2 February - News of the Residents’ Parking Permit saga. The Artful Dodgers are at it again
News of councillor Craske’s dishonest scheme
to triple the cost of residents’ parking permits (even though the council’s own website said they
were not making a loss fewer than 18 months ago) has gone all quiet so I enquired what might
have been happening recently. I’ve obtained a copy of the letter James Brokenshire M.P.
sent to the Parking Manager on 6th December and I have seen the letter with which the Parking Manager,
Tina Brooks, fobbed him off on 4th January. Mr. Brokenshire had supplied a sheaf of statistics
sent to him by one of his constituents and asked “how the significant increases in permit costs is
justified” and requested a “response to the points that have been raised”.
Presumably he couldn’t see how it was justified or he wouldn’t have asked.
Ms. Brooks ignored the request excusing her failure to answer any of the points by claiming
“I am unclear as to the sources of some of the data”. It must be hard to write a letter
that tells the truth if you work for Craske and you value your job but you would have
thought that she would recognise that the source of all statistics on residents’
parking permits can only be the council’s website, its published
accounts and the information put out by Craske himself. When carefully analysed
it is full of contradictions and loads the costs with expenditure which is in
truth not expenditure but their spending of the profits.
As every resident should know, Bexley’s CPZs (Controlled Parking Zones) operate for two
hours a day for five days a week whilst standard parking restrictions operate for around ten
hours a day for six days a week. So it beggars belief that the price increase is justified
by a claim that CPZ operation soaks up 56% of parking admin. costs, 44% of
enforcement costs, 50% of computer and IT costs and 64% of accommodation costs.
It is disappointing that the M.P. did not, so far as I know, ask for a proper
reply from Ms. Brooks but I suppose a junior minister is a very busy man and
challenging the lies perpetrated by Bexley council and Craske in particular
would be a full time job. But it is part of how Bexley council gets away with
the routine dishonesty and its illegal acts.
For the squeamish who may be upset at me labelling Craske a liar
I shall repeat that he is the man who claimed in the council’s magazine and on its
website that there was a £4m contract with the transport consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff
and when questioned about it at a council meeting dodged the question
by saying there was no £4m contract. I note the contradiction was picked up and queried by the Chronicle series
of newspapers in their January issues. Craske is also the man who insulted a member of the public at a meeting
and dodged the standards board investigation by saying there was “a correlation”
between his insulting behaviour and what the member of the public had said.
Unfortunately for Craske the published minutes of the meeting state otherwise so the complaint
against him has gone back to the standards board under the appeals procedure. If
necessary it will go to the Standards Board for England. The time when Craske
may have been given the benefit of the doubt is long gone. Craske is also
responsible for the department that illegally extends yellow lines another case
of which has been reported to me today. Maybe lying
is the least of his misdemeanors.