12 August (Part 2) - From West Heath to West Street; everything is going west
I was asked if I knew which Councillors are planning to hand in their badge next May and the answer is probably in the public domain if you look hard enough.
However as far as I know we will definitely lose Cheryl Bacon who announced her intention at a Council meeting.
Then James Hunt, Sue Gower, Ahmet Dourmoush and Philip Read have all told me
personally by phone, text message or face to face that they are standing down, on top of which we have John
Davey and Peter Reader whose names have reached me via more than one Councillor.
That’s the whole of West Heath ward ripe for a Reform take over.
A recent rumour says that Richard Diment is looking for an exit. It wouldn’t
surprise me. He is probably too good for Bexley Council and has been given the
poisoned chalice of Potholes, Parking and Dust Bins. All of them regularly
putting him in the firing line, from me too. I’d like to think that a lot of
what he has to do is done reluctantly.
He is among the small number of thoughtful Councillors who are probably unhappy
to have to work under the Bullying Baroness. (I was told she was standing down
too but I suspect mischief making.) If Richard goes, along with Sue Gower
the average IQ of Tory Councillors will take a dive. The only ones I have any
confidence in are the relative youngsters from the borough’s deep South.
Does
that include Frazer Brooks, currently of Falconwood but nominated for Blackfen and Lamorbey?
Frazer voted against the Bursted Woods development a couple of weeks ago when
BexleyCo was given permission to build on the derelict former NHS site.
So did the Labour Group Councillors who were ready to defy the national
leadership who want to build everywhere, let alone brown field sites like Burstead Woods.
He says it might end his political career and generally speaking those who rock Teresa’s
boat are not selected for the next election. However Frazer already has been.
The name Frazer Brooks has not been mentioned frequently on Bonkers but he may
be assured by the fact that it has been more often than former Labour Councillor
Oppong-Asare. When she was elected as MP in 2019 she
was put on the opposition front bench four months later having achieved nothing of any note in Bexley.
Frazer may not be as active as some but he remains the only Conservative Councillor who has ever
knocked on my door in electioneering mode - others have
called for other reasons - and I haven’t forgotten how
he went out of his way to
find me a meeting Agenda when there were none available to the public.
Maybe he shouldn’t have stuck his neck out for Bursted Woods, will BexleyCo
ever get around to building there anyway?
BexleyCo has been going for eight years now; how many houses do you think they have built so far?
On their own admission just 88. 58 at Old Farm (12 affordable rents and nine shared ownership) and 30 in
Erith, West Street. None affordable.
That must be a failure by any measure. Bexley Council, again on their own
figures, says it will hand BexleyCo another £35 million in the current financial year.
it appears to be a money pit without any benefit to the homeless.