26 June - It’s naive to expect a straight answer
I suppose I should not be surprised to hear from people who write to Bexley Council
and then express surprise when the reply appears to be less than honest. It happened to me
14 years ago when the Highways Manager sent me a blatantly dishonest response to
an enquiry and I naively thought it might be a one off and worth posting to the
web. A flood of similar stories convinced me that lying was the Bexley Council norm and BiB was born.
Things may have improved since but yet another such story dents my confidence
somewhat. It concerns a resident who perused the
Councillors’ Registers of Interests and was puzzled by some of them. He should
count himself lucky. When I used to do such things the Register could only be
inspected in person under official surveillance with copying verboten.
As far as the newcomer could see, a small number of Councillors did not appear to have employment within the
borough or live in it as either a property owner or tenant.
“Any beneficial interest in land which is within the area of the London Borough of Bexley. None.”
Some years ago when I took a keener interest in Council skullduggery I managed
to extract the following statement from the Chief Executive. It is reasonably
clear and concise. Candidates at Council elections must have been around for a
year beforehand and have a property interest either as tenant or owner. ‘None’ is not an option.
In addition to raising the residency issues this nosy resident claimed that some
Councillors’ Registers were inaccurate and the Monitoring Officer conceded that
they were while at the same time refusing to accept a complaint under the Code of Conduct procedures.
Over the course of several emails the Monitoring Officer eventually said that being unable
or unwilling to disclose any interest in land in Bexley is not an impediment to
being selected for election as a Councillor; which does not appear to align with
what the Chief Executive said.
I can only see one reason for the excuses offered and that is that the
Councillors concerned are living at home with Mum and Dad. I think that has
happened in years gone by.