The unusual site banners are to bring attention to the fact that Labour activists in Bexley are manipulating Facebook Groups with fictional posters. They deny it, threaten police action for ‘harassing’ a fictitious character and then demonstrate their willingness to impersonate by creating a false Administrator account in my name. The banner on display is chosen randomly from a selection of three, with a fourth bearing the familiar Bexley Council is Bonkers logo.
22 June - Two vote Val’s legacy to Bexleyheath
A couple of days ago I commented on not having seen a News Shopper for a
couple of months and also pondered why Bexley Council has “serious issues” with
me when all I do is report Council News. If they don’t like it they should stop doing
whatever it is that gets reported.
Today both things were brought together by a friend who was shopping in
Orpington’s Tesco and picked up a copy of the News Shopper from the
distribution point there. It was the Bexley edition and this is its front page headline.
Below it was a totally unbalanced report about the decision to allow a 13 storey
tower block on Broadway. I don’t know if the journalist was at
the planning meeting as I was
and the webcast is - as of this Friday evening a week later - still not available on the Council’s
webcast but her account completely misses the fact that every Councillor on the Planning
Committee was against the development. News Shopper readers are given the
impression that Councillors rode rough-shod over and without a thought for residents
who are rightly aggrieved by what some see as a monstrosity in their midst.
I would accept that BiB reports are frequently slanted in a particular direction
but they never omit any known facts which would allow readers to reach their
own conclusions. If I had written such a biased piece against Bexley Council’s
planning decision knowing what I do about it I would be ashamed of myself and
worrying that any reputation for reporting facts would have vanished.
Maybe the News Shopper should be banned from libraries and not
Bexley-is-Bonkers.
The 13 storey tower is being inflicted on Bexleyheath because Councillors were
under pressure by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who would likely overrule a refusal
and because Councillor Val Clark is a very poor Committee Chairman who voted for
the over-development twice.
Fortunately the News Shopper put
the same news on their website today and their
reporter Tom Bull has made a much better job of it.