6 December (Part 2) - Readers to the rescue
Register of Members’ Interests
Eagle eyed
readers have directed me
to the Bexley council website links to the Register of Members’ Interests.
You have to go to each
individual councillor’s page and I had expected a single link and a list for ease of access, instead
it takes four clicks to get to a single entry and back to the place where you
can choose another. That's 250 clicks to see the lot.
It isn’t only councillor Peter Craske who sees a need to hide himself away from
the public gaze by invoking Section 32 of the Localism Act, which says…
“A member or co-opted member of a relevant authority has an interest (whether or
not a disclosable pecuniary interest), and the nature of the interest is such
that the member or co-opted member, and the authority's
monitoring officer, consider that disclosure of the details of the interest could
lead to the member or co-opted member, or a person connected with the
member or co-opted member, being subject to violence or intimidation.”
Do they all believe they have done such a thoroughly bad job as a councillor
that residents are out to get them?
Those who don’t really like being in the public eye are Cheryl and Gareth Bacon,
Colin Campbell, Sybil Camsey, Val Clark, Peter Craske, James
Spencer and Chris Taylor. All Conservatives.
A council insider once said that if councillors were compelled to put their details
on the web “they would lie even more”. That person was wrong; they prefer to say nothing.
How many councillors have had their collar felt?
The Freedom of Information request dated 20th July 2012 asking if Bexley council is
“aware of any councillor being the subject of a criminal investigation by the
Metropolitan Police in the last 18 months. If so, how many?”
is still not answered.
For the record only one was arrested in connection with the obscene blog and he
remains the only suspect. And to those anonymous tipsters who say he wasn’t
alone I can only suggest you report your concerns to the police. Crime number
3906909/11.
Outsourced to Capita
“You really need to do some digging into Bexley Council and how they
outsource the collection of Council Tax.” So said an anonymous message earlier
this week and I have little doubt that the contractor, Capita, should be looked
into. Alas, Capita is not a ‘Public Body’ so the Freedom of Information Act does not apply to them.
On the one occasion Capita decided to take issue with me over my single occupier
council tax discount I told them my contract for services was with Bexley
council and that I wouldn’t deal with them directly. Bexley council seemed to
agree as I corresponded only with them and they resolved the problem efficiently
enough - long before this website existed.
I have studied a file relating to services
provided to Bexley council by Capita which was intriguing to say the least. It
related to a rather complex benefit fraud where it
could be argued that the principal offender got away with it and the minor one who
had been sucked in was set up. A claim form had certainly undergone suspicious looking
alterations which allowed it to be used against him.
Below is an extract from Capita’s files which may not make a lot of sense by
itself; however the reason why the landlord didn’t have a rent book is that she
wasn’t the landlord at all, she was the ‘tenant’s’ live in girlfriend and she
was on the fiddle.
Capita knew that, there is a whole load of contemporaneous documentary evidence
to prove it, but they didn’t want to know. I’m still not sure if they were in on
the fiddle or were supremely incompetent. The overpaid benefit was never recovered. A five figure sum.
