15 April (Part 2) - Bexley council - a newcomer’s guide
Olly Cromwell and a lot of other people, including myself obviously, have come to believe that Bexley council is by far the most corrupt in London. I feel those who are interested in what led to Olly’s arrest and the prosecution that was lined up for me should be given a quick resumé of what has been going on under Conservative rule in this corner of South East London. Olly was not in court for Tweeting the ‘C’ word, he was in court for exposing Bexley council for what they are; the ‘C’ word is just a convenient hook to hang him on.
• Bexley’s former council leader, Ian Clement was selected by London
Mayor Boris Johnson to be his
Deputy four years ago. He was given a 12 week suspended prison sentence for
misusing his GLA credit card to the tune of two hundred odd pounds and he was
brought to book because of the complaints made by someone on the team of six
that runs this website. However enquiries revealed that he had taken Bexley
council via the same trick to the tune of £2,200. Bexley council identified all
the abuse, sent an internal email saying how it was to be hidden from the
auditor and refused to report it to the police. The woman responsible for all
that is Bexley’s current leader councillor Teresa Jude O’Neill, the local
politician Boris admires most according to an FOI response from the Mayor’s office
when he appointed her his ambassador to Outer London. The likelihood is she is
being groomed for high office at the GLA; remember that if you are tempted to
vote for Boris next month. Do you really want someone who covers up crime to be
given any more power? It’s not a one off; here’s another crime she would prefer to
cover up…
• In May 2011 someone at Bexley council set up a blogspot in my name. It accused
Olly and me and others of indulging in homosexual practices, some in the Civic
Centre, others in a council car park. To give her her due, the website was
removed an hour or so after it was brought to leader O’Neill’s attention, but
she refuses to say anything about it and to this day the culprit remains free.
An FOI seeking information was deemed not in the public interest. A Subject
Access Request has never been answered even after pressure from the Information
Commissioner.
• Bexley council’s slogan is ‘Listening to you, working for you’ but when
presented with a petition signed by 2,219 residents it ruled it out of order for
quoting figures in the introductory comments to the petition. It said they were
wrong and misleading. The introduction was an extract from Bexley council’s
website. The decision was upheld by the Scrutiny Committee chaired by Bexley
magistrate, councillor Donald Massey. All Conservatives voting to ignore the
petition, both Labour members disagreeing.
• Bexley council doesn’t like being questioned.
It generally fails to answer FOIs and excludes as many as possible by costing
them at more than twice the government’s guidance level, thus excluding as many
as possible on cost grounds. In a further attempt to prevent questions it allows
only one hour per year for questions at council meetings and then attempts to
fill the available time with questions from Conservative placemen. Any member of
the public asking a question must agree to have his name and address published
on the council’s website. It was the introduction of this rule that led to this
website listing all councillors’ addresses which were already in the public
domain but not easy to find. It was this tit for tat which led to Bexley council
publishing its obscene blog about me and to Olly being accused of publishing
addresses. It was me who was the prime mover in this sin against Bexley council’s
secretiveness not Olly and I very much suspect it is me they want to see behind
bars, not Olly, but I haven’t yet provided them with the hook. (It probably
helps to have so many House of Commons based readers too!)
• When Eric Pickles’ department wrote to all councils in February 2011 telling
them “citizen journalists” should be allowed to Tweet and film in council
meetings even the most hard line of secretive Conservative councils like Barnet
and Westminster caved in. Bexley however changed its Constitution to exclude all
forms of recording at meetings. All their Agendas repeat the prohibition and
when questioned they say it is to protect members of the public from appearing
on tape. They sheepishly offer the excuse that permission may be granted on
request but not a single request has been approved, not even for an audio only
recording at a meeting where the public is not allowed to speak.
• Another thing that should not have been laid at Olly’s door was the assertion
that both he and I had advocated marching on the Civic Offices with flaming
torches and pitchforks. The original comment was made by a leading light in the
local Neighbourhood Watch movement. I linked to his comment, I do not believe Olly
did. No one has said a word to the Neighbourhood Watch man but Bexley
council had the local police send an unjustified complaint about it to the Crown
Prosecution Service who made a recommendation that I should be prosecuted. It is
only due to the diligence of DI Keith Marshall of Bexleyheath Police that I was
not prosecuted. In the words of the Independent Police Complaints Commission,
“no crime had been committed”. Bexley’s leader Teresa O’Neill and her Chief
Executive Will Tuckley were personally responsible (thanks to the Information
Commissioner for that) for the attempt to pervert the course of justice. The
Local Government Ombudsman is currently looking into their little conspiracy.
• Bexley council complains that
Olly and I have stated that there has been too cosy a relationship between the
police and Bexley council. That false evidence about the flaming torches went
from Bexley council to the police and came back from the CPS with a
recommendation to prosecute in just three weeks. Bexley council’s obscene blog
which was easy to investigate because of the trail left through Google went
nowhere for six months and was pronounced dead in fewer than three. It was only
resurrected because two MPs, Teresa Pearce for Erith & Thamesmead and James
Brokenshire representing Old Bexley & Sidcup were embarrassed by events on their
patch and brought pressure to bear; James Brokenshire being potentially
hamstrung by the fact that Bexley councillors will be on his selection committee
come the next general election. Not all politicians are bent.
This has probably gone on long enough, perhaps we can have a Round 2 before
long, but the above examples of what Bexley council is prepared to do to
citizens who hold them to account may illustrate why they are so keen to shut
Olly up for the trivial offence of swearing on Twitter.