9 November - A Party Political Broadcast on behalf of the Conservative Party
In my view most Motions put before Bexley Council are of
little or no interest to residents and generally a waste of time. Last
Wednesday’s was a prime example. The retiring Leader was allowed to put a Motion
the only purpose of which was to blow her own trumpet loudly. Older Motions were
queue jumped. The new Motion aimed to “prioritise
aspiration for our residents, ambition for our borough, to be an efficient and
effective Council and Make Bexley Even Better”. A grand opportunity for gloating
over supposed achievements the principal one being the false claim that
Conservatives have seen through every election pledge since 2006. One might
concede most of them
but certainly not all of them.
The 2022 Manifesto said that a Conservative Council would fight against Khan’s
ULEZ con, and they did. Work to reverse police reorganisation. Did they? If so
they failed. Make town centres more friendly especially in the afternoon as
schools close. That is an obvious failure as anyone close to the Clocktower last
Thursday would know. Even as late as 6 p.m. there was a noisy mob of school
children surrounding
the wrecked William Morris fountain and jostling old people
out of the way to get on buses. I am not particularly frail but it was just a little bit frightening.
The Leader’s list of accomplishments included lobbying Governments for fairer grants
(no change as yet), being very efficient, so much so that if Bexley received a
grant comparable with Inner London boroughs, Council Tax would be negative. FixMyStreet was upheld as an example of more efficient working but Daniel
Francis MP abused it to "waste taxpayers money". 99·9% of waste is collected on
time. Two new libraries opened. New digital CCTV. Queen Mary’s Hospital improved. “We have delivered.”
and Labour voted against us.
Not so much a Motion as a Party Political Broadcast. It was seconded by her
successor David Leaf who said that Bexley had become the UK’s leading local
authority. He too said that all the 2022 Manifesto promises had been fulfilled,
presumably while hoping that no one would check it to see.
Cabinet Member Caroline Newton reeled off a long list of educational
achievements including new schools, more in the good and outstanding category,
expanded the local SEND facilities etc. all of which would appear to be true.
Labour Leader Stefano Borella said he voted against the budget based on the
Conservative Manifesto because it was theirs and his would have had different priorites.
The Conservatives stopped funding Sure Start Centres and replaced them with
Hubs. It is the Labour Government which has provided new funding for them. Why
is there no Bexley Box scheme this year?
Bexley Conservatives have failed on housing he said. “The delivery is abysmal.”
BexleyCo is not delivering affordable housing and has not been building on
brownfield sites. Sadiq Khan has improved bus services with the SL3 and electric
buses. (An electric SL3 was causing traffic chaos on Friday having broken down at Bexleyheath station.)
On libraries Stefano reminded us that they have very much reduced hours and are
no longer open every day of the week and 14 years of failure to secure fair
funding is nothing to be proud about. Whilst not disagreeing with the
aspirations of the Motion he would not be voting for it.
Cabinet Member Cafer Munur
said that Bexley had “gone from strength to strength” under Leader Teresa
O’Neill and whilst the numbers are disappointing due to many adverse financial
factors it had achieved a higher percentage of affordable homes than Mayor Khan
has in London overall.
The Motion was passed, presumably without the support of Labour Councillors.
Neither the webcast audio nor the video revealed the detail. It showed only a
close up of the Mayor. A total failure of the webcast system.