13 December (Part 2) - A few news items
Blue Badges
The News Shopper is reporting that Bexley council is to charge £10, the maximum permitted by law, for a
Blue Badge from 1st January 2012. I shall sit on the fence. I know because of my
daughter’s multiple sclerosis that people with reduced mobility suffer enormous
inconvenience and extra transport costs. I’ve spent two hours with her on London
bound trains while she tries to arrange for ‘disabled’ transport to meet her and
ends up paying £40 for a taxi because no one answers the phone. For Bexley
council to penalise the disabled to the maximum they can is typical of councillors totally
unwilling to entertain any cut to their allowances.
On the other hand I have seen my daughter arrange, in her capacity as a journalist and
in cooperation with the police, ‘stings’ outside football grounds so that she can write
about the huge numbers of people caught abusing the concessions. If the revised arrangements
help in that regard it is to the good but the cost of added Blue Badge security would easily
be paid for by even a token movement in the direction requested by government, of senior
salary levels. So much easier to Hurt the disabled instead.
Petition against excessive salaries
The News Shopper has also covered Elwyn Bryant’s petition against the very high salaries Bexley pays its
senior managers. Their reporter, Abigail Woodcock, helpfully reminds us that
Lewisham pays their Chief Executive £115, 000 while Bexley pays Will Tuckley one
of the highest salaries in the country; well over ’200k. Bexley council has trotted out
the same excuse as it did when
LBC broadcast
news of the petition. The same tripe about responsibilities ranging from “child protection to
refuse collection”. Refuse collection is generally good in Bexley because it isn’t directly
controlled by Tuckley. Child protection is his responsibility and what do we get? Almost
the worst levels of child poverty and
reprimands from the Local Government Ombudsman.
Nice photo Elwyn.
Bexley Care Trust
The BBC is reporting that Bexley is one of only nine Health Trusts in the entire country to have not bothered to carry out any health checks at all. It is supposed to carry out routine checks on things like cholesterol levels and blood pressure for over 45s but Bexley has failed yet again. Councillors John Davey (Conservative - Lesnes Abbey) and Eileen Pallen (Conservative - Crayford) are both on nice little earners to mastermind this failure to look after anything but their own pockets.
The District Auditor
Now that it is out in the open that Bexley council has been
operating its CCTV
cars illegally we can expect a number of consequences. I wouldn’t like to be
in Parking Manager Tina Brooks’ shoes. She has been busy in recent months telling
councillors that they have nothing to worry about, all is well. (Please don’t ask
how I know.) And now we know nothing is well at all. Notomob has already been in
contact with the Audit Commission because Bexley has declared illegally obtained
income to the District Auditor. You don’t really need to read Section 17 of the
Audit Commission Act 1998 to guess that it’s against the law.
The Bonkers team is proud to have been instrumental in bringing the parking
law expertise of Notomob to town. Bexley council’s lying to me in 2009 is and
will continue to have consequences. When will they ever learn?
Photo: Bexley’s car KX04 BKR operating illegally outside the Co-op store in Long
Lane this morning. (With thanks to a reader from Thamesmead.)
Obscene Blog
The Information Commissioner has told me that my complaint that the Metropolitan Police would not tell me anything at all about their obscene blog investigation, that they probably didn’t make, saying it wasn’t in the public interest has at long last reached the top of his pile and enquiries have commenced. Don’t hold your breath, the Commissioner’s enquiry into Bexley council’s refusal to respond to last May’s Subject Access Request has still not gone very far.