17 February - Public Realm Scrutiny Committee
There was a meeting of the Public Realm Scrutiny Committee last night chaired
by councillor Cheryl Bacon. The Agenda was 118 pages long and there were several
supporting documents and it took 2½ hours to wade through the lot. If you
are expecting a comprehensive report you have come to the wrong place.
The Agenda made for interesting reading but the meeting which consists mainly of
short addresses by council officers followed by questions from councillors
contrives to be tedious. It may be that there aren’t any interesting questions
unanswered by the 118 pages and things are certainly not helped by the generally
poor quality of the sound waves that reach the ears of the audience. The fact is, that apart from
council officer Jane Richardson who is exemplary, no one has
a clue about the use of their microphones. Even when they remembered to switch
them on, everyone but Mrs. Richardson ignored their microphone and frequently
turned their head away and/or drifted a couple of feet from it. The seating
arrangement is such that half the councillors have their backs to the audience
and the end result is poor audibility requiring close attention.
Mrs. Bacon opened the meeting by welcoming the public to the meeting and
immediately prevented councillor Munir Malik from questioning why several
actions required by the minutes of the last meeting had not found their way to
the current Agenda. Apparently Bexley’s protocols do not allow for ‘Matters
Arising’ and if some items get lost; then tough luck, that is the way it is.
Councillor John Waters aided and abetted the chairman in this decision. During
the next 150 minutes I learned a number of interesting things. Perhaps the most
noteworthy (to me) are…
• During the past year 52% of the projects (by value) scheduled to produce
savings under Strategy 2014 are completed. A further 20% are going according to
plan and 28% are at risk of failing in some way.
• The average price of housing in the borough is £225,233 which is 0·9% lower
than a year ago. The figure is the third lowest of all the London boroughs. A
pity you can’t say the same about the council tax where we are
24th worst out of 32.
• Unemployment is rising but remains much better than the London average -
except in a few pockets to the North of the borough where it is twice the London average.
• The Siemens CCTV contract has provided income from local housing associations
but nothing from elsewhere. As a result the income from 3rd parties is £23,000 below target. The
cost of BT line rental is £17,000 over budget. Not good.
Because much of the proceedings were tedious it was tempting to read ahead in the Agenda
and I did. So it seems did councillor Brad Smith who on three occasions asked
questions relating to a subject the meeting had not yet reached. His mistake was
met with the amusement you might expect. Councillor Malik however was not so
fortunate; he asked a question relating to Agenda item 6 after the meeting had moved
on to item 7. He was told that he was too late and if necessary must address his
question to the individual officer outside the meeting. This opens up a whole
can of worms in my view. It deprives the other members of the
committee an element of scrutiny and the same goes for the public. Why not go
the whole hog and have all questions answered in private and not have public
meetings in future? Shhh. Don’t give them ideas.
Councillor June Slaughter can come up with some nice signs of scepticism when
she tries. She felt that some of the targets the council had set itself were far
too easy and was concerned that the targets are what they are primarily to allow
the council to blow its trumpet later. Mrs. Slaughter took a similar line when
council officer Mike Frizoni told us that the proportion of children going to
school by car had fallen significantly. Like everyone in the audience (I know it
is true because I was the only one present at the late hour) who has ever attempted to drive
around at 9 o’clock in the morning, Mrs. Slaughter had noticed how much easier it
is during school holidays and felt things were getting worse not better. How do you get
these figures she wanted to know. Mr. Frizoni said he goes into the classrooms and
asks pupils for a show of hands. Sounds like a good scientific survey to me. Councillor
Sybil Camsey observed that a £50,000 cycle shed at a school in her ward remains
almost completely empty.
Many more questions were answered in similarly vague or imprecise manner. I
noted the chairman answer one of councillor Malik’s questions about
unemployment with “find out for yourself”. When he asked for next year’s target
for unemployment the responsible officer said she didn’t know and when Munir
asked what impact Crossrail and the Olympics might have on unemployment rates he
went away empty handed again. Is it possible that only councillor Malik has a
nose for the incisive question that goes to the heart of the matter? Other
questions that required a numerical answer were met with “Not a huge number” and
“Significant enough to notice”.
Councillor Tarrant drew attention to the fact that the council was touting for more
advertising business, the latest idea is to place adverts on lamp posts, but at
the same time £50,000 was being spent on getting rid of unsightly street clutter.
One thing that was made absolutely clear at the meeting is that the redevelopment
of the Larner Road tower blocks will provide more homes than before, not fewer as
some rumours would have you believe. The increased number will be small but there
will be a lot more accommodation overall with more of the homes being ‘family’
instead of flats and bedsits. I’m not sure how you get more accommodation by switching
from hi-rise to low-rise but the
chairman was emphatic that that was the case.
The foregoing is necessarily a very condensed version of events. The
complete Agenda is available on Bexley council’s website.