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News and Comment January 2020

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30 January (Part 1) - Public meeting censored

I like to go to Councillor Seymour’s Places Scrutiny Committee meeting, the way he chairs it has always appealed to me and more importantly the subject matter affects every one of us very directly. One might say that the topics discussed are largely rubbish but it is important rubbish, literally in some cases. Recycling, rubbish ideas like concreting over parks and the disruptions caused by Andrew Bashford’s rubbish highway planning.

Last night the main Agenda item was the challenge of maintaining high recycling rates in flats. Given Bexley Council is planning to build flats wherever it can it is an important issue that threatens to knock Bexley from its recycling top spot. How can up to five bins be accommodated where no garden exists? Going further I am questioning why anyone should be happy to let Bexley Council take over nearly 20 square feet of their property rent free. Except for the garden waste bin they are all far too big for my needs.

TweetUnfortunately I didn’t manage to get to Melvin Seymour’s the meeting. I was running late thanks to an unexpected visitor and then the relief carer in East Ham failed to show up and the CCTV showed my aunt at her garden gate insufficiently dressed and waiting for her dinner and bed. By the time something was organised the webcast became the only option.

Not for the first time it was a let down. The audio quality is much better than it used to be, the buzzes and earth loop hums have gone but there was a short video presentation last night and they can never be seen.

However that wasn’t the main problem, it was the fact that the audio muted at various critical points, the Cabinet Member’s report for example was entirely missed as was his reply to Councillor Hinkley’s question about the recent Serco disturbances. There were nine audio mutings up to four minutes long and a few momentary ones.

Below is the audio waveform of last night’s meeting. When displayed on a big enough screen (the image is large enough to be OK at Ultra HD size) the nine gaps are easily visible.

Audio
It’s happened before.

 

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