8 November - Council questions
Questions to Full Council last week was once again the Dimitri Shvorob show
because every other resident in Bexley presumably learned long ago that questioning Cabinet
Members is a total waste of time. Every single question is shamelessly batted away
and never has one changed the Council’s direction of travel.
Bexley has always had the most restrictive rules on questions of any nearby
local authority and recently they have restricted questions even further. Only
Dimitri cares, the rest of us are content to have confirmation that Bexley has a
controlling and uncaring Conservative Council. Pleasant enough people individually but get
them together and tribal instincts kick in. To quote the News Shopper of almost
20 years ago, “Dishonest and Vindictive”.
Within the past month or so, Mr. Shvorob has written, to my knowledge, eleven
letters of complaint about restricting questions to the three party leaders and one to his local Councillor.
The Conservative Leader, David Leaf, has
dismissed Dimitri’s complaint as “nonsense” despite him being factually correct. Labour
Leader Stefano Borella has said that Bexley’s rules are no more draconian than
other Councils which is clearly not correct and Reform UK appears to have
decided that arguing the toss with Dimitri is a waste of their time. (This is
not their official response, it is entirely speculation on my part.)
The following two were Dimitri’s latest queries…
Question 1
was dismissed by Councillor Leaf with “the opportunity for questions already exists”.
Mr. Shvorob went on to highlight the 18 restrictions that Bexley places on
questions and that he had already fallen foul of them. The Council Leader said
his question was rejected for being badly drafted. i.e. contrary
to the rules, which is a somewhat circular argument. David Leaf went on to make
his trademark flippant remarks finishing with. “[Dimitri
should not] keep coming here and asking the same questions and getting the
same answers” thus pretty much confirming the worth of Question Time in Bexley.
The second question resulted in the Deputy Leader saying there was no
formal
policy on painting lamp posts. Dimitri said that is the reverse of what he
had been told by Council Officers. Cameron Smith said there were 19,000 lighting
columns and safety took precedence over cosmetic issues. The emphasis was on
replacing columns with structural issues, especially in the North of the
borough, and not on spending money on painting perfectly good ones “near your house”.