1 May - Council meeting report - Questions
Yesterday’s Full Council meeting was commendably short at
114 minutes and could have been nearer an hour if only Councillors would confine
themselves to things that directly affect Bexley residents. It began by
remembering two former Councillors who had died; Alan Downing who as Mayor
appeared to take a perverse delight in antagonising members of the public who
attended his meetings, denying them use of the hearing loop system and
jabbing a threatening finger into faces when they objected.
Also Harbhajan Singh, Member for Erith
a very long time ago.
Seven Councillors had absented themselves from the meeting.
The first public question came from Mr. Shvorob who asked the Council Leader
which Bexley services are better than Bromley’s which receives less Government
funding than Bexley and still manages to charge £200 less Council Tax.
The Baroness said that Bromley collects more in Council Tax because its
properties are more expensive and in higher CT bands and it has more green
spaces. Pure bunkum of course. When I moved to Bexley on 7th May 1987 it was
because I could not afford to buy in expensive Bromley (it’s no different now) and it had the same amount of green
spaces and farm land then as it has now. Yet in 1987 Bexley and Bromley levied
the same amount of Rates. She also said that Bromley’s bigger population was a
factor in their services being better and cheaper. That only makes sense if the excess
population makes no demands on Council Services. Mr. Shvorob said he didn’t
follow her logic either. The Leader repeated her claim that if Bexley’s grant
was as generous as some other London boroughs it would be able to levy zero Council Tax.
Mr. S also asked if it was true that the number of children attending Children’s
Centres fell by 85% after the service was ‘improved’. Cabinet Member Chris Taylor
said it was not true but accepted that the service had moved from Universal to
Targeted Provision - so one might guess it is actually true. “The numbers are recorded in a
different way” but the rearrangements and drop in numbers reported was a coincidence.
In what may rank as the most politically charged question ever, a Council employee/pensioner asked why her
pension contributions were invested in Israel and therefore contributing to the bombing of Gaza.
She was told that her £35 million pension fund investment figure going towards the defence of Israeli could only be
true if it included major companies such as McDonald’s, Hewlett Packard, Sony and
Hyundai “and they do not go out of their way to bomb Gaza. The Pensions Committee
is obliged to do its best for pensioners”. The Council pensioner’s response was that
Israeli investments are rated close to ‘junk’ levels and should be disinvested.
She was told that only £81,000 of investment could be linked to
Israel and that is “less than 0·01% of investments. The investment decisions will not be
changed but the Labour Government’s move towards taking away such investment
decisions from Councils may become a factor in future”.
Councillor Craske (Conservative, Blackfen and Lamorbey) was upset that Bexley residents travelling
North through Blackwall or Silvertown tunnels were paying £8 a day to get to
work while those commuting in the opposite direction paid only £3 a day. Could the Cabinet Member comment?
Richard Diment said it was “a kick in the teeth” from Sadiq
Khan and will be costing Bexley commuters about £2,000 a year on top of which
the Mayor has halved LIP funding (Local Implementation Plan) to Bexley since his
election. £18 million for both Greenwich and Lewisham, Lambeth £19 million,
Southwark £23 million, Bexley £12·7 million.
Labour Councillor Anna Day (Slade Green) said that the £4 a trip tunnel charge was “a Boris
Tax” which is of course nonsense. The level of charges was set by the current Mayor.
Councillor Andrew Curtois (Falconwood & Welling) invited the Leader to heap praise on her Bexley Box scheme.
We were treated to a repeat of the well deserved attack on the Labour
Government’s disdain for the elderly and the criticism of Labour Councillors who,
to a man, were happy to boycott the Boxes and see pensioners suffer and freeze. The Leader once again
thanked local businesses for their contributions and kept up her unblemished
record of never crediting any resident who may have helped out too.
Incidentally; @tonyofsidcup discovered via FOI that no receipts were available
for money spent in local shops nor did the Council do any bulk buying and maybe obtain a discount.
Labour Councillor Chris Ball (Erith) objected to the decision to remove Winter
Fuel Allowance being labelled ‘Wicked’ and would a Bexley Box scheme be
organised for those impacted by the Council’s decision to
raise Council Tax by
up to 25% for the poorest members of society? He was told that it didn’t really
matter because there are not many people impacted by that decision and they can be helped in other ways. (Still a 25% increase though!)
Councillor Fosten (Labour, Belvedere) thought that the model for Community Centres should be
rethought (after Belvedere’s recently closed) but was told that with leases not
expiring until 2039 there was no need right now. Belvedere was a special case run
by Labour Councillors. The Labour Group shouted largely inaudible objections to the implication
that they had done a poor job of keeping Belvedere open.
The Mayor called the end of Question Time and out of date Motions followed.