duly fanfared the result in the press etc., but it wasn’t really true. The Tribunal clearly stated that she had been unfairly treated but they could not allow her claim because she had been employed for less than six months and because of that was unprotected.

The new Employees’ Rights Act would put an end to that injustice. This case is one of several similar that I know of. Shall I do some more?

 

13 May (Part 1) - A plague on all their houses

The Labour activist and troublemaker who runs the all-encompassing Labour Party Facebook Group ‘London Borough of Bexley News and Views’ under the adopted name of Ben Hopton thinks I am a Reform supporter because I nominated one of their candidates. She can of course say what she likes and make as much trouble as she likes but I think a lot of people have seen through her because of her non-stop posting of Labour propaganda.

Hopton complaining that Bonkers is nothing but a ‘political hit job’. Does she not understand irony?

It is on the record here that I don’t like any of the people at the top of Reform UK and most of their Conservative reject recruits are every bit as bad.

To keep this website alive I have to try to keep in with as many Councillors as possible although I admit that some absolutely shun me for no obvious reason. I think this stems from Teresa O’Neill and Philip Read who declared some sort of war on me in 2010 and it was said (the fact was used against me during a failed prosecution) that all new Councillors are given a lecture about never making contact with me.

Fortunately O’Neill was not universally popular and I have emails from Councillors and a Cabinet Member who make that case.

Over the years I have established contacts with several Councillors and former Councillors to the extent that I regard them as friends. Not best buddy friends but people who can be relied on and probably trusted. (But I am always wary of possible deception.)

My own Labour Councillor is one of them, a lovely lady and our conversation goes well outside politics sharing things that only trusted friends should know. We chatted just before and just after the election, The second Labour Councillor is Jeremy Fosten who was first mentioned favourably here, but not by name, in 2019 and yesterday we exchanged messages of mutual admiration.

I do not have a clue who my Reform UK Councillor is.

I am not a Reform UK Member and I have never attended any of their meetings. I have no reason to specially like Reform locally. You may remember the F woman who was their Chairman for too long whose lies cost me years of turmoil and too much money. Fortunately what I knew about her eventually found its way through to Reform HQ and she was expelled but not before sending me four more threatening solicitor’s letters. Not any old local solicitor but the same firm that Reform used to act against Rupert Lowe and Co.

Her replacement was not a lot better; he threatened me too but fortunately was soon replaced. My Reform UK contacts are few. I have been in fairly regular contact with one since 2014, long before Reform was a thing. I successfully reached out to one other Reform member in May last year to see what I could discover about them. I met him twice for a coffee. Nine months later he became their local Leader but neither of us could have predicted that.

As a new party with relatively few contacts finding nominees (nominators?) for candidates was not easy and one of them called me for help. If I had said ‘No’ there was a risk I would sour future relations. In any case it is not a political endorsement and I thought it was a bit of fun to make a tiny political contribution. Labour has no such shortage of contacts but I would have done exactly the same if my local candidates had got in first.

I have not seen any Reform candidate since the election although I am hoping to remedy that very soon.

Before the election I was in contact, not only with Labour, but also a Green candidate to whom I think I might owe a response, two Independents, retiring Conservatives and Conservative candidates. Since the election I have corresponded with both Independents, three failed Reformers - one of whom has yet to receive a reply, too busy - successful Conservatives, both my Labour Councillors and a former Labour Councillor. Oh, I almost forgot. A retired Conservative too.

Not many if the aim is to get inside knowledge of what goes on in Bexley and there is always the danger that I only get information from rebels.

Councillors can be a funny lot. Over 15 years three Conservative Councillors have reported me to the police for alleged crimes of journalism causing various degrees of aggravation. None of the complaints went anywhere. I have never been accused of libel or defamation. One Labour activist claimed on X that she had reported me to the police five times and bombarded me with solicitor’s letters. I was called a fascist too, a favourite Labour activist’s cry.

Nothing ever came of the police reports so I only have her word for them and can anyone trust a Labour activist to tell the truth? Reform people have not yet reported me to the police and I doubt they ever will. For now, those I know of, are down to earth people who know what democracy is supposed to be.

Things sometimes go in reverse. When Bexley Councillors and staff have been in trouble with the law - a complaint originally brought by the late Michael Barnbrook but pursued by me after he moved out of the borough - I obtained supportive witness statements from an honest Conservative and three Labour Councillors. The Labour people agreed that they would be willing to appear in Court on my behalf to tell the truth. It is probably easier to find total honesty among Bexley Labour Councillors than the ruling party.

So where are we? Is it worth bringing Ben Hopton into more disrepute than she does by herself? Probably not. But for the record I try to spread my net widely which is why I have contacts in every party. They are not immune from criticism if the need arises but friends may, probably I shouldn’t admit it, be given a slightly easier ride. One cannot make enemies of everyone.

Our best ever local MP, Teresa Pearce (Labour) got it right straight away. “You are a plague on all their houses sort of bloke, aren’t you?”

 

12 May (Part 5) - Lying bastards

Whether Bexley’s Highways are the biggest bastards or the biggest liars is open to debate. Telling me in 2009 that they designed roads to Transport Research Laboratory standards when It was my own son who was the senior consultant in the TRL Department that issued the guidance and who said their designs were nowhere near to conforming, must rank among the silliest or unluckiest of lies ever, but they could be bastards too.

When residents of Blackfen Road were advised that the Council planned to install an extra pedestrian refuge in the hope that it might reduce average traffic speed by 2 m.p.h. they pointed out that not placing it centrally in the road would leave the carriageway barely wide enough for a bus but also not give them sufficient room to turn into their own drives and across the dropped kerbs they had paid for.

Bexley Council did it anyway.

 

12 May (Part 4) - Unrelenting brainless bastards

While on the subject of dropped kerb and bastards, let’s go back to 18th July 2012. Bexley Council was in the process of relaying a footpath in Belvedere and offered residents the opportunity of having a dropped kerb put in at a 25% discount. The cynical might say it was an attempt to get residents to pay for routine road maintenance.

One man already had a dropped kerb installed and paid for but it was slightly offset from his drive. He asked if it could be aligned more usefully. Just one stone needed to be dropped down into a slightly different position.

Bexley Council refused to do it unless they were paid £960 despite it costing absolutely nothing extra to do the work. Further proof that Bexley Council are not only bastards but inflexible brainless bastards too.

 

12 May (Part 3) - Bexley Council have always been bastards

Felix Akele, a Northumberland Heath resident was advised by police that he might avoid having his rear garage broken into if he arranged for a dropped kerb and parked his car in front of his house, so he rang Bexley Council. He says he was told that a private contractor could install a dropped kerb and didn’t realise the Contact Centre probably meant Bexley Council’s own private contractor but the misunderstanding is not the point of this story.

Bexley Council being comprised of absolute bastards is once again the point.

Felix paid a man £600 to install a dropped kerb and Bexley Council went berserk.

The obvious and most cost effective solution would be for Bexley Council to rip out the unofficial work and do their own at the appropriate fee; but no, that is not good enough if you are an evil bastard intent on inflicting pain.

They told poor Felix that he must pay £550 to have the original footpath and kerb reinstated and then they would come along later and put in another dropped kerb for a four figure sum.

The picture shows Felix standing in front of £600’s worth of reinstated kerb stones. Felix was left £1,150 out of pocket when Bexley Council could very easily have capped it at the £600 paid to the odd job man.

Bexley Council hates its own residents and we should hate them back.

Note: This is a rehashed version of a blog posted in 2010.

 

12 May (Part 2) - Bexley Council are the ultimate incompetent bastards

A couple of years ago I acquired a new friend through this website and we meet up quite often. A lady who once asked me to accompany her on a trip to buy a second-hand caravan. I think the idea was that I might distract the owner while she carried out some very extensive tests and checks, cameras, meters and probes and all! She is far from being a dumb blonde.

The caravan was purchased but required a bit of modernisation to bring it up to her high standards. Some was done by a specialist company and some she did herself.

My involvement was mainly to stand and watch but I did contribute a bit of muscle when we changed the wheels and some advice with the installation of solar panels and a suitable inverter. I gave her the cable for an additional power socket too, but that was all. She is a resourceful lady thinking nothing of changing windows that were not pristine and repairing locks, hinges, curtains and plumbing.

The ultimate goal was to tow it to some property she owns in central Europe which she did at the end of March.

However while there the changing International situation persuaded her that leaving the caravan unattended close to a war zone might not be a good idea.

She brought it back to the UK, getting back to Bexley on 3rd May, not much more than a week ago.

The van is obviously fully road worthy having recently travelled several thousands of miles, it is full insured and bears the towing vehicle’s number plate.

It is registered with the Central Registration and Identification Scheme (the DVLA for caravans) and the VIN number is etched into every window.

Far from being derelict it is clean and free of the algae which came with it on purchase.

Who is this Qasim (Kim) Durrani chump who wants to destroy a caravan legally parked alongside the owner’s house in a little used cul-de-sac for a week? What sort of fools pay him £133,419 a year plus allowances for being a clueless idiot who signs any nonsense put in front of him? Oh. Bad news, we do.

Probably another clear indication of how we need a new set of Councillors who are willing to clear out the dead wood like Durrani.

 

12 May (Part 1) - Bexley Council are bastards

Last Friday I gave a disabled lady a lift in my car and parked using her Blue Badge. I was given a PCN by Bexley Council which was annoying because I passed my driving test first time in July 1963 (when it was much easier) and it was my first penalty ever. On the other hand there has probably never been a Council quite as bent as Bexley in those 63 years.

I parked where the grey car is in Photo 1. Enlarge it to see how filthy Bexley’s streets are.

I was on the look out for signs and saw the one in Photo 2, so drove on and tacked myself behind a line of parked cars further down the road. There were no yellow lines and I walked up and down the road a little looking for restriction signs. There were none so I put the Blue Badge on the dashboard and was away for around 30 minutes.

I didn’t see the yellow peril until I got home, it was not in my field of vision and could have blown away.

On Sunday I returned to the scene to try to work out what had happened. I surmise that I was supposed to have seen the sign in Photo 3 while negotiating a roundabout and keeping an eye on the pedestrian crossing ahead which seems unreasonable to me.

For some reason I am not feeling quite as annoyed as I probably should be and maybe that is that while Bexley Council is comprised of absolute bastards, I can be one too. In 1967 I bought an umbrella in the Aldershot branch of Marks & Spencer and in a very short time the frame rusted through.They refused to replace it and actually asked me if I had used it in the rain! Really they did. Marks & Spencer has never seen a penny of my money in the intervening 60 years. Must have cost them an absolute fortune.

Whilst I am unlikely to live to be 140, Bexley Council will suffer similarly. I think I know enough about Councils to know how to harm them perfectly legally.

Something I have already found especially cathartic is to no longer wash tin cans and strip off the paper labels and separate them into appropriate bins. Straight into the one bin complete with any food remnants they go and if it just happens to go into the wrong bin, tough luck. My arthritis prevents me from bending and retrieving it. I am amazed at how good this small act of rebellion feels. Maybe everyone who hates Bexley Council should do the same.

I can be a bastard too, and will be as far as Bexley Council is concerned for the rest of time. It might be fun.

 

11 May - The rumour mill

While transcribing all those speeches from Councillors who were so keen to say how wonderful everyone was I was struck by the number who praised the Baroness which, given the number of adverse comments received over the years, struck me as strange. As everyone knows, she hates criticism and regards it as a police matter.

I contacted a couple of people and got the same story. She has been very good at helping Councillors during any family or personal crisis, such as being arrested for blogging etc.

It seemed pretty obvious that given the loss of Melvin Seymour, that Councillor Cameron Smith would be the best choice for a replacement Cabinet Member and that has been confirmed by usually reliable sources. More than that, he is to be Deputy Leader. Definitely a good choice.

Apparently Councillor Lisa Moore is the Conservatives’ choice for Mayor with Frazer Brooks the two vote winner in Blackfen & Lamorbey being her Deputy. Lisa is a nice lady who has been an effective Chairman of Scrutiny so no one should argue with that appointment, but Frazer may indicate a change of direction for the ruling party.

I got the impression since he was elected that he was in the Tory’s second tier of Councillors unlikely to progress far under the old regime, but the old regime is out. O’Neill is gone and her big time supporters retired.

Bexley Tories may have turned over a new Leaf freed from the shackles of the unlamented dictator. Apparently their first informal meeting was far more relaxed than when the old guard was scheming for themselves.

Maybe I am too optimistic, the money will still be in short supply with the same people controlling it, but we can live in hope.

 

10 May - What now?

I can’t think what possessed me to begin transcribing every Councillor’s speech from the last Council meeting. The job is still ongoing nearly a month after the event. The former Leader’s was added today, at least she can never be accused of mumbling.

Mr. Schvorob got a mention but I didn’t. Councillor O’Neill said she wasn’t going to list her achievements so my perennial question, how is everyday life in Bexley better now than it was 20 years ago, went unanswered.

Now that the dust has settled after the election what should we make of it? Obviously First Past the Post gave a significant advantage to both Conservative and Labour parties but at least we are spared an inexperienced Council learning on the job. On the other hand we are sentenced to more of the same. Tax increases and service cuts and rising debt.

The Conservatives will go out of their way to make life difficult for Reform UK Councillors as they did UKIP ten years ago. It will look as though Reform is achieving nothing because that is what both the Conservatives and Labour parties will want. They will connive together. As some of the aforementioned speeches admitted, they are all cosy mates together really.

According to more than one report, on Thursday and Friday, they fiddled with previously rejected spoiled votes to reallocate them to the favoured parties. How else do you think Conservative and Labour losses to Reform UK were miraculously changed into them being beaten by just one or two votes?

On the other hand it is alleged that some losing Reform candidates refused to stand on the stage during declarations. Reform UK night do well to drop some people from any future candidate list.

Who is going to fill Melvin Seymour’s boots in the Cabinet after losing in West Heath? As far as I could tell he did a decent enough job on Adults’ Services and I forgave him for never acknowledging my three hundred quid on the Bexley Box scheme. My money would be on Cameron Smith for a Cabinet job. Young and ambitious and a good deal brighter than some of the Conservatives re-elected.

 

9 May (Part 2) - Who nearly won in Bexley?

I saw an X post which was bragging that Reform UK got more votes than Labour, Green and LibDem combined, but that is not really fair. The LibDems and Greens did not field a full set of candidates. Only the Conservatives, Labour and Reform UK did that.

The results pages posted on Bexley Council’s website are a bit of a mess, so the only way to analyse the numbers is to extract individual figures and slap them into a spreadsheet.

It showed that over the borough as a whole, Conservatives and Reform were in the same ball park but the newcomers lagged by about 13%.

Reform soundly beat Labour; very nearly twice as many votes yet Labour will be the official opposition.

This is about as fair as TTK winning a large majority in 2024 when only 18% of the electorate voted for him.

Click image to download source.

 

9 May (Part 1) - Unreformed

Nothing much election related happened in Belvedere, 14 candidates and two leaflets. Thanks to an appallingly poor effort by Bexley Council’s electoral team, there is no indication of the turnout on their website; suffice to say I even had candidates asking if I could find the results for them.

I found the Blackfen & Lamorbey ward far more interesting; by chance I knew three of the candidates reasonably well and exchanged messages with all of them during the campaign.

Obviously I was hoping that Peter Craske would be defeated but perhaps it is just as well that he wasn’t as I had promised far too many people a beer if he was thrown out.

One candidate who it was good to see defeated was Graham Holland standing for Reform UK. He is a representative from the distant past, a former Conservative kicked out of the party for missing a couple of Council Tax payments.

The offence was minor but it led to deselection by the party branch Chairman and a row with the Council Leader which Mr. Holland reported to the police. He felt threatened. Oh dear! Petty or what?

The Leader was the late Mike Slaughter. Holland reported him to the police. Mike said it was “complete nonsense” but was warned over his behaviour.

Mike Slaughter, on brief acquaintance, was always civil and friendly in my experience but Graham Holland may not be so gentlemanly. Does he not know that his Conservative rival Councillor Brian Bishop was preoccupied with Reform UK in Council, dropping the word into conversation whenever he could and that Councillor Craske is a master blogger?

Councillor Frazer Brooks is however one of Bexley Council’s good guys, always ready to extend a helping hand and thankfully beat Reform by the narrowest of margins. Two votes.

@kentishfenman on X was quite right to suggest that Holland’s comments are no way to win over floating voters and should ring alarm bells for everyone else.

 

8 May - A damp squib and a big bang

After so much anticipation the election result was something of a damp squib. Numerically the Conservatives are almost unchanged and the opposition has been divided. You can be sure that the Conservatives will turn that to their advantage and probably find some way of crippling opposition representation on Committees. Never ever trust a Bexley Tory.

Down in Slade Green Stefano Borella is keeping us all on Tenterhooks; there is obviously recounting going on, several of them. Come on Stef; you can do it but I hope the Reform UK people are fully aware of how voting papers can be mysteriously spirited away. I saw it in 2014. {Labour has beaten the Reform candidate by just one vote.]

Earlier today I gave a friend a lift to the doctor’s surgery, which seem like an easy favour to do as she has a Blue Badge. Although I could have parked on a yellow line I chose not to and found somewhere with no lines at all. Nevertheless I displayed the badge.

When I returned I had been given a PCN. The CEO who was still there said that not every parking spot allowed Blue Badge parking.

This is going to cost Bexley Council an absolute fortune. I have never been one for submitting FOIs willy nilly because of the cost but that is now changed. From now on I shall delight in making FOIs as often as possible.

Thanks to @tonyofsidcup who took Bexley Council to court, we now know that publishing FOIs on Bonkers is a public service.

This one will do for starters…

Today I parked my car where there were no yellow lines but nevertheless used the Blue Badge belonging to my disabled passenger. I was issued with a PCN. A CEO told me that there are parking spaces where a Blue Badge is not valid.

Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act please provide a list of every location in Bexley, both streets and car parks, where parking is restricted but Blue Badges provide no exemption. For every location please provide the relevant Traffic Order.

I can’t think why but I have lost my enthusiasm for recycling too. Cans washed, labels stripped off, lids removed from glass containers, toilet roll ‘spindles’ saved, plastic bottles separated from their tops and plastic labels. Decorative paper subjected to the crumple test. Forget it. I will not be doing any of that any more.

Re-sorting the neighbour’s contaminated bins, going the extra mile for Bexley Council? No bloody way. Never again. Bexley Council is your enemy.

 

7 May - The last day for the good ones

Today we say goodbye to some good Councillors or at the very least, Councillors who have been good to me, or perhaps just amusing.

Topping the list are Richard Diment and Sue Gower. Both with heads firmly screwed on albeit, and in my opinion, sometimes acting against their own better judgment when the whip demanded it. Richard I am particularly looking at you. Various highway injustices left unfixed.

I should also mention Mabel Ogundayo and Andy Dourmoush who both did good things behind the scenes without any expectation of electoral reward.

For the entertainment value Wendy Perfect and Philip Read, Wendy for the heckling and arguing with meeting Chairmen and Philip for abusing me constantly for being, what he presumably actually believed, that I was “a sad old Labour supporting blogger from Abbey Wood”. I think he regarded it as some sort of game, It was fun while it lasted.

Peter Reader, whose path I rarely crossed, for always being the unflappable gentleman and perhaps most of all, John Davey, for unwittingly naming this blog by telling me, while being Deputy Chairman of the Transport User’s Sub-Committee, that some of Bexley’s road designs were Bonkers. To be absolutely fair I think he may have been referring to the TfL imposed schemes.

But most of all I shall remember John for his hilarious Tweets which caused the Leftie luvies so much faux outrage. Unless of course they really are as humourless as their responses suggested.

To the older ones I wish you all the best in your retirement, and of the Labour ladies, good luck in whatever you do next. To Andy, good luck in Bromley. I missed your occasional phone calls.

I am hopeful that tomorrow I will say goodbye to a few more.

 

6 May (Part 2) - Desperate Dan

The big two political parties are getting very twitchy before tomorrow’s vote. The Conservatives are promising not to build on Bexley’s parks and open spaces while planning to build on Bexley’s parks and open spaces.

Labour has in the Facebook Group they control brought out the ‘big guns’, their MP who voted to kill viable foetuses at full term and kill, on Labour’s own estimate, 3,000 elderly people by withdrawing the heating allowance; not to mention maliciously asking the government not to grant Bexley any money for road repairs.

Hypocrisy and politicians go hand in hand.

The lizard incident Daniel Francis references is six years old and was totally unacceptable. The alleged ReTweeter is Nicola Jones who is a candidate in Falconwood. I might think twice if she was standing in Belvedere.

Another candidate, Pamela Andrews (also Falconwood) is separately criticised in the linked video for referencing Nick Griffin’s criticism of “the EU’s global warming fixation” twenty years ago. Lots of people will agree with Pamela. Not obsessive Lefties obviously but they were never going to vote Reform anyway.

A former Reform candidate, Caroline Panetta (Erith - nomination withdrawn) said that “Islam is the religion of rape, incest, and pedophilia [sic], where they bow down to a stupid rock and a false prophet”. It is a comment tailor made to upset the Left but it is not entirely untruthful where the more extreme Islamists are concerned. She also expressed scepticism for US policeman Derek Chauvin’s conviction over the killing of a drug addict (who had just shot a pregnant woman) during his arrest. There are loads of US websites that express a similar view.

Colin Grostate (Bexleyheath) is criticised for considering standing as an Independent before deciding to join Reform UK. This is desperate stuff by Daniel Francis who says that is a totally different position. Not if Colin’s views are unchanged.

The anti-semitic references may be nothing but an invention. No evidence is provided. I can only say that I have been with Reform candidates while they argue vociferously for Israel and Jewish people against the Palestine supporters. One of their candidates (Lynn Smith, Blackfen and Lamorbey) said back in 2020, that as a woman she was in fear of the growth of Islam. Many will share her concerns.

Covid vaccines are widely blamed for what has been called turbo-cancers in young people. Covid scepticism is probably a good thing. Would anyone want to repeat the mistakes of 2020 and 2021?

It is probable that some of the Reform UK candidates, if elected, will prove to be inadequate as Councillors; it is a difficult job; and just possibly some will prove to be naive or dishonourable, but it was always thus.

The Conservatives are standing a candidate who I saw and heard committing perjury in Court more than once and another who the Crown Prosecution Service recommended be charged with Malfeasance in a Public Office. I have the email they sent to Bexleyheath police. He was let off only because of political string pulling at the highest level.

A former Conservative Leader was given a jail sentence for fraud but the recently departed Leader refused to report him to the police.

Bexley’s current crop of Labour Councillors have not seriously shown themselves up beyond encouraging bin strikes but it wasn’t always so. In 2014 one of their Councillors was found out falsifying qualifications. He was thrown out of the Co-operative Society and the Labour group for bringing it into disrepute.

That is how it should be and if Kent County Council is any guide, any bad apples will be thrown out of the Bexley Reform barrel too, although one must hope that none are so dishonest as the notorious unmentionable lady now seeking refuge in Restore Britain.

The problem is, if Reform UK are forced down a similar route in Bexley, the electorate will not be in a forgiving mood.

But is seems to me that all parties tend to attract the occasional idiot or crook and it is a risk one has to take when placing your X on a voting paper. Otherwise we shall be stuck in the same rut for ever.

  

6 May (Part 1) - A Conservative loss in Bexley

The earliest mention of Derek Conway, former MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup on Bonkers was in November 2011 just a few days before I first met Michael Barnbrook who brought him down for expenses fiddling.

I think it must be a feature of getting old but I cast an eye over the Daily Telegraph’s obituaries most days, Today it was a Halifax bomber pilot - my father flew Halifaxes - and then the name Derek Conway who died two days ago at the far too young age of 72. Derek Conway was the first MP scalp to be claimed by Michael who is referenced in the obituary.

Conway was the first of an eventual 17 MPs beought down or put in prison by former police Inspector Barnbrook. Michael died just a few months before Kier Starmer took power. If the self-styled Sleazebuster was alive and still active today he wouldn’t have a spare moment.

Weirdly I received an email yesterday purporting to come from Michael Barnbrook. It sported a Canadian source email address and contained only a link to a server that did not exist.

 

5 May - Pretty in pink

A Conservative Councillor friend sent me this image of their Longlands candidate posted by Old Bexley & Sidcup Labour to their Facebook page. He wondered what the Hell they were playing at posting such an unflattering picture and so do I. Will it do their cause any good and what would the Green candidate make of it? There must be a Paris fashion pun there somewhere but I have not found it yet.

A Reform UK candidate friend asked me who I thought a mutual businesswoman friend might vote for, so taking the bull by the horns I asked her. Three votes for Reform are in the post. (Belvedere ward.)

A former Mayor is still busy with his leaflets in Blackfen & Lamorbey. I found a tenth one on Facebook his morning.

Also on Facebook the Conservatives have been trying to convince everyone that the 120ish thousand pounds spent on the Story Teller cinema was not Socialism in action. Louie French MP got close to telling us that spending taxpayers’ money on saving a private business was a good thing and he had his supporters.

Would he advocate keeping other businesses afloat?  The dying public houses for example.

He is of course historically correct. Nationalisation can very occasionally be a good thing but the last time a Conservative did it successfully was in 1971 when Louie’s illustrious predecessor, Ted Heath, rescued Rolls Royce Aero Engines division from bankruptcy when the development cost of the RB211 by-pass jet engine was about to bring them down. I remember it well. My father’s best friend had spent years persuading them that three turbine spools each operating at optimum speed would provide a quieter more efficient engine than anything that had gone before.

He was right, but I don’t think rescuing a cinema is in the same league.

With most of the day spent hunting down a computer problem that looked like taking Bonkers off line that's the best election news I’ve found. Must do better!

Note: As is frequently the case, this blog title is based on an old film title. Maybe in view of the Labour Group’s comments it could have been called Pussy in Pink

 

4 May (Part 2) - Bonkers in trouble

No not another solicitor’s letter from the Labour candidate in Longlands but something far more serious. After posting this morning’s blog, and then correcting an error and uploading it again, a Windows update came along and wrecked the program that checks my code. In particular it looks for broken links and allows easy loading from a library of routines written ages ago which ensure Bonkers displays as intended.

The program dates from the early 2000s and obviously I know it inside out. Now it starts and immediately quits even after an uninstall and a reinstall - several times. I am not sure how to proceed. Bonkers is far too big to retrospectively adopt another system.

As a stop gap I have dug out a Windows 11 machine that has not been switched on for months and therefore is not running the latest version. The old program installed and ran perfectly on it but editing files over the network is a pain and almost impossible with all the graphics and audio programs on a different machine.

So if you see little here in the next few days you may understand why. Couldn’t come at a worse time with the election in just a few days time.

It was quite a struggle but five new leaflets were uploaded a few minutes ago, Conservative (Sidcup), Reform (Sidcup and General distribution), Independent (Sidcup) and Working for Sidcup.

In every case look for today’s date, 4th May.

Bugger Microsoft!

Note: 5th May. After a day wasted looking for an alternative program and deciding that there was nothing suitable, I found a way of making the old program run. Panic over; until the next time!

 

4 May (Part 1) - Like father, like son?

I suppose the more cautious of us vote Conservative in the hope of electing financial probity but it is not guaranteed. When I first started to keep an eye on Bexley Council its Cabinet Member for Finance seemed to me to be something of a rogue when it came to Financial matters.

His son in particular got into all sorts of financial scrapes, among them a holiday home in Tenerife which attracted adverse comment on Trip Adviser. Deposits of up to £1,350 were alleged to have disappeared and there were references to “your crooked dad”, Bexley’s Cabinet Member.

Then there was the mysterious case of the pub in Bean which the landlady alleged had been stolen from her by trickery. Once again the two Campbells were named in the papers. And in the same year the Bexley Cab office which was opened up without planning permission. Campbell again.

All of these stories linked financial, allegedly irregular, manoeuvres to the Campbells.

Seven years ago I had a protracted correspondence with the Falkirk Football Supporters Club who were very worried that a Mark Campbell claiming to be an American financier was trying to buy their club and thought it might be the same Mark Campbell who had operated in Bexley.

Yesterday a reader [Thank you] sent me a link to a Government website which said that a Mark Colin Campbell had been declared bankrupt a week ago. Same name, same age and the address is almost the same as 15 years ago.

Let’s hope that not too many people were badly hurt this time around.

Click image for further details.

 

3 May (Part 2) - Hunting for just one vote from each voter in Blackfen & Lamorbey

Blackfen & Lamorbey Councillor James Hunt has issued more election addresses than anyone else in Bexley. The message this time is that the electorate has trusted him for the past 20 years so why not another four with even greater freedom to help them.

If he is handwriting the messages on the reverse, and I understand that he is, Look out for him in A&E clutching a very sore wrist.

 

3 May (Part 1) - The multi-coloured Green

Lawrence Williams, the Green Party candidate in Sidcup is a man who lives there and presumably not unfamiliar with local politics.

In 2010 he was the Parliamentary candidate for the English Democrats in Erith & Thamesmead and then stood In Sidcup for The Christian People’s Alliance and more recently, the conservative Welsh Independence party Gwlad in Glamorgan in 2019 and again two years later in Monmouth.

Lawrence was a Social Democratic Party candidate in the 2022 locals, and stood for Rejoin EU in the GLA election in 2022. And let’s not forget the the Monster Raving Loonies too.

He tried UKIP when they were on the rise and is now riding the Green wave. Polls suggest that the Greens have about a 9% vote share in Bexley but Lawrence is very obviously the eternal optimist.

 

2 May - Full Council meeting. Final formalities

There was little of interest at the Full Council meeting after the Leader presented his report but some of the Scrutiny Chairmen like to tell us how well they have done.

Councillor Andrew Curtois was chosen to speak on their behalf and began with “it is with pride that I present us with something new. At End of Term the Chairmen of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees want to submit their achievements in a report and I agree to present it as I believe Finance is a golden thread running throughout, but there is something that frustrates me more than the Chancellor’s budget as the Chairman of Financial and Corporate Services and that is the current incorrect conjecture about Bexley Council’s borrowing situation. Perhaps if people read and take time to understand these papers they will know the conjecture is wrong and based on misunderstanding and that the hard work from Officers and Members allows Bexley Council to balance its books and spend more and more on front line services year after year.”

The Councillor did not say what the conjecture was or where it came from, nor did he attempt to debunk it with figures. The comment above is the nearest the Agenda came to a rebuttal.

And that was it, all the Reports from Committees were approved.

Finally the Council approved the appointment of yet another Monitoring Officer. Monitoring Officers do not last long in Bexley and I have lost count of how many the borough has had since Mr. Akin Alabi lost his job in mysterious circumstances. Six maybe?

It must be a very difficult job to do as one of the requirements will be to lie on behalf of the Council when it gets into one of its scrapes. Not too many legal officers are keen on doing that on a regular basis and they soon look for pastures new.

The name of the new Monitoring Officer was not mentioned at the meeting, nor was it mentioned in the Agenda; in fact the Council in full on anti-democratic mode voted in favour of keeping the name secret.

The meeting then moved on to nearly two hours’ worth of telling each other how wonderful Councillors are. This was first reported on 19th April and it is a blog not yet completed. Twelve Councillors’ comments recorded for posterity so far with another ten to go. At least one more will be reported later today. Councillor Rags Sandhu.

 

1 May - Questions following the Leader’s report to Council

The Leader’s report to Council and any discussion that might follow is limited to 30 minutes and the ultra-verbose David Leaf expended seven of them on a party political broadcast. Questioning was thereby curtailed which could be considered to be an affront to democracy in Bexley.

The first Councillor to try to make up for lost time was Chris Ball (Labour, Erith) who began by acknowledging that the Council was “doing lots of good things but it needs to do more”. His main concern was street homelessness. “I know officer colleagues go out counting and we quite often get numbers in single figures but I could quite easily find significantly larger numbers of people sleeping rough. I would ask the Leader what he thinks we are doing and whether he is confident that the number we have is really the actual number”.

Rough sleeping was said to be “not a massive problem” and no revised numbers were offered.

A second question concerned HMOs. There is a large number of them in Erith and one road alone has eleven. He acknowledged that some cause problems but “we have begun to demonise them”. He blamed Reform UK members for that. For some unfathomable reason, while claiming to be a patriot, he took a swipe at flying the flag of St.George “which has been deliberately used in recent months to intimidate and cause distress. The flags are a symbol of acceptance of intolerance. Flags for the Olympics are inspiring but three tatty flags in Brook Street is not patriotism at all, it is intimidation.”

Cabinet Member Munur said that what the public seems not to like about HMOs is the loss of a family home and the pressure it puts on the roads in terms of parking. It is not just about who may live in them.

The Council Leader said that flags are a sign of unity bringing people together. Removing flags risks provoking an increase in community tensions.

Councillor Lisa Moore (Conservative, Longlands) merely asked that Cabinet Member Newton congratulate herself on the recent SEND monitoring inspection. Disappointing that a Councillor thought that to be a good use of the limited time available. Did it do anything to advance democracy? An emphatic No.

Councillor Zainub Asunramu (Labour, (Thamesmead East) like her colleague in neighbouring Erith, thought the Council was doing a reasonable job especially in respect of community safety, anti-social behavior, drugs and acquisition crime “and all of that is really welcome” but she went on to criticise disproportionality in policing of the black community. “Longlands ward featured in the top ten in London for disproportionality. What has the current administration done about it? I hope the new Cabinet Member works with the police to reduce stop and search practices.” She ended with a plea to vote Labour on 7th May to “renew Bexley” and fix all these problems.

Councillor Leaf said significant investment had gone into Thamesmead some of which was opposed by Labour. Stop and Search was an important police tool which takes drugs and knives off our streets.

Councillor Cameron Smith continued with his campaign to prevent developers taking advantage of the Labour Government’s ambition to build on “grey belt” land and in particular the proposed battery storage facility on green belt farm land at North Cray. Bexley Council refused permission but the developer has issued threats via media statements. The Cabinet Member was asked to assure residents that any appeal would be fought “tooth and nail”.

Cabinet Member Munur assured him that he would fight any renewed application or appeal by “greedy developers”.

Labour Leader Stefano Borella asked what the Conservative’s had done towards restoring the [Covid] cuts to railway services while he was out campaigning for them. “You got rid of the round the loop services. You need to vote Labour on May 7th.”

Leader David Leaf responded with a short party political broadcast.

For the record, as an attendee at most Transport Sub-Committee meetings I can confirm that its Chairman Cameron Smith badgered Southeastern for restoration of the old timetable and the loop line trains at every opportunity.