7 August - Asking questions can be risky
Before 2010 I had never been to a Council meeting and was therefore totally
confused when I showed up to witness one in March 2011 just before 7:30 and saw it apparently already in progress.
I learned eventually that what I was seeing was the tail end of the Civic
Recognition Awards but not knowing what it was all about, ignored it. So did fellow Council
watcher Nicholas Dowling who was known to the Council because of his inclination to
ask awkward questions. I didn’t do that, seeing myself more as a reporter than activist.
A few days later Nicholas was honoured to receive a letter at his home address from the worst Mayor of
the past twelve years which complained that he did not enthusiastically clap the awards recipients that
he knew nothing about and didn’t go to see.
So
that was my introduction to Bexley’s Civic Recognitions Awards at which Bexley
Council might recognise the work of their favourite property developer and I have ignored them ever since.
Nicholas Dowling has almost disappeared from the Bexley Council Appreciation
Society but there is a worthy successor in the shape of Mr. Dimitri Shvorob who
was the Independent
candidate for Sidcup a few months ago.
It was Dimitri who winkled out the fact that there was no tendering process
before Bexley Council spent
nearly forty grand on a post-Covid
thank you party and in similar vein he has been nosing around the Civic Recognition Awards.
At £3,886·74 it is not the biggest waste of money in town but even so it may not
be value for money, All the successful contenders are awarded an elaborate plastic trinket at a cost of £92 a go. Thirty of them.
What’s wrong with only the paper certificate?
Should I warn Dimitri that sooner or later persistent FOI requesters are in line for a ban? The Information Commissioner said that Michael
Barnbrook could be lawfully banned from further FOIs because
his question
related to a black member of staff and therefore pursuing it was racist. The
ICO’s knowledge of Mick could only have come from Bexley Council.
Britain is not corrupt at every level. Oh no!