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News and Comment March 2011

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31 March - The chocolate teapot again

MayorThe month has been dominated by the mayor’s incompetence and dishonesty. She started by curtailing questions from the public contrary to her own Standing Orders. She compounded her folly by writing to members of the public about “parsimonious appreciation” and recommending instruction books she didn’t follow herself and she has finished it off by showing off her dictatorial powers and abuse of democracy.

As has been stated many times before, every Bexley resident is allowed to pose two questions at open council meetings. Few bother to do so but an exception is Mr. Elwyn Bryant who always submits a question. For his pains he has been insulted and lied to by councillor Craske and received similar treatment at the hands of Council Leader O’Neill on 2nd March; but Mr. Bryant does not give up easily. He submitted another question for the council meeting scheduled for 6th April. He did so well before the cut-off date but yesterday noticed that he had not received the usual acknowledgement, so he gave the appropriate department a call. He was told that the mayor herself had decided that Mr. Bryant’s question wouldn’t be accepted. He is just too much of an embarrassment to the council. What is more, he wasn’t told because that way any counter-arguments he could make could be ruled out of time. Cunning eh? Mr. Bryant now knows that questions designed to expose the council’s or the mayor’s shortcomings are not welcome. I’m sure he will remember that in future.

The dressed up mayor may look like a cuddly pantomime dame but she is in a powerful position which permits her to readily flout government guidance on running open and transparent meetings, to watch individual attendees at meetings and admonish them by letter for not clapping loudly enough and recommend which books they should read. She is irrational with no respect for residents and puts obstacles in the way of the public exercising their democratic rights. Mayor Val Clarke is a danger to the proper conduct of public affairs in the borough.

Chocolate Teapot : © A senior Bexley Conservative party figure.

 

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