11 November - FOIs delay road safety improvements. Really?
Dimitri Shvorob was not satisfied with
asking one question, he went for the maximum permissible two.
“What action is planned based on the findings of this year’s survey of road
safety arrangements around Bexley’s schools?”
That was one for Cabinet Member Richard Diment. He confirmed that there are
ongoing “surveys of traffic volumes, pedestrian crossings, road widths and
casualty numbers at 36 sites across the borough and it has already identified
where pedestrian crossings would be useful or a request had been received for a
crossing to be provided. They are predominately on journeys to school. Work is
in progress to develop firm proposals. Residents and emergency services would be
consulted. Implementation will be in the Spring or Summer of 2024.”
Mr. Shvorob said this was the first survey in ten years and asked why no schools
had been or are being consulted. Councillor Diment replied that “his officers
had consulted with all appropriate people” and went on to state that there
might have been more progress if they were not distracted by so many Freedom of
Information requests and if they had not been made “progress would be far quicker and efficient”.
In July the Council confirmed that
most FOIs can be answered in just an hour or two.
There was a question about the building delays at Shenstone School about
which I know nothing and the Cabinet Member for Education was absent, so that is a subject for another time.
There was a slightly strange question from a Mr. Browning who was a Labour
Councillor up until the rout of 2006. His question asked how many of the
photographs in a recent Conservative Party leaflet were in fact Council property. Petty or what?
The Leader said a lot has changed since 2006, among them the use of email and
Social Media. “The way photos etc. are used now is much different”. Taking
pictures on phones saves money - no photographer to be employed - and when last
week Councillor Newton took a picture on her, that is the Leader’s phone and
sent it to the Council Press Office, who owns it?
“When the Council Tweets it out and it is shared around, who owns it? Twitter
doesn’t say there is copyright on them. The Council often uses our pictures. The
Council is producing guidance on who should do what. Technically it [the
leaflet] didn’t have copyright on it. It was taken [stolen?] from Twitter and
shared but we need to have the debate.”
Whilst this was going on I was furiously Googling on my phone to see if the
Copyright laws had changed but they have not. The copyright belongs to the person
who took the picture. Leader O’Neill was waffling, from a strictly legal point of view,
but at the same time describing what everyone on Social Media does.
If everyone was as pedantic as Mr. Browning evidently is a lot of us might
be in jail. Bexley Conservatives, Teresa O’Neill and Bexley Council are
embracing the new normal.
I take the view that anything posted on the internet is likely to be stolen and if you don’t like it
put a watermark on the photo or otherwise indicate that the owner places a value on it.
Mr. Shvorob gets reprimanded for wasting time with his questions but Mr. Browning
did not when his motive could only be to cause party political
embarrassment. Politicians do far too much of that instead of getting on with the job.