4 June (Part 2) - Taking lessons from Joseph
It
is unfortunate that the Bexleyheath Chronicle’s website has been down all
week and not only because it cost me 40 pence to buy a copy instead, but it will
have prevented some people reading more revelations about Bexley council. The
Sidcup edition tells how they spent £25 on sending out a one penny bill, but
that’s a long way from being the best bit for all connoisseurs of Bexley’s
idiocy. No that’s the wrong word, it’s beyond idiocy, it is premeditated dishonesty.
A letter from Graham Holland totally demolishes
the well heeled Katie Perrior
for implying she was a poor single mum who was eking out a meagre existence on her
paltry councillor’s allowance of more than £22,000. Graham knows a thing or two
about being a councillor, what it entails and the benefits that the position
provides, for Graham was one until 2003.
Graham however fell into disfavour among his fellow Bexley Tories because he did
what used to be commonplace, he didn’t claim his allowances. That is anathema
among the new breed and they looked for a way of getting him out. They found one
when he slipped two months behind with his council tax payment, and so it was
bye-bye Graham. Out he went with the words “the attitude you’ve taken towards
your finances in no way fits your position as a caring and responsible
councillor” ringing in his ears and 24 years of unstinting cost free service to the
community counting for nothing.
It was hardly the crime of the century, doesn’t really compare with “the
attitude towards finances” displayed by
two current councillors who do claim
every last penny of their allowances but managed to sink their own non-ABTA
registered travel business, but there you are, if Bexley council doesn’t like
being shown up they will stoop as low as it takes.
After
Katie came a cropper in last month’s Chronicle and was demolished in this, you’d
think councillors might be more careful in what they write, but casting caution
to the wind councillor Chris Taylor writes two letters! I’ve made no secret that
after seeing Taylor perform at council meetings I regard him as a
snivelling
little twerp but I accept I may be alone in that view because leader Teresa
O’Neill who controls these matters awarded him a fat consolation prize of £8,802
last month which may explain why he is praising her every word on Page 9.
He repeats her announcement that “Bexley now has one of the lowest council tax rates
per household in outer London. This is not an accident but the result of hard work
by the Conservatives.” All good stuff if it were true, Bexley comes
25th out of the 32
boroughs and occupies a middling position in the bottom half of the outer
boroughs. O’Neill and Taylor seem to subscribe to the Joseph Goebbels school of
propaganda. Tell a lie often enough and some mug will believe it.
Elsewhere in the Chronicle Taylor is allowed to peddle more nonsense. “Labour
commits to increase council tax by 3·5%, every year!” I was at that meeting and
Labour didn’t commit to anything of the sort. They were clearly disappointed
that the Erith option was strangled at birth - no debate, little comment - but they didn’t commit tax payers to
anything. One could argue that it is the Conservatives who have committed us to
higher taxes by choosing to go to the Woolwich, the option to stay put and
rebuild on the present site was cheaper but that got scant mention too. Only
the Woolwich got a look-in, the option that allows Tesco to wave their cheque book.
The council admits to having to spend £36 million on refurbishing the Woolwich
building and a civil engineer who has nosed around the site reported that it is in a
pretty awful state, and despite the Tory claim that the net cost is nothing, they say
they don’t know what Tesco might pay for the present council site. So that could just be a guess.
Another thing that the Tories won’t want to admit to is that £36 million
spent on the Woolwich building will make it fit for the next 40 years. What they
won’t want to be reminded of is that the council officer presenting the facts of
the choices available said the £43 million needed for a bespoke building in
Erith would see us through the next 55 to 60 years. Who is it committing us to most future expenditure,
Tories or Labour? It would take only five years worth of councillors allowances
and a little bit trimmed off the top brass’s pay and our grandchildren will
be spared a big bill in 40 years time. But that wouldn’t pay for Katie Perrior’s child minder would it?
Chris Taylor finishes his simpering eulogy to his dear leader with the words “It
reminds us clearly why council tax increased by 40% when they ran our council”. What I want to know is this…
Labour put up our taxes by 40% in a very short space of time, no arguments
there, but this council has continued to collect that extra money for the last
five years and still contrived higher than London
average rises until 2010. If Labour are such senseless wastrels and the Tories
such brilliant financial wizards why haven’t they been able to give some of that
money back? If Labour was wasting the money, the present useless crew must be wasting it too.
I think newspaper editors choose to publish letters from numbskulls because they
provide so much scope for filling future column inches. Come on Graham, take the little twerp down a peg or two.