30 April (Part 2) - Green for Go. Red for Stop

I had no idea that Bonkers was so widely read, and maybe it isn’t outside election periods. Yesterday I received emails and WhatsApps from every party putting up candidates in Bexley apart from the Unionist Coalition which is standing in Belvedere and Crook Log. Oh, I have forgotten the Liberal Democrats but there again, hasn’t everyone?

At other times I assume that no one reads Bonkers, that way I don’t have to think too much of what the reaction might be. As I’ve said many times, Bonkers is kept alive because I believe it is important that residents should know what goes on inside the Council Chamber. Local newspapers are pretty much a dead zone for political news. Few will want to spend hours watching webcasts so I assume a summary here will benefit busy residents and aid democracy. Some people seem to agree, “Best wishes and I thoroughly look forward to reading your column every day as it is the best way to find out what is happening to our neighbourhood” which is taken from another of yesterday’s messages.

People ask me who I expect to win next week but I get very little feedback that doesn’t come from Social Media which is very much a closed bubble. SM is almost certain to be a minority view; but if I had to guess I would think Bexley might go to No Overall Control. I cannot see the Conservatives hanging on to their majority. The more interesting question might be, will the Greens oust Labour and become a significant opposition party?

Something you would not expect me to say is that I enjoyed, in every sense of the word, a correspondence with the Green Party leaders. Not the slightest indication of nuttiness there and if I pretend for a moment that Zack Polanski does not exist they would seem to be entirely rational people not easily dismissed. Certainly the Longlands candidate, Anita Paris, is far preferable to the Labour lady in that ward. Which would you prefer if you were a committed Socialist for which any sort of conservatism was an anathema? A lady (Anita - Green) who can write a charming and friendly letter to a political opposite or one who issues legally backed threats that her name can never be reported here. Ana Davies - Labour.

Come on Lefties in Longlands, vote Green and put them above Labour in the poll there.

As well as all the party contacts yesterday there was one from Independent James Hunt. Polls say he is in with a chance in Blackfen & Lamorbey and he knows his way around Bexley Council. He needs to be there to guide the newcomers. The Tories will do nothing but put obstacles in their way like they did for UKIP in 2014.

 

30 April (Part 1) - Labour just doesn’t get it

The Labour dirty tricksters on Facebook were plotting to get Reform candidate Lynn Smith into the newspapers for her cautious views on militant Islam and they have succeeded (if you can wade through the adverts that obliterate most of the MyLondon page).

Lynn’s X post alongside features in the MyLondon article and if Labour activists think she is wrong they need their tiny heads tested. On a day when Globalize the Intifada put two Jewish men in hospital in Golders Green and in a week that has seen several rapists of Islamic persuasion jailed, every woman and man should be wary of the growth of Islam. I would not vote for anyone who seriously thinks otherwise.

One Islamist I knew, he has since died, told me in 1997 that he and his mates were on a mission to take over the country. His mates are well on the way to their avowed goal.

Full disclosure. Lynn is the only UKIP Councillor with whom I kept in touch after the UKIP bubble burst in 2018. Her political views are much the same as mine. perhaps a little bit less strong on the issue of illegal immigration. I think she may have convinced me that I should ignore my misgivings about Nigel Farage and Tice & Co and vote Reform next week if only to annoy Ben Hopton and his ilk.

 

29 April (Part 4) - A plethora of new leaflets

If you read election leaflets you may be in the minority but if you then file them away you must be a very special political nerd, so I am pleased to be able to say that a reader from West Heath ward  has sent me his collection of ten leaflets going back to June last year. I am not alone! Six Conservative and two each from Labour and Reform UK, most new to the Bonkers Archive. Thank you West Heath Man.

WHM says the Conservatives send leaflets to him at times other than elections but other parties do not. I think that is the norm in Conservative wards but they do not bother elsewhere. That is perhaps a little defeatist. Here in the shadow of Lesnes Abbey I recall having a Conservative MP and three Conservative Councillors but maybe demographics have changed since then.

 

29 April (Part 3) - Pray for Bexley

With all the election distractions going on I must not forget that the Marathon Council meeting of 15th April is still not completely reported. What did Leader David Leaf have to say?

“This is the report since November and I wish to thank Baroness O’Neill for handing over a strong ship travelling in the right direction”.

He commented on the lost Motions, in particular the Motion on Motions which he said has been addressed through a Constitutional Review (PDF).

If the Conservatives are re-elected in May, Bexley, described by businesses as “London’s best kept secret will remain a beacon for free enterprise and business while the rest of the country under Labour falls apart under this job destroying tax grabbing government”.

“Despite Members opposite trying to sabotage the investment in roads we will continue to invest in our highways. Instead if trying to get money taken away from Bexley, Labour MPs shouldn’t be attacking our borough, they should be calling for investment. Conservatives believe in keeping Bexley green and clean and we take action on the fly tippers who blight our communities. While other Councils see a rise in flytipping DEFRA data shows we are in a better position than most. We support young people with training and careers.”

“We are working very hard at protecting our green spaces from the Government and Sadiq Khan’s appalling efforts aided and abetted by the Reform Party. We are working to protect the most vulnerable from domestic abuse. Because our borough is such a great place we have been able to attract some high profile visitors recently. The Deputy Mayor for Business came to Bexley. The Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist from the Metropolitan Police came to support our fight against crime and we had the great honour of having the Archbishop of Canterbury visit Abbey Wood on her pilgrimage. She prayed for our borough.”

“We will celebrate St. George’s Day and NATO Day by flying our flags and to pay tribute to our armed forces. Our budget has delivered significant investment in our communities, more money into our roads and our libraries. More money into our Community Centres. A budget that was opposed by the party opposite and put at risk by all other parties and Independents and the occasional keyboard warrior standing at the local elections this year. The only party with a fully costed Manifesto and this [Leader’s] report touches on thw work we have done and lays strong foundations for the next four years of Conservative administration elected on the 7th of May.

The Baroness’s report to Council was always a long written statement and a very few words to introduce it followed by questions. Obviously Leader Leaf has thrown that successful technique out of the window.

Has anyone seen a Conservative Manifesto this year? Google AI says there isn’t one.

 

29 April (Part 2) - Two lovely leaflets!

Councillor James Hunt, the Independent candidate for Blackfen and Lamorbey with 20 years experience under his belt, two as Mayor, also landed in my email Inbox yesterday. One leaflet that has already gone out and another that will be hitting letterboxes very soon.

If you are too impatient to wait, here it is below.

After a slow start there are now 50 local election leaflets in the Archive. More than in any previous year.

 

29 April (Part 1) - Two lovely letters

The first of two lovely emails received yesterday came from one of the lady election candidates in Longlands. No, not Ana(shua) Davies for breaking her instructions never to name her on Bonkers, but from Anita Paris who is standing for the Greens.

Far from taking issue with me labelling their leaflet a Policy Free Zone she instead sent me their latest which is not so reticent. That is the way to do it, not set up fake Facebook Groups in an attempt to deceive residents.

Even better, Anita is a Bonkers reader and because of it has learned something about, as she puts it, Bexley Council’s lack of transparency and accountability. Like me she is appalled by the massive waste of money spent subsidising The StoryTeller cinema.

Maybe not all Greens are as nutty as Zack. Below is half of Anita’s latest leaflet. (The second lovely letter was from a Labour candidate. See below leaflet.)

The second lovely email came from Councillor Sally Hinkley (Labour, Belvedere). Not a word of politics in it but she had somehow got the idea that I might be under too much pressure or even unwell and was offering help if I should need it. Call her any time if I need a helping hand. Fortunately not needed yet Sally, but thanks. I learnt a little about her daughter who is doing so well with her GCSEs. She must be the same age as my granddaughter who is taking hers about now. In between playing in the women’s team at hockey when only just 16. (Have you seen the price of the protective gear?)

Not all Labour females are like Ana whatsername. Esther, Mabel and Teresa P. amply prove it and all gone, or soon to be.

 

28 April (Part 3) - The Labour Party Manifesto

The Labour Party Manifesto has reached the Bonkers Archive.

Click the image alongside to read Page 1 of 28 or the first link to see it all. A smart professional production.

 

28 April (Part 2) - More on that ‘posturing’ Motion

After the Labour Leader responded to Councillor Richard Diment’s Motion but notably did not contradict any part of it before announcing he could not vote for it, it was the turn of Councillor Craske (Conservative, Blackfen & Lamorbey) to speak.

“Interesting in that speech the Leader of the Opposition didn’t once defend the Labour Government. People cannot cope with the cost of living, that is why a Labour Government will save 27,800 homes in Bexley £600 a year on their energy bills. They are not my words obviously, they are the words of the Labour Group, in fact they are the words of one of the Councillors who keeps chuntering on over there. That pledge was made to every resident by the Members there. I am going to do a little quiz here; if your energy bills have been cut by £600 a year for the last two years, put your hands up. There you are. Nothing. Nothing but a broken promise.”

“The Labour Government will scrap tuition fees; another pledge made by the Labour Group before the General Election, and what has happened with that pledge? Tuition fees went up 3·1% a year twice. And are you ready for this one? The Labour Government will freeze Council Tax for every family in Bexley. Another pledge by the Members of the Opposition before the General Election. Has this been delivered? Labour’s brutal cuts to Local Government have, as we have heard, left us four to nine million pounds short, and then there is this one. We won’t raise National Insurance and we will protect the Winter Fuel Allowance. Have a guess how that one worked out. 36,000 Bexley residents could tell us. And let’s not forget that while 36,000 people shiver, Labour MPs are kept warm by all their free clothes from Lord Ali.”

“They promised to crack down on the price of concert tickets but that all went quiet when the Oasis tickets went on sale. We couldnְ’t get them or couldn’t afford them and then it turns out the reason they all went quiet about it, is because they are all going to their shows for free. They are just some of the many reasons why I will not be voting for this Motion tonight.”

Labour Councillor Asunramu (Labour Thamesmead East said “I find it deeply frustrating that we are spending time debationg a Motion that does little to improive the lives of our residents and is simply political posturing ahead of an election when we could be focusing on matters of real urgency. For example I brought forward a Motion which will not be discussed on violence against women and girls. An issue that affects real lives in Bexley every day. It is not a marginal issue, it is a crisis. Residents in Bexley are not asking for political theatre, they are asking for safety, support and leadership. Here in Bexley we saw the loss of the Youth Club in Thamesmead East. I wrote to the Cabinet Member and the Leader asking them to visit and there was no resonse. Do we care about the young people of Thamesmead? Residents are not surprised, they have been ignored time and time again.”

Councillor Curtois said “he was surprised that the negative effects of the Government being dismissed as posturing. So far Rachel Reeves has delivered two budgets. She promised working people woudn’t pay more; let’s look at what she delivered. NIC up to 15%. Thresholds slashed from £9,000 to £5,000. Every small business, every care home in Bexley hit with tax that they didn’t see coming. Fewer hours, smaller pay rises, redundancies.”

“She taxed good jobs and called It growth. Want to save? She will tax it away. Family homes and inheritance, Capital Gains Tax up. IHT relief on family farms drastically cut. The message is clear. If you worked hard and built something for your family they will take more of it. Are Bexley residents better off? The IMF has downgraded the growth forecast to the worst in the G7. This is not bad luck, this is bad Government. People voted for a change. Let’s not make that mistake again on 7th May.”

Councillor Jeremy Fosten (Labour, Belvedere) said “with the freshest mandate I feel most qualified to speak. This Motion is manifestly inappropriate. What Councillor Diment is proposing is that the Council that counts the votes, that certifies the results, the same Council that ratified the election of two Labour MPs and one Conservative in this borough should turn around and tell voters they were wrong. Let’s be clear, the Council is not a mouthpeicce of a dying Conservative party. How is anybody meant to have confidence in this Council’s ability to enact an impartial electoral process when the ruling party is more interested in ensuring that same Council lashes out at its political opponents. If uou have a genuine policy disagreement, that is fine; bring yopur Motions, debate them but I don’t see how a Motion as vague as our growth strategy is in any way helpful to the residents we come here to represent. But if you want to debate whether a Labour Government is better than a Tory one, let’s do that. We lifterd the two child benefit limit, you care more about punishing parents than helping children. We passed the Emplooyers’ Rights Bill, you care more about saving huge corporations a few quid. We passed the Renters’ Rights Act and good tenants will no longer be turfed out for no reason. I will take this Labour Government over the achievement of 14 years of Conservatives every single time.”

The Council Leader summed up. “The Conservatives spoke the truth and Labour, in some cases are bordering on delusional. There are fundamental flaws with this Government and Councillor Diment tore them apart. We have residents in Bexley pushed into hardship by this Labour Government. The renamed Household Support Fund has been cut significantly.” Winter Fuel, £35 billion to give away the Chagos Islands, the reduced funding formula for Bexley, widespread increased taxes, higher Business Rates, no Council Tax freeze, no reduction in energy bills, green belt under threat, all got a mentions. “Labour are puppets having their strings pulled by Sadiq Khan and Keir Starmer. They have been defending the indefensible.”

The Motion was passed. Remaining Motions will not be carried forward to the next Council

 

28 April (Part 1) - The Labour Dirty Tricks Department

There is still quite a lot of the 220 minute Full Council meeting to report but Monday is a day when I am fully occupied on other things. I did begin to make a quick comment yesterday evening about more Labour leaflets becoming available but a phone call alerted me to a friend with a problem, so late though it was, I jumped on a bus.

While on it for 20 minutes I perused Facebook for more election news and became aware once again of how the mysterious Ben Hopton, an obvious Labour agitator, was responsible for many of the threads on London Borough of Bexley News and Views. Not content with Labour previously manipulating Bexleyheath News & Gossip, he (or possibly she) is going for the whole borough now.

You have to admire these Lefties; they have taken over the teaching ‘profession’, the Civil Service, pretty much all of the police and judiciary and set up faux charities like Hate not Hope. Now they dominate Social Media with pseudonyms which were exposed here a year ago.

Scrolling further into their diatribes I found anonymous references to my blog. Apparently, based on two successive headlines about Reform leaflets I had become a Reform supporter. Today I must have shifted to Labour with three more of their leaflets and a number of Text Messages to and from my Labour Councillor. [For the record, Reform’s Bexleyheath leaflet was also added to the Archive. today]

You know, Bexley is Bonkers used to be a good blog, shining a light on the various misdeeds of Bexley Tories. Sadly these days it has degenerated into little more that a pro-Reform fansite. Doesn’t the writer realise that Reform is just the worst of the Tories by another name? Is he oblivious to the car crash on our borders in Kent? Does he not recall that his old nemesis, Maxine Forthergill [sic], was elected in Kent on a Reform ticket? Evidently not!

A blog that was devoted to not unreasonably pointing out how shit the Tories were at running Bexley council is now relentlessly shilling for Tory Redux instead. Make it make sense.

Yep Bexley is bonkers is a little deranged lately , Malcom [sic] that runs it has jumped from one party to another, the only founding thing he has consistency in is backing the wrong people, he should retire. As he sounds more weird with his one man deranged rants, be okay if he knew what he is talking about.

The only person who has either attended or kept recordings of every significant Council meeting of the past 15 years and apparently my knowledge of Council history is nothing compared to an anonymous nobody on Facebook!

They didn’t like my reference to their Longlands candidate either. The blog where I said that I’ve had conversations about her with four well known Labour figures. I wish to correct that comment. There was only one face to face conversation, the other three were all in writing. I’d love to tell you who they were but let us say that in Bexley Labour circles, you cannot go any higher. Would you believe that the Longlands candidate once (well five times if you count the separate Tweets) reported me to the police for condemning police violence directed at old ladies in Trafalgar Square?

Too many Labour supporters (not local Councillors in my experience) are simply deranged but it is satisfying to be reminded how widely the blog is still read. I have no idea whatsoever of the actual numbers because there are no counters in the code. Not a single cookie and the reason is that I simply do not care if it is read or not. Unlike most blogs, it is not supported by advertisements or anyone other than me. If it annoys Lefties it is worth the effort! (All bloody day today!)

Of course, when Bonkers did little more than bash lying, and occasionally criminal, Bexley Tories I was Top of the Left Wing Pops, but I told Labour Councillors at the time that if ever the Council changed hands they would almost certainly find themselves in the firing line. Councillor Philip Read was absolutely convinced I was a Labour troll and said so frequently. It probably looked that way to many but it simply wasn’t true. Bonkers ‘trolled’ liars and Bexley Council was stuffed with them.

Only last week I told a Reform candidate that he could expect “to get it in the neck” if his party didn’t do what we expect of them. I specifically asked their Leader for his stance on attacking motorists and got in return an extensive critique of Sadiq Khan which answered the question fully.

Over the past couple of weeks every party, apart perhaps for ‘Working for Sidcup’ has been criticised to some extent but personally my politics have always leaned rightwards. From the school mock election in 1959 and being thrown out of a Labour party meeting for heckling the same year, I have voted Conservative at every General Election apart from the last one.

I voted Lib Dem in Aldershot circa 1965 because a friend was a candidate and I didn’t want to look him in the eye later and swear he had my vote. Danny Hackett (Labour at the time) benefited similarly in 2014 and Sally Hinkley (Labour) in 2022.

In the 1960s I went to a few Young Conservatives meetings but mainly for the girls. I was a Member from 1990 to 1992 but ditched it when they abandoned the Community Charge and I never forgave them for introducing the punitive Council Tax.

I will not join Reform UK and even less so Restore Britain. Neither will I abandon Bexley-is-Bonkers despite Social Media moving on since 2009. It keeps the 83 year old brain cells active and I cannot be manipulated by Labour activists who trawl ancient history hoping to find ‘incriminating’ opinions. I am guilty of that sort of thing myself but those they have come up with about Reform candidates make me more inclined to vote for them when broadly correct facts are expressed even if they may be a little clumsy. Some are clearly self-deprecating jokes, possibly ill-advised for a candidate, but six years ago they were not.

They remind me that exactly 30 years ago a Muslim man told me how he and his friends met weekly to plot the takeover of the UK. It was always disturbing and now it is far worse than that.

 

26 April (Part 2) - A reminder

To those readers who have forgotten the back slapping session which first appeared here a week ago, it has been augmented and now features ten Councillors all anxious to add their praise for others and sometimes themselves.

The two Party Leaders had done the same thing and were reported three days earlier.

 

26 April (Part 1) - More on that Motion. For and against

The Tour de Force which was Richard Diment’s critique of the last two years of Government was seconded by Councillor Howard Jackson. He did not attempt to compete and instead said he would concentrate on just a couple of issues. The Local Government Pension Scheme and how the Government has taken away choice on how it can be invested. Bexley’s fund is 119% funded and that has taken years of effort by Officers and the Pension Committee.

We made the choices and the Government wants to take the decisions away from us and tell us where to put our money. “We won’t have control any more and it is ludicrous.”

“This Labour Government simply cannot help themselves. Every time they are in charge they take choice away from people, from citizens, from Councils. Bodies that exist to try to make the best of what they have. That is what this Government is consistently doing. I am really unhappy with how our residents will suffer from it.”

“The second issue is the Winter Fuel Allowance which hit our residents so quickly and directly. We organised charity [the Bexley Box scheme] with no help from the other side. We asked them specifically but they could not bring themselves to help their own residents when they needed it.”

“The third issue is the police station, closing the front desk. Not the first time Sadiq Khan has lowered policing resources in Bexley, we all remember the Tri-Borough scheme to send resources across London. They are in Greenwich. How does that help Bexley?

Casting aside his promise to speak on only two subjects, Councillor Jackson moved to a fourth. The Fair Funding Review. We hoped that we would be treated fairly and we were not. Our residents will suffer from it. Less money per resident, for services and our community. That is what our Government and our Labour Mayor is continuing to do. God knows what next year will bring. I really hope that our community understands that the only way to slow down these effects is to elect a Conservative Council.

What would Labour Leader, Stefano Borella, have say in defence of a catalogue of unpalatable facts? His first words were “What a load of rubbish I have just heard. Absolute rubbish. I have to say what a dreadful and politically biased Motion this is, very disrespectful of all those people who voted Labour at the last General Election to kick out your failing Government that had five Prime Ministers in eight years and seven Chancellors in eight years. They voted for change and this Labour Government is starting that change, or have Members opposite forgotten Liz Truss and her lettuce? Do Bexley residents want this again, another party with a number of rejects from the Conservative Party? Is that Reform?”.

“Someone many years ago, very famous, said No, No, No. In Bexley the Council will see record investment of up to £11·3 million and none of them has welcomed that. That will contribute to their Capital Investment Programme over the next four years. Probably roads and pavements after years of cuts by the Tory Government, inconsistent budgeting that I have seen through my 16 years and £20 million Pride in Place money for Slade Green after the previous Government took the pride out of Slade Green. Ignoring all those residents years ago when they moved the community centre into its present hidden location. No resident wanted it in that location.”

“In addition, this month, people across the country will benefit from a raft of Labour’s measures to relieve cost of living pressures. We are going to see the [employer funded] National Living Wage rise. [At this point Stefano spoke so quickly that a couple of claimed improvements could not be deciphered.] We are freezing rail fares and freezing fuel duty until September. In addition I am proud the Government ended the pernicious two child benefit cap which will lift 5,000 [sic. Seems low] people out of poverty. They introduced a Renters’ Rights Act which will give Bexley’s 50,000 private renters added protection. All this Council has done is to make it easier for rogue landlords to get away with it by reducing the selective licencing area to its present size.”

“After 14 years of no action by the last Government, the Fair Funding was nothing. 14 years no action done by that Government. This Government is starting to change that. There is a three year funding settlement and there was an uplift; the papers of this Council show there was an uplift this year [but a reduction in the next two] and there was a reduction in use of the reserves. The Household Support Fund [indecipherable]. The Labour Government has provided more money for Family Hubs, rebuilding the legacy of the last Labour Government on Sure Start, expanding Free School Meals, reducing NHS waiting times. The only regret Bexley residents have is not kicking your Government out earlier after the damage your austerity cuts aided by the Liberal Democrat Government, let’s not forget them.”

“The nonsense I have heard about Community Safety. This is the party that has cut cameras. They talk lies about Bexley Police station is going to shut which is nonsense and they didn’t support the twelve police officers who have been moved from schools to Neighbourhood Policing and they removed CCTV cameras from car parks and who closed Sidcup police station? Who closed Belvedere Police station? If we go back into the annals of history, who closed Erith police station? They did. Have they not forgotten all that nonsense? We have heard a lot of fiction here this evening. I think it is very disrespectful to this nation, when I saw it I just thought it was disgraceful and I hope there is going to be no publicity in this election period. I hope we are not going to hear lots of nonsense after this Council meeting today.

“In 20 years in Bexley, all we have seen is mananged decline. Bexley residents do not believe that nonsense about [indecipherable but probably 7th best roads]. When you speak to residents on the door they laugh. They laugh because they know it is nonsense. Sorry Madam Mayor, but I will not be voting for this dreadful Motion which is very disrespectful to the people of this borough who don’t want that party opposite.

Note: Although the recording is clear, Councillor Borella spoke too quickly at times and his words became garbled, but overall the foregoing is, as usual, close to verbatim with very few omissions. The Council webcast did not offer the courtesy of showing Stefano’s face while speaking. The camera remained focused on the Conservative speakers throughout his ten minutes speech.

 

25 April - Where has the talent and experience gone?

James Hunt, the Independent candidate for Blackfen & Lamorbey has sent me his latest election leaflet and it is really rather nice, but perhaps I am biased because he sent it as a perfectly formatted attachment to my email address. Far easier than a What’sApp message to my phone which I have to save to files and from there email it to the PC on which this blog is written. Not the biggest of problems and I am grateful for everything received, but James, you go to the top of the class.

News reaches me that the legal team at Bexley Council has rapped the knuckles of Conservative candidates for using their Council phone numbers and email addresses on their election addresses.

Have they lost the services of their usual and vastly experienced agent Andrew Kennedy? He would not have let that pass.

In the run up to the election I have been perusing Facebook a couple of times a day instead of maybe once a week.

I really don’t like Facebook primarily because if one does find anything of interest it becomes impossible to find next day. In Bexley it is largely a waste of time because the main Facebook groups for Bexleyheath, Sidcup and Welling are run by Labour activists and supported by people who are full of hatred. Some even send it to me directly. Who is this Ben Hopton anyway who initiates such a large proportion of posts? I doubt Ben is his real name.

One of the main Facebook left wing themes is that everyone is a racist apart from them, especially Nigel Farage. A Reform UK supporter who said something that is basically true; that militant Islam is a major threat and George Floyd the American criminal was full of fentanyl and methamphetamine when he died, was roundly condemned, not least by Anashua Davies the Labour candidate for Longlands Ward. Anashua is a particularly unpleasant individual about whom I have had conversations with four different Labour personalities known to everyone who follows politics in Bexley.

I could go on but suffice to say that she had her solicitor send me a threat to say I must never mention her name here. What is it that she is so desperate to keep hidden?

Another of the Lefty criticisms is that a Reform Council will be inexperienced. Well not quite, four of them if elected will have been Councillors before and Independent James Hunt has been a Councillor for 20 years and said he will act as adviser.

And will the remaining Tories be competent anyway? They have lost the Baroness who ran the show for 18 years and they have lost the two most intelligent and hard working Members.

Cheryl Bacon, first elected in 1998 has left to spend more time with her MP husband.

The three from West Heath with about 150 years of experience between them have called it a day.

The most experienced Mayor (two terms) has left the Conservative ranks.

Andy Dourmoush elected as a very successful businessman and one of the few who understood finance has left to try his luck in Bromley.

So who’s left? Three Cabinet Members one of whom masterminded the diminished CCCV system. (213 cameras reduced to 70).

One who committed perjury in an attempt to convict a foul-mouthed critic who was given a good beating as he left from visiting his wife in hospital and another who appeared to me to be there mainly as Teresa’s protégé.

David Leaf is a good talker and Peter Craske is a good blogger.

Steven Hall and Caroline Newton are fairly low key and Cameron Smith and Frazer Brooks come across to me as nice blokes.

And that is it. Even if all the existing Tories are re-elected the talent pool is decimated. And still no one has ever been able to tell me what is better in Bexley now than it was 20 years ago.

Vote for whoever you prefer but experience and racism is probably not an issue.

 

24 April - More Reform UK leaflets

The number of Reform UK leaflets has risen to eleven leaving only six wards in ignorance of their policies. Well not really ignorant, there is some similarity among those available so if you are interested, read three or four.

For a new party with limited human resources Reform Bexley seems to have put on a better show than any of the established parties. Nothing from the LibDems, very little from the Conservatives. Have they abandoned all hope?

 

23 April (Part 6) - Reform UK leaflets

A bunch of Reform UK leaflets has dropped into my Inbox. Nice, perfectly formatted PDFs which will be added to the archive as soon as possible. Maybe not immediately. Friday and Saturday are both rather occupied already.

 

23 April (Part 5) - Working for Sidcup

Dimitri has been busy with leaflets too providing another that will take you rather more then three seconds to read.

 

23 April (Part 4) - Now that is what I call a leaflet

Frazer Brooks the Conservative candidate in Blackfen & Lamorbey has kindly provided the back catalogue of his ward leaflets, The only ones, with perhaps the exception of Working for Sidcup, that live up to ones's expectation of what an election leaflet should be. One that takes more than three seconds to read.

He says the next one is due imminently. Thank you Frazer.

 

23 April (Part 3) - Labour leaflets

We have some!

 

23 April (Part 2) - Election leaflets. Or the absence thereof

It is disappointing when so few households seem to have received election leaflets that both my Conservative and Reform UK sources have forgotten to send the promised leaflets. How are we supposed to make a judgment for May 7th if they keep us in total ignorance?

Another Reform leaflet has been taken from a Social Media post and may be seen here in all its scruffy glory complete with typo. Originally blurry with the perspective all wrong taken by someone who cannot be bothered to hold his camera straight, let alone post the original PDF.

I tend to take note of such lack of attention to detail and wonder if I should  assume that is what one might expect more generally.

 

23 April (Part 1) - Another Motion. Electioneering again

I had in mind giving an opinion on all the outgoing Conservative Councillorss and for Richard Diment I had reserved the word ‘Disappointing’.

He said that “it was ironic that in his last three weeks as a Councillor he was presenting his first Motion. It is the fourth period of Labour Government I have had the misfortune to live through. The first three all ended in rejection by the electorate and I have no doubt the same thing will happen again. The difference this time is the speed at which that disillusion about the ability of a Labour Government to deliver its election promises has emerged. We were told that 2024 would be a new dawn. The Labour Party promised a Government of service, a mission driven administration that would fix the foundation. Restore economic stability and revitalise public service.”

“With a massive Parliamentary majority Kier Starmer had every opportunity to deliver on that promise, yet looking at the landscape of our country in 2026 we are not witnessing a national renewal, we are watching a slow motion car crash. We have seen the fastest most chaotic reversal of fortunes for a new Government in modern history. The Labour Party hasn’t just failed to deliver change, they have in record time created a new era of disillusiionment. Today we must confront the truth of this administration. It is a Government without a strategy led by a Prime Minister without a purpose. And let’s start with the cornerstone of their campaign in 2024. Economic competence.”

“They promised not to increase taxes on working people. That promise lasted about as long as it took to cross the threshold of Downing Street. What did we get? We got the largest tax burden in British history during peacetime. 38% of GDP. We saw Rachel Reeves in her budget launch a war on business, hammering employers with National Insurance increases, strangling growth and forcing business to consider cutting jobs. They campaigned on growth, growth, growth yet growth has been, to put it mildly, subdued.”

“The Office for Budget Responsibility has been forced to slash its growth forecast while economic confidence has plummeted. Instead of fostering innovation they chose to choke off enterprise with unnecessary regulation - and there is more to come - and tax hikes leaving families struggling to pay the bills and forcing more people on to benefits. Indeed changing the benefits system to make it more attractive for some people to be on benefits than to be working. The impact on our small businesses and on our high streets is devastating.”

The Mayor interrupted proceedings to reprimand a Labour Councillor for heckling.

“The Government has stoked a cost of living crisis leaving families with less income after tax to chase ever rising prices. Pensioners with very modest private pensions have found themselves dragged into income tax as the basic tax allowance is now just £23 more than the state pension. And increasing numbers are finding themselves paying higher rate taxation despite earning no more in real terms following the Chancellor’s decision to freeze allowance bands until 2031.”

“Key economic indicators are flashing red. All of us understand the international events are far from ideal at present but why are those affecting the UK so much more vulnerable than others? Yesterday’s reports from the IMF which echoed a recent report from the OECD predicted that the UK economy will see lower growth, higher inflation than our partners in the G7 this year and probably next.”

“The Government is trapped in what economists are calling a statist doom loop. They believe that they can tax a nation into prosperity. The reality is they are draining the energy from the economy. Perhaps the most callous act of this Government has been the treatment of the most vulnerable. In their first hundred days they initiated the disgraceful cut to Winter Fuel Payments, stripping vital warm homes support away from over ten million pensioners. This was not a necessary fiscal move, it was a political choice to pay for union wage demands while leaving elderly people in our country to choose between heating and eating. Fortunately here in Bexley, we, or at least the Members on this side of the Chamber, were able to help the most vulnerable with the much appreciated Bexley Box scheme. And let us not forget the U-turns. The only thing consistent with this Government is its inconsistency. When Ministers try to make sensible cuts to the welfare budget, and I accept the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the then Work and Pensions Secretary recognised the need to do so, they were met with a rebellion from their own back benches.”

“Ministers have broken faith with pensioners and working families they claimed to support as they are unable to deal with the opposition within their own government.”

“If the economy is failing and the vulnerable are abandoned what is the core function of the state? All of us heard yesterday the damning comments from Lord Robertson, a distinguished former Secretary of State for Defence and Secretary General of NATO, accusing the Government of corrosive complacency towards this country’s defence needs. The Labour Government promised secure borders. After nearly two years in officce it is clear they have no plan to control illegal immigration and as the weather improves another Summer will see thousands putting their lives at risk to cross the channel in small boats.”

“Our police force is stretched and unable to tackle the key concerns of residents. The Metropolitan Police run by Mayor Khan was uniquely unable to recruit the full quota of police officers funded by the last Government and is now embarking on another round of police station closures including substantially reducing the opening hours here in Bexleyheath. And as if those failures were not enough, the Labour Government’s planning policy supported by Sadiq Khan and the Reform member on tthe London Assembly focuses on accelerating development from top down targets. Key strategies include reforming grey belt land and reducing local powers to make local decisions on what should be built and where. This puts our Green Belt, our open spaces, our back gardens at risk.”

“Promises on health and Social Care have been broken. Problems with A&E waits, securing GP appointments, getting to see a Consultant have not being tackled. In the 1940s Aneurin Bevan said he had to stuff the consultants’ mouths with gold to establish the NHS. At least Bevan succeeded. Wes Streeting has tried the same approach with resident doctors, but as the latest strikes have shown, it isn’t working this time.”

“Adults’ Social Care reform has been kicked into the long grass and promised local improvements have not been fully delivered. The Clinical Diagnostics Centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital has been opened but not as a full time facility promised by the previous Government, but as a part time operation because of the financial mess the Government is making of health.”

“Election promises about sorting out the problems of Local Government have been forgotten. As we heard from the Leader a few minutes ago we estimate that actually funding for this Council is going to fall by between four and nine million pounds during the current spending period and this year’s Local Government settlement was predicated on Councils in almost all cases having to increase Council Tax by the maximum permitted amount. More and more Local Authorities have, fortunately not this one, been forced into exceptional financial support, which brings me to the core problem. Leadership. We have a Prime Minister who according to polling is among the most unpopular in history, leading a party that was woefully neglectful of its preparation for power. This is a Government that stumbles into battles unprepared. It is a Cabinet of sluggish decision makers. We have seen a constant stream of scandals from freebies for Ministers to the resignation of senior figures over misconduct.”

“So Madam Mayor to conclude. The Labour Government has had its chance and in two short years they have broken their promise not to raise taxes, betrayed pensioners, lost control of illegal immigration, failed on defence, on health, on social care and on housing and displayed a level of administrative incompetence that beggars belief. The change they promised was not this. The better promises has proved to be an illusion, This Government is failing. It is time to say it is enough. Thank you very much.”

Damn! Now I will have to drop the word Disappointing from any future end of term school report on outgoing Councillors. On the other hand it is Richard Diment who has sought to attack motorists with ever more Yellow Money Box traps, increased parking charges and well above inflation increases to the Brown Bin Tax. Exactly what a Labour Government would do.

 

22 April - Councillor's questions, otherwise known as electioneering

Councillor Ball (Labour, Erith) with the only half decent question of the evening, asked the Council Leader David Leaf to outline the risks presented by a low asset base to the future capital investment programme.

Councillor Leaf said that the question made him feel like Christmas had come early because he enjoys speaking about such things. He said that the way to ensure the Capital Investment Programme was delivered in full was to vote Conservative on 7th May. (Was that really it?)

For reasons best known to himself, Councillor Ball accepted that non-answer, instead he asked the Leader to agree that the Conservatives and LibDems together, having sold off the housing stock at a knockdown price averaging £8,000 per home we have missed out on having and owning an asset that would now be worth more than £400 million. The income from rents and the capacity to allocate decent homes would benefit Bexley’s most precious asset, its people.

The Leader said that Greenwich had around 20,000 Council homes, but they are facing considerable financial pressures because they do not have the resources to maintain them. Hit by regulations and red tape, it threatens the financial sustainability of the Council.

“The Labour Party Manifesto is a work of fiction making as it does many commitments to Social Housing but here in Bexley, the Labour Party has put no resources into how to do that. The assumption behind the question is flawed and the only way to ensure good quality housing in Bexley is to vote Conservative on 7th May.”

The Capital Programme is financing roads, libraries, recreation grounds, community centres, Adult’s Social Care and Children’s Care all of which Labour voted against - according to Councillor Leaf. The Green Party has not managed to hypnotise budgets into being bigger and the cult of Nigel Farage is absolutely clueless.

Councillor Anna Day (Erith, Slade Green) asked David Leaf if he was as pleased as she was at the Labour Governmen’s £20 million of Pride funding in her ward. He said he had already answered that question in Public Cabinet last week adding that overall, the Labour Government had cut millions of pounds of funding to Bexley.

Labour Councillors are not alone in asking questions which have little purpose other than to puff up the claimed achievements of their party. Councillor Rags Sandhu (Conservative, Bexleyheath) asked the Cabinet Member for Place Shaping to congratulate everyone involved with the new Growth Strategy. Another waste of time which benefits residents not one jot.

Cabinet Member Munur replied “Absolutely”. (Are such Councillors really worthy of your vote?)

Councillor Cameron Smith wasn’t much better. Would the Cabinet Member say what he has done since 2022 to maintain Bexley’s roads. “Around 6,000 small adjustments and repairs are completed each year and over 9,900 pot holes have been filled over the past four years. 339 separate locations have been resurfaced or significantly patched. In the last year alone 132,000 square metres have been repaired which is about 17·5 kilometres which is about 2% of the network. (Is that saying that the roads will take 50 years to fix?)

Councillor Smith (Conservative, St. Mary's & St. James) said that on the previous day the Government had published new conditions for road grant funding. “Could the false narrative from our Labour colleagues here and the MP for Bexleyheath and Crayford about our roads see Bexley Council stripped of the money the Labour Group wants to celebrate?

Cabinet Member Diment said it was really disturbing that the tremendous work done in this borough has been put at risk by the thoughtless intervention of the MP who tried to convince the Prime Minister that we were not spending the money allocated. “Quite honestly, highly dishonest of him. The reality is that we spent every single penny and a little bit more”- The methodology of the DfT showed Bexley to be in 7th place nationally.

Councillor Day spent the remaining minute of question time to ask Richard Diment to thank the Labour Government and the MP for the funding and raising the pot hole issue. Richard said he was grateful for any money received but pointed out that the Labour Mayor has withheld his contribution for the past ten years. He, being far more reticent than I would be, said nothing about the traitorous MP. That man has proved to be a massive disappointment and should not survive another election.

 

21 April (Part 2) - What a shambles!

In July last year news broke that Bexley Council had handed a Community Centre to the Rose Bruford college and it seemed that no one had been consulted beforehand. Blackfen & Lamorbey Councillor James Hunt got a load of ccomplaints and enquiries about it. I know because he told me so at the time.

Naturally the Conservatives were unhappy to be faced with a probing James Hunt so they put out a cover story. Click the image alongside to read it in full.

As the truth was hard to come by, Bonkers did not say much more about it. Just a little follow up on 14th July.

Thanks to some FOI enquiries a little more has come to light.

It begins on 6th January 2025 when former Council Leader Baroness O’Neill expressed surprise at the news that the Community Centre was going to Rose Bruford and then the trail goes into redacted mode.

One Cabinet Member said to another in March that he was not going to do anything until the Finance Director had offered an opinion. Nothing more happened until late in April when a meeting was arranged. Two weeks later a lease had been drafted. Six weeks later the responsible Cabinet Member admitted to not knowing to what use the Centre might be put. “Could you please remind me what the usage of this site was and what is the deal with Rose Bruford.”

The reply said it was known as Sidcup Youth Centre and managed by Children’s Services. The five year rental deal is redacted.

On the 30th June 2025 the Cabinet Member begins to worry about the way the transfer is being perceived publicly and whether Sidcup Lions are still using the Centre. The Chief Executive suggests that “Comms puts the record straight”. The Cabinet Member says “someone is stirring”.

On 1st July the draft response is ready to counter “the activity on Social Media”. The Leader asks that it goes out on Facebook, X and Nextdoor as well as the Council’s website. In the event it went out on Facebook, X and Instagram.

The Blackfen & Lamorbey Councillors said “Thank you for giving some clarity, it has caused a lot of residents concern from reading the planning application which had sparse but conflicting information. Residents in B&L are wary now after the Old Farm Park sell off for housing. There are still worries about noise but that has been sent to Planning for conditions of closing windows etc. Maybe next time there should be consultation before issues like this. Transparency is a good thing.”

There is then a press enquiry about a new roof recently fitted to the Centre and the clubs using the sports fields. The response confirms the new roof and that the Youth Centre has not been used - apart from the playing fields - since December 2024. Baroness O’Neill asks for some paragraphs to be changed for greater clarity and when they are for a few more changes.

The responsible Cabinet Member then queries whether the rent should go into the Capital program. No one seems to know. Six weeks later a contractor went on site to see what is needed to be done to the building. The answer is more roof work, a gas boiler and removal of a dead tree. The Leader asks how much that will cost but there is no answer.

Rose Bruford College asks for the Centre’s name to be changed.

What does the foregoing show? It shows that the Leader was initially kept in the dark; the responsible Cabinet Member was not completely on top of his brief and that the Council Officers are not as efficient as we are so often told they are. What you cannot see here is that the FOI resonse is an absolute mess. It is 41 pages long with much of it being repetitive and out of sequence. There is nothing of note omitted from the above summary.

It proves that James Hunt and his colleagues were right to probe his residents concerns. Nobody had bothered to tell them anything and it only suggests the level of Council incompetence is as bad as most of us suspect. There is no evidence that the College was in any way at fault nor that James Hunt was “stirring” anything at all.

Another Bexley Council omnishambles.

 

21 April (Part 1) - Council Questions from MoPs

More than an hour before Councillors began their love-in there were the usual questions from Members of the Public (MoPs) and Councillors.

Mr. Shvorob asked if the Conservatives were going to continue with their somewhat dishonest practice of planting their supporters in the gallery masquerading as MoPs to ask questions.

The Council Leader David Leaf implied that Mr. Shvorob was himself a ‘plant’ for his own Working for Sidcup Party and that the two questioners following Mr. Shvorob were Labour ‘plants’ standing in Crayford. You have to admit that Councillor Leaf always has his wits about him.

Both Nathan Ogunleye and Colin Chin are Labour election candidates. As David said, the question sort of answered the question. (Good answer, they are all as dishonest as each other.)

Mr. Shvorob’s second question was dismissed as “an absolute load of rubbish that has just come out of his mouth. He comes to the Council to waste people’s time”. Councillor Leaf is both too clever and far too rude. Mr. Shvorob said "“he had no shame.”

To Mr. Ogunleye, Councillor Diment said it remains to be seen what the effect of the return of the Crayford loop services would be and implored people to use it. “Use it or lose it.” Mr. Ogunleye said the Conservative decision to cut the loop line service was wrong but Richard Diment reminded him that “usage fell off a cliff” at the time of Covid. The service was unviable and has not yet fully recovered. “It made absolutely no sense to run empty trains.”

On roads, Mr. Chin was told what Bonkers’ readers know already. Bexley spent all the government’s money and it was only 14% of what Bexley spent on roads while TfL cut its Bexley road funding of around a million pounds a year to nothing. Mr. Chin then asked why, if so much money was spent, there are still dangerous pot holes in Crayford? He was told that all reported pot holes meeting the [40mm deep] criteria are fixed very quickly. More than 300 roads have been resurfaced over the past four years.

 

20 April - A new leaflet

Election leaflets are still in short supply. The only source is the Leader of the Working for Sidcup Party who unfortunately doesn’t own a scanner! Hence the less than perfect image of a recent Conservative leaflet delivered to his Sidcup home.

It still strikes me as odd that the Conservatives set up their own company dedicated to building on any scrap of land they can find; at least two parks built on so far; and they then go on about Reform UK wanting to do the same.

The latter is a another Tory lie. I met Reform people last year - both now candidates in Bexley - who were very much against building on parks. I have several year old emails from them saying exactly that. The Tories in Bexley have always been liars and there is no sign of them changing. We have liars in Westminster; we do not want them in Watling Street too.

Note: While Sidcup Councillor June Slaughter was personally against building on Old Farm in her ward she nevertheless voted for it because Bexley Conservatives are not allowed independent thought. The UKIP Councillor, now a Reform UK candidate, voted against building on Old Farm Park.

If you think Councillors should vote according to their conscience and/or the wishes of residents, then a Conservative vote is not for you.

 

19 April (Part 2) - The love-in continues

This is an ongoing time intensive project which will be augmented as time permits. The first five eulogies below are from the first 15% only of the overall run time. This blog will take several days to complete.

Councillor Wendy Perfect (Labour)
Two and a half hours into last week’s Council meeting it was retiring Labour Councillor Wendy Perfect’s turn to speak. It is not easy to become a Councillor she said. Getting selected and getting elected and then serving the electorate. “It is not easy when Local Government is starved of cash” but she believed “that Councillors on both sides of the Chamber wished to serve residents well”.

She said she had been a Labour Party supporter since the age of twelve and never changed although she did once stand for the Charlton Athletics supporters party in Greenwich. “Charlton needed help more than Labour in Greenwich. 290 votes for a one issue party. The highlight of the past four years has been the election of Daniel Francis MP. A fantastic MP. I am very proud of him. It has also been a joy to work alongside Councillor Baljeet Gill in Northumberland Heath.”

Councillor Lisa Moore (Conservative)
“Tonight we say farewell to 14 Councillors plus one. {Esther Amaning who is seeking election in an unwinnable ward.] They have shaped this borough in ways that will be felt for many years to come. I will speak about four remarkable women”.

“Cheryl Bacon because she is the reason I am standing here. We met and became friends at a children’s poolside and before I knew it I was out canvassing at weekends. Thank you Cheryl for encouraging me to take the leap into local politics.”

“Baroness O’Neill who has given 28 years of service to this borough. You welcomed me with warmth and generosity and your commitment to residents has been extraordinary. Your kindness will stay with me for ever.”

“Councillor Sue Gower. What a privilege to be part of your Mayoral team, your warmth, authenticiy, leadership, integrity and unending energy sets a standard for all of us. I am honoured to have had you as my friend.”

“Councillor Perfect and I served together on Committees and she asked questions that needed to be asked and came from genuine care.”

“My ward husband Andy Dourmoush, a steady source of support and I am grateful for the partnership we shared. Thank you.”

Councillor Zainab Asunramu (Labour)
“I speak of my dear friend Mabel Ogundayo. We first met at University in the East Midlands. Focused, determined, grounded and a lot of fun. Her impact cannot be ignored. We met again while both working for Amnesty International UK. The same values, the same passion, the same unwavering belief in justice. And then we found ourselves as Thamesmead East colleagues which I will always be grateful for. She has given over three terms and so much of herself to Bexley, not for recognition and titles but because she genuinely cares. She fought Peabody and fought for families and has been governor of three schools.”

“Mabel is a true friend and ally in both words and actions pushing for change even when it is not popular. She will make a difference wherever she goes.”

Note: This is but a short sub-set of the accolades showered on Councillor Ogundayo. F om what I have seen, all well deserved.

Councillor Anna Day (Labour)
“Ward colleague Stef has been great and will be missed and we have not had a cross word in four years. He concentrated on his beloved trains and buses and I on housing, health and community safety but I absolutely won’t miss him as a passenger telling me the routes I should have taken and gesticulating at anybody who gets in the way. We message each other umpteen times a day and I will continue to send him photos of my cats.”

She thanked Council officers and urged them to join a union. Residents were asked to remember that May 7th is a local election and not a verdict on the Labour government. “Vote for local Councillors on what they have achieved, not on sound bites. Make sure you vote based on positive messages and for Councillors who can be trusted to put residents to the forefront of their decisions.”

Councillor Chris Taylor (Conservative)
Councillor Taylor wished all Conservatives “the very best in their future endeavours but I want to particularly pay tribute to Baroness O’Neill, one of my closest friends. She has dedicated 28 years of her life to the betterment of Bexley residents. She has been instrumental in putting Bexley on the map. Bexley is a special place. The Leader has delivered the new Civic site and much needed family housing [the monstrosity on the old Civic site].”

She has regenerated Thamesmead and Sidcup High Street and saved the Queen Mary Hospital site. A leading part in saving Bexley’s police station, I could go on and on.

“As Boris Johnson’s Outer London adviser she put Bexley’s interests front and centre and we have all benefited. We are rightly proud.”

“I couldn’t have asked for a better ward colleague. Her commitment to residents of Crook Log has been second to none. We will miss her greatly but her biggest impact is as a friend.”

“When I lost my seat in 2014 [to UKIP] I was devastated. Being a Councillor had been so much part of my life and I felt I could not see the light at the end of the tunnel. Madam Mayor, Baroness O’Neill was there for me. She doesn’t realise how she kept me going at a very difficult time in my life and I will be forever grateful. There will be others here with similar stories. She gave me the two best jobs I have ever had. Cabinet Member for Adults’ Services and latterly of Children and Families. I thank her for her faith in me.

“Baroness O’Neill is one of those rarities in politics who chose to step away from power at a time of her own choosing. She can now add value to Bexley in the House of Lords. She can protect our green spaces. Bexley Council’s loss is the Upper House’s gain. We will miss you Teresa.”

Councillor Mabel Ogundayo (Labour)
“It has been the honour of my life to serve the residents of Thamesmead for twelve years. My first aspirations were to change how people saw politics. What politicians looked like, what they sounded like and where they came from and I hope I have been able to do that. There are some things I won’t miss, like sending emails in the middle of the night or taking on case work that should take a day and instead takes up two years. I will miss the community and the people I have been able to have a positive impact on.”

“I must thank great Council and ward colleagues like Zainab Asunramu who was chair of the Afro-Caribbean Society when we met at university and it has been a pleasure to know you and you will continue to do great things for this Council. Thank you so much.”

“Councillor Esther hear hear Amaning, we joined the Council at the same time and I want to thank you so much, We didn’t understand what we were getting ourselves into but it has been amazing and when you were my ward colleague we ran the Keep Thamesmead Tidy campaign and we picked up lots of rubbish and did great stuff together. Esther has not had the easiest couple of years but your resilience has inspired me. I don’t know if you have seen Esther drive, but she recently gave up driving and that is the best thing she could have done for anybody - and for Bexley! Me driving you to meetings etc. has been one of the most pleasant times I have ever had and I look forward to driving you to future lunch dates.”

“I would like to thank Stef, my fantastic Leader, while we may not always agree, we do talk things through. I’d like to thank Officers and Peabody the biggest landowner in Thamesmead and who made the greatest investment. When they first arrived in Thamesmead I was very sceptical but over the years they proved themselves to be a genuine partner and committed to Community focused investment. They have done a really great job and with the DLR on the horizon there are really great things to happen in Thamesmead. And to Peabody, if they are listening, please bring back the Youth Club.”

“To Councillors, thank you for making me the person I am today whether I wanted it or not. You have helped me grow and I look forward to seeing a Labour Council after May. Thank you everyone.”

Councillor Caroline Newton (Conservative)
“I’d like to take a few moments to thank all Members for putting yourself forward for election in 2022 and for everything that has followed since. The role is not easy and not always recognised. We serve our residents with integrity, dedication and commitment. We have worked to run this borough in the best interests of those we represent and it is something we should all be proud of. Secondly I want to thank Officers who play a vital role in that day in and day out.”

“To Members who are not standing for re-election, thank you for your service whether your time here has been short or long. Your contribution should not be under-estimated.

“Some colleagues I should like to recognise, firstly the three amigos of West Heath. Councillor Davey, a long standing Councillor and party activist always ready with an unfiltered view cutting straight to the heart of the issue. To Councillor Read, someone I have worked closely with both in Scrutiny and in Cabinet. His passion to care for young people has been clear throughout and his leadership delivered an outstanding record in children’s social care. And to Councillor Reader, a quiet supporter who always has a word of encouragement or comfort and a capable and diligent chairman.”

“And Councillor Diment, I am sure Councillor Diment during his two terms has had fuller work days than he ever had when in full time employment. His forensic attention to detail, drive and professionalism have been evident in every role he has held. I am personally grateful for his work in Education, helping to lay the foundations for the progress we are now seeing. I wsih him a happy retirement and lots of fun with your new grandson.”

“And finally but not last and not retiring in any sense, Baroness O’Neill. A Leader, a mentor, a friend and above all a tireless advocate for our residents. Another Leader of this borough often said being Council Leader is a lonely and tough role. Any Officer I speak to, talks about her ability to master detail, to challenge constructively to ensure everything we do delivers the right outcome efficiently and effectively. It is her passion for doing her best for children and young people that stands out. Her commitment and expertise has always been clear. On a personal note I am deeply grateful for the support, guidance and friendship she has shown to me and my family over many years and I echo Councillor Taylor’s comments earlier. I am not sure she knows the impact of that support.”

“Her time as Leader of this Council has been truly remarkable, record breaking in length amd significant in impact and I have no doubt that in the years ahead she will be a powerful advocate in the House of Lords for this borough, for young people and for local government. To those standing again, good luck and to all of those stepping down, thank you. Your services mattered. Your work has made a difference and this Council and this borough are better for it.

Councillor June Slaughter (Conservative)
“I always find the last meeting of a four year term something of a sad occasion. You have been working with people on both sides of the Chamber and you find they have decided not to seek re-election and you realise they are no longer going to be part of everyday life.”

”This year I say farewell to my wonderful ward colleagues Cheryl Bacon and Richard Diment. Cheryl has just completed 24 years, first elected in Brampton ward in 1998. A very good year because also elected was Teresa O’Neill and Gareth Bacon. Cheryl did only one term in Brampton ward but in 2006 was re-elected in Cray Meadows.”

“In those missing four years she and Gareth married and had a daughter. She represented Cray Meadows for three terms and after ward re-organisation joined me in Sidcup where Richard had been elected for the first time. He has held two Cabinet positions and both he and Cheryl have politics coursing through their veins. I was extraordinarily fortunate to have them as ward colleagues. I was very sad indeed when they announced their not standing again. I shall miss them so much. Wonderful ward colleagues.”

“I must mention Councillor Baroness O’Neill who has served this Council with great distinction. A Member for 28 years.”

“I also pay a special tribute to Councillor Peter Reader. I found myself as his Vice-Chairman of GP and Audit having never served on the Committee before. I have learned much from him.”

“He is not of course the only Member from the 1968 intake, Councillor Philip Read is also retiring and their joint knowledge and experience will be a great loss.”

“Opposition Members are also leaving and I send good wishes to Councillors Anna Day, Mabel Ogundayo and Wendy Perfect. Esther Amaning is standing again; I don’t think we are going to see her back here again. Esther and Mabel were especially kind to me when Michael [husband] died. I would like to thank all colleagues on both sides of the Chamber for their kindness to me on the occasion of my 50 years as a Councillor and the M.B.E.”

“I shall always remember the bouquet from my Labour friends. White roses with a single red rose in the middle. Such class!”

“Finally, none of us knows what 7th May will bring. No one can guarantee being re-elected, but, my friends, don’t worry about me. Even if you are not here after May 7th, I will be. Thanks to you for making me an Alderman when I retire.”

Councillor Jeremy Fosten (Labour)
“in the interests of time [it was the longest speech so far at six minutes] I have but two Members I have to pay particular tribute to. First things first, my amazing ward colleague Councillor Esther Amaning who we cannot discount being the Labour Councillor for Blendon & Penhill after the election, but on a serious note, Esther has a great many qualities and in typical politician fashion I thought I would talk about how each of them has benefitted me.”

“It may interest Members to know that I did not know Esther very well before I was selected as our candidate in Belvedere. I knew of Esther but it is impossible not to if you are an active member of Bexley Labour Party, but I wasn’t very close to her. So when I was short listed I thought I would contact both of the Councillors to ask what they were looking for in a ward colleague.”

“Now I will save Councillor Hinkley’s outright refusal to talk to me until she leaves this place but at least she answered. I called Esther three or four times and did not manage to get through so the first benefit of being Esther’s ward colleague is that she actually answers my phone calls. The second benefit of being a colleague of Esther is the heckling. Now I am not a heckler myself but I do enjoy the things Esther comes out with. And of course we are losing our strike partnership of Esther and Wendy whose heckles I also enjoy.”

“But who could forget the silence after Esther said “Doesn‘t Live Here” in reference to Councillor di Netimah. The funniest five minutes of a Council meeting I have ever been at.”

“Esther has been through a lot in the past four years and I am not going to go into the specifics of that but the last two years have shown me the strength of Esther’s strength of character. Out of all of us, she is the one who smiles the most and she is such a positive influence on the doorstep - and let me tell you I would not have made it to the end of my by-election campaign without her.”

“By-election campaigns are particularly tiring and I remember turning up on a cold Thursday evening with no other volunteers and Esther rang me to say she was not planning on coming. When she heard I was alone she said I will be there in five minutes young man, we have to do this. On another occasions it was sunny on what would have been her grandson’s 18th birthday and she told me how she loved being in the sunshine and it felt like God was smiling down on her.”

“Her faith has kept her strong all this time and that has been a real lesson for me. If Esther can keep positive so can we. Finally on Esther, her support for me as a new Member has been invaluable. Let me say I would not be able to stand here as Deputy Leader of the Labour group without her support. Esther, whatever you go on to do, you’ll keep smiling, you will keep uplifting others with the kind spirit that you show anyone and as a token of my and Sally’s appreciation and for twelve years of service, we have something for you. I will be around to part (?) it later.”

“The other Councillor I need to speak about is Councillor Anna Day. Anna is the first person I ever met when I joined the Labour Party in 2017. Back then it was so popular that not only 14 year olds like me were going to Labour meetings in Sidcup but other Labour members were able to tell who was going and we have done a helluva lot since then. We volunteered at Erith food bank together, we counter-protested racism together and we have now been colleagues on this Council together. Who would have seen that coming nine years ago?”

“What’s undeniable about Anna is that she is just a good person. I don’t think a single Member of this Chamber could deny that. Whether you agree with her politics or not her commitment to ensuring dignity for those who need housing in Bexley is laudable. She wrote the Help for Housing leaflets we put out which have been a lifeline for residents.”

“Time and again Anna has shown she cares deeply about the most vulnerable and how to create a more equal society filled me with genuine hope.”

“Unfortunately Anna’s greatest strength is also her greatest weakness and that is she is not a career politician. We need more decent people like Anna in politics yet the fact that she is so decent is I suspect why we don’t. Her Parliamentary campaign in 2019 filled me with genuine hope that someone so caring might be a decision maker. It is to date the most uplifting campaign I have ever worked on and that includes my own. I have never seen a candidate quite like Anna Day and I suspect I won’t see one again. I am devastated that we could not convince you to re-stand. So Anna, thank you for for being my mentor but more importantly thank you for being my friend and if there is a by-election in the next four years, be prepared for being the first person I ask to stand.”

“And if I may take one small moment in regard of the members who are standing for re-election, this election more than previous will be a stark reminder to all of us nobody has the right to a seat in this Chamber. We have to go out there and earn it. I hope to see more Labour Councillors elected; I wish everybody the best of luck and to anyone who does end up losing their seat on either side - commiserations and all the best going forward.”

Councillor Philip Read (Conservative)
“Thank you Madam Mayor. Those of you who have been told tonight that like Councillor Reader I was first elected in 1968, I am astonished because I never thought I was that sort of age, so I really do appreciate it. I’ll make reference to Councillor Borella who talked about a photograph at The Valley and if anyone wants to see that disgraceful photograph of the hooligan, I have it on my phone here.I would like to thank him but also Councillor Leaf in particular and other Members for making some very nice comments about me and I really do appreciate and value that. It is very nice, very humbling in fact to hear it.”

“Madam Mayor, July 2010, after the election in May of that year. I spoke for the first time at this Council saying saying it was around 40 years since I had last spoken at a meeting of Bexley Council and in that time it was very obvious that there had been a very noticeable increase in the demands on and responsibilities of this authority but this increase has fortunately been matched by the improved professionalism and expertise of both Members and staff. All my experiences over the last 16 years have confirmed me in that belief. Members, by and large, and Officers throughout the Council have demonstrated that increased professionalism and involvement and that has been to the benefit of all the borough’s taxpayers.”

“Obviously though, Madam Mayor we do know that there are some residents who will never believe that because it doesn’t fit their negative agenda and indeed we have heard from one such person tonight and having seen it at first hand I know it is true that the level of hard work and commitment by both Members and Officers is exceptional. And I can say that about our staff because after Chairing the Finance and Corporate Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee for a couple of years I served as Cabinet Member for Children’s Services for ten years until May 2024.”

Those ten years gave me a clear understanding of the dedicated effort and devotion of all our staff in the Children’s Service. It was ten years during which the Service went from an OFSTED rating of Inadequate to two successive judgments of Outstanding, something at that particular time was unique in London and only happened once before in England. I am immensely proud to have been the Cabinet Member when those two judgments were made and pay particular tribute to the two outstanding Directors under whom they were achieved. Firstly Jackie Tiotto and afterwards Stephen Kitchman who remains happily in that role today. I know both Jackie and Stephen would agree with me that those results were only achieved because of the concern for and dedication of every single member of staff for our young people.”

“So I thank all those exceptional staff yet again for having achieved that level of hard work and committed service to bring about those judgments.”

“And Mayor I would also like to thank Councillor Baroness Teresa O’Neill who then of course was Leader of our Council for her trust and nelief in appointing me to that role and her invaluable and continued support during those ten years. I believe Teresa has, through her ability to think outside the proverbial box helped make Bexley a much better place whilst seeing us through some very difficult times.”

“I want to say thank you also to many of our old colleagues, right across the Council but in particular perhaps to my ward colleagues, over those 16 years, including Peter Reader who I first met in the Young Conservatives, way back in 1964 and who like me was elected in 1968. Plus of course Alex Sawyer who is no longer a Member of course, Melvin Seymour and John Davey who have represented the same wards as me at different times over those sixteen years. Their support, help anmd advice has been invaluable to me during that period of time. To all other Members, including this lot over here, I also say thank you for, not withstanding any patry political differences, I know that we all have the best interests of Bexley and its residents at heart. That is a democratic strength and it runs right through us all irrespective of which side of the Chamber we are on.”

“Finally Madam Mayor, there is one other person I wish to pay tribute to. This peson works for Bexley Council and has done so for many years now, but to me the hard work and professionalism that person brings to their role is secondary to the support, advice and not infrequent tellings off handed out to me. I refer of course to my wife Eva who does indeed deserve the medal that many people say she should be awarded for putting up with me for 45 years.”

“So Madam Mayor, as far as I am concerned, that's it. I am now going to sit down, safe in the knowledge that it is now a case of being here today and forgotten tomorrow.”

Councillor Janice Ward-Wilson (Conservative)
“Those of my colleagues who are standing again, I wish you success. To those of you who have chosen to not stand again I salute you. Elected in 2022 as a new Councillor among a large number of experienced and wise colleagues, I stood on the shoulders of giants without whom I honestly can’t think what it would have been like and of course the wise guidance of officers. The three grandees of West Heath, you have meant more to me than you will ever know and I thank you for your many years of service to the people of Bexley.”

“Councillor Diment, that ready reckoner brain; Cheryl Bacon whose wise words and guidance I have always valued. Councillor Dourmoush. I enjoyed your year as Mayor with your Deputy, Councillor Betts. My sisters on the Labour side; God bless you and I wish you well. Madam Mayor, I know you are not leaving but for those here who are leaving, I am sure they would want to join me, in payiong tribute to you for your hard and dedicated work as Mayor this year. Serving as Mayor is an honour as many in this Chamber would know and also a significant commitment and those who are leaving will join me in thanking you tonight. Madam Mayor your feet have hardly touched the ground as you presided over so many engagements and ceremonies. We thank you and your Consort Mr. Dave Curtois for your service this year and I thank you too for inviting me to be your Deputy Mayor along with my Consort Mr. John Ward-Wilson and I hope the remainder of your year continues to be successful and also thank the team that serves your position.”

“Councillor Sue Gower MBE, JP, the great influencer who tempted me many times to stand and eventually got me there. I thank her for her determination, and as I have spoken of my dear friend on previous occasions in this Chamber, I will simply say thank you and a huge well done for your years of exemplary service. You are a great role model and a credit to the office of Councillor. Thank you for all your hard work as a ward Councillor and Cabinet Member and Mayor of Bexley in 25/26.”

“Lastly but not least, my highly esteemed and former Leader of this Council Councillor Baroness O’Neill of Bexley OBE who has given over a quarter of a century to public service in Bexley. First elected in 1998 and elected time and time again by residents who clearly recognised her commitment and absolute dedication to this borough. Her 17 years as Leader of this Council, she guided Bexley with clarity and confidence and determination. Under her leadership the Council remained strong and stable, winning successive elections and earning Bexley a reputation across London for sound governance and strong financial management. Your leadership over very many years has been transformational and others here tonight have already spoken of your massive achievements.”

“It is your strong and steady leadership that stands out for me. The clarity of vision, of purpse and brave determination to see things through is exceptional. Your values of integrity and honesty have always been at the forefront of our ward responsibilities and I have seen that throughout your work and dealings with people. But what truly matters is what has that leadership delivered. From the new Civic Offices saving taxpayers millions to the pandemic when she led with calmness and compassion, making sure support reached residents when they needed it most. Initiatives like the Community Champion Scheme and the Bexley Box reflect not just leadership but genuine care for people. But let’s make it personal. When I was elected you encouraged me, guided and supported me. When I needed direction you showed me the way, helped me to stay focused and grounded. Grounded me when I needed it and steered me away from many follies and dangers. Together with Councillor Chris Taylor we have been a strong united ward team. And if I’m privileged to be returned in May I will truly miss you here but I know you will be speaking up for Bexley in the House of Lords and we are grateful. Baroness, you are a true Conservative, a high achiever and your massive input has shaped Bexley, but for me it is personal and I thank you sincerely and from the heart. Thank you Madam Mayor.”

Councillor Bola Carew (Conservative)
“Thank you Madam Mayor, I would like to wish all our retiring colleagues well for all your hard work supporting Bexley residents, you will greatly be missed. To my ward colleague, Councillor Gower, you are the most experiemneced after we got elected in Bexleyheath. Thank you for all your support and I did enjoy your Mayoral year although I never told you that so thank you for being Mayor as well as a ward colleague.”

“To Baroness Tersa O’Neill, I really want to say thank you for all your guidance and support throughout the last four years. I would not be where I am in this journey without your belief in me, for every support you have given me, especially last year when I almost lost my husband. You are the one person in this Chamber that kept checking and asking how things were, so you will foever be in my thoughts for standing with me at that difficult time of my year.”

“This evening, your tenure as Leader of the London Borough of Bexley, we can see has been marked by defined unwavering commitment, steady leadership and a genuine passion for public service. Through times of challenge and change you led with resilience, wisdom and clarity of purpose. Your ability to bring people together, to listen and to act decisively has left a lasting imprint on this Council and Bexley residents. Under your leadership this Council has not only navigated complex issues but has continued to strive for excellence, supporting residents, strengthening local services and shaping a borough we can all be proud of. Your dedication to improving the lives of all others has been evident in every decision, every initiative and every engagement with our community.”

“Beyond policies and achievements it is your character which stands out most. Your integrity under great pressure and your deep strength of duty. You led not just with authority but with [undecipherable]. As you step down from your role as a Councillor, your legacy will endure and the progress made with standards set and the inspiration you leave behind for current and future Councillors, including, I say thank you for your service, your leadership and your unwavering commitment to Bexley and your great support to my political career. I wish you continued success, fulfillment and impact in all that lies ahead. Thank you very much.”

Councillor Rags Sandhu (Conservative)
“Thank you Madam Nayor. Madam Mayor, firstly, for the record, I know 1968 has been referred to a few times today but like Councillor Borella I wasn’t around then either. So Members will be aware that I, obviously, had the privilege of being a Member of the Local Authority for just under four years now and during that period of time I feel like I have learned a great deal, some of my colleagues will probably think I have learnt nothing but I can assure you that I have learnt something, let’s say, umm, now I often sit back and think how did I pick up what I have picked up in these last four years because as has already been mentioned, because when you come into this role itְ’s a lot to take on and you take it on overnight, so I would often think have I learnt it just because of the training. Have I learnt it because I have the ability to pick things up quicker or is it my personal approach to things or what is it? But I believe I have narrowed it down and I am very very confident I have picked up what I have and I have learnt what I have due to our support network that we have around us. And that support network starts from Officers, it starts right from the top all the way down every department, irrespective of who we contact, we are always given, I have always experienced, always given sound and upfront honest advice.”

“And the second support network is our network within this Chamber, and that goes right the way across the Chamber because, putting politics aside, one thing we all have in common is we are trying to do the best we can for our residents, and I have had the privilege of working with some of the Members opposite and it has been great. You know, every time you go to for advice and bits and pieces you are always given an honest and upfront opinion.”

“Madam Mayor in the interests of saving time, I am not obviously going to mention individual names because as has already been said, the list obviously is quite vast and it goes on, but what I will say is that one thing I have picked up again is the fact that it is like a big family, the network, and as Councillor Day said earlier, people outside the Chamber don’t often realise that there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes and we are all collaboratively working together for the right interests.”

“So I would like to say if you are one of the younger Members who is not going to be returning but you have that passion and the drive, you might be that individual, you might be one of the more experienced individuals who is not going to come back through choice, but if you are that individual, that Councillor, who sits there quietly; may not contribute a great deal, but when you do you know it is words of wisdom, experience and professionalism that you are contributing. You could be one of the longest serving Leaders of a London Authority who now sits in the House of Lords. You could be a Cabinet Member, who obviously, past and present Cabinet Members. You could be one of what I always call the three brothers but it has been referred to today as the three amigos and the three musketeers of West Heath. You could have a role up at the Houses of Parliament, you could be working up there, you could be a past Mayor of the borough or indeed you could be a Magistrate and one of my ward colleagues. All I would say is whether yiou are returning or obviously not returning, that is why I am thanking you but the point I was going to make is that from the bottom of my heart I would like to say a thank you to all of you because your contributions have been fantastic and amazing and a real eye-opener for someone like me and to sort of guide me in the right direction I would hope and I would like to say thank you in particular for giving me the opportunity to work with you with so much talent and even when you look around, when I stand here now and you look around at the amount of talent we have got here sitting here tonight and sadly not necessarily going to be here after May, all I can say is thank God we still have June Slaughter. Thank you very much Madam Mayor.”

Councillor Esther Amaning (Labour)
“Thank you Madam Mayor. It has been an honour and an absolute privilege for me to serve as the Councillor for Lesnes Abbey ward, for Thamesmead East ward and now Belvederee ward, it has been an absolute honour. Itְ’s been great. So it’s been wonderful to be voted in in three terms and trusted to represent the people especially in the north of the borough. It has been so rewarding making the difference in representing people with their different needs on housing issues. With Council Tax issues. With educational issues, all sorts, but my life changed dramatically after my tragic loss of my grandsons in March 2021 and my daughter. I only kept going because, as my son said, because of my faith, and as my Bible says and as my Bible reminds me in Psalms 28 Verse 7 it says the Lord is my Strength and my Shield. In Him my heart trusts, and that helps and that is the only way I keep going and keep just knowing that they live in eternity and I will meet them again.”

“But I am so grateful to all you Councillors, not just round me but round me especially, but the Labour Group in particular my colleague Stef who has been great, just, almost like Moses. He held my hands up and really supported me, so kind. Just looked after me really treated me like a secondary family. You know, people ringing you up checking up on you, are you OK can I come round? Can I take you out? Just brilliant people and I am so grateful to you. Thank you my Labour colleagues in particular because you have been such continuous help and support to me. Especially I would say ny dynamite friend Councillor Ogundayo. Honestly she is just like dynamite, she’s brilliant. She has been a rock to me all the time I have been here. Also my lovely Leader, Councillor Stef Borella. Really good. So kind. You know he is such a deep and [loud microphone knock], he rings me up to check on me. You know he is always are you OK? Are you sure? I will ring you tomorrow, and sure enough he does. He is very decent.”

“Also of course I thank the Officers so much, You know, you have helped me answer hard questions . Questions about suicide and different [too much paper rustling]. You helped me and also with questions on the agencies we use, like Mind, like the Samaritans. Really helped me bring the light into what happened, how it happened and it has really helped me a lot. And I think this position must continue. Of course I will always treasure the fond memories I have had here. You’ve been great, we have had some real fun, not just the heckling. It has been so good. You know we just look out for each other, we laugh with each other, sometimes crying as well, but it’s been good and just like my colleagues said, Councillor Anna [Day]. We need to look after our community. That is why we are here, not just [indecipherable] fighting each other but look after the people where [indecipherable]. So please carry on with the good work, all of you, I will be watching you and heckling you. Thank you all, Bless you.”

Councillor Teresa O’Neill (Conservative)
“It’s a bit like being at your own funeral isn’t it and listening to the sound of the wake. Madam Mayor, I became a Councillor for Brampton ward 28 years ago with Councillor Bacon. Ironically polling day was on the 7th of May that year as well so it will be exactly 28 years that I will have done and Councillor Bacon will have done 24. When I became a Councillor I was one of the very few Members who had an email address. Most communication was through letter or telephone, there was no such thing as social media. Few Members and residents had a mobile phone and we operated the Committee system in the old building over the road that is now a block of flats. What a very different world it was.”

“Life has changed dramatically since then and we are in this fabulous new building that although over ten years old is still much better than many oother Councils and I have been to a few so I can tell you that and we know it attracts people to work here. Most of our communications with residents and Officers now are through technology at their convenience and they do, some of the residents, do push it and they want answers in the middle of the night, Christmas Day, all the rest of it. And we have had a very successful Conservative administration here for the last 20 years and that doesn’t happen by chance. It has not been without its challenges, impacts of a market crash, pandemic and a war kept us busy but also so did the needs and demographics of our residents changing and governments of both colours giving us more to do with less money. The most frustrating thing as far as I am concerned over that time are unwarranted accusations and I was determined tonight I was going to get some of this on the recoord.’

“So apparently we get paid hundreds of thousands of pounds a year. I don’t know where you all put it all but I can tell you, and I want it on the record, it is not true. I one time worked out the number of hours I had worked in a month versus the amount of money I got for it and I can tell you it was way less than the minimum wage, so that is the sort of work we do, but on the flip side Members can bring in millions of pounds for residents and we have done that in Bexley. We have been accused of claiming generous expenses. Again, untrue. And if you check the records you will see that Bexley Councillors in the main don’t claim expenses. Apparently I moved to a palatial palace when I went to the House of Lords. I even had an email from Mr. Shvorob offering to do my gardening for me at this palace. I had to burst his bubble and say no actually I still live in Crook Log ward and I intend to do so so my ward colleagues will continue to see me about. In fact Bexley Councillors also have no political assistants and we know they are looking to create them in Kent. We pay for our own IT and we are the only Council in the country who voluntarily reduced our number in full knowledge that it would mean more work.”

“I would like to think that Bexley taxpayers get good value from their Councillors, most of them anyway, and fortunatekly that is because we are embedded in our community and we want to do what is right by our residents. I am sure you have all witnessed my frustrations over the years on people including some Councillors who have wasted Officers’ and some Members’ time, time that could have been spent much better dealing with issues that our residents wanted sorting. I am also guilty of getting annoyed by people who mislead residents and issue nasty communications, some even have pseudonyms that they spend time speaking to themselves believe it or not, and of course as Leader you also get threats that have even included death threats. It is really not acceptable. Most Councillors do not do it for the money. They are diligent and they work hard for their residents. And the role of being a Councillor does mean attending meetings, listening to others, debating issues and hopefully finding the right solutions. It is not just about putting stuff out, often incorrectly on social media.”

“People in this Chamber will understand that Members set policy and Officers deliver it. And over the years I have been on the Council we have been very lucky with some super Officers who have given their all for Bexley and really went above and beyond. The number are too many to mention especially at this time of night but I do want to name check Jane Fordivers who has not only been a great support over all these years that I have been on the Council but I think she now holds most of the Corporate memory in her head. Madam Mayor, as Leader, as the Leader said earlier, many of those choosing to stand down on May 7th have put in many hours to help Bexley residents and in doing so they forego other things to be able to do so. I am proud of what we have achieved while I have been on the Council; don’t worry, I am not going to list the achievements as we will be here all night but I believe we have delivered our universal services to a high standard whilst also helping those who need a bit of extra support and we have not been guilty of standing by if we saw something that needed resolving.’

“Obviously I am personally honoured to have been the longest serving Leader in Bexley taking over from ex-Councillor Luton and leading the team into four elections and winning four elections. I was given the Freedom of the City of London for the London work I did during the pandemic. Was LGIUCCLA Leader of the Year in 2025. The first Member to receive an honour when I was awarded the OBE and of course now in the House of Lords and I am proud to have Bexley in my title. Madam Mayor we have much to be proud of in Bexley, we have made Bexley better and there is still much more to do and I wish all the teams standing on the 7th of May the best of luck because you have still got a great job to do in Bexley. Thank you.”

---

Note: The first two or three speeches were not reported absolutely verbatim. A very few sentences were omitted and in some cases what remains further edited for brevity. However later speeches are entirely as is, warts and all!

There are still quite a lot left to speak.

 

19 April (Part 1) - Blackfen & Lamorbey again

I have been hauled over the coals - no that is putting it far too strongly - for not noticing that Graham Holland is standing for Reform UK in Blackfen & Lamorbey. It does of course throw my reasoning two days ago into total disarray

He was a Conservative Councillor in Bexley.

Graham has an interesting history. He had been a successful and popular Councillor for 24 years when in 2001 it was discovered that he was two months behind with his Council Tax payments. It was no big deal and his local party chairman said he must set up a standing order and that would be the end of the matter.

Councillor Holland did that and went on to win the selection process preceding the 2002 election. The one that saw the Conservatives defeated by Labour.

Graham beat and displaced the Council Leader Mike Slaughter in that selection process which upset the faceless goons who run local political parties. What could they do about the loss of their Leader?

Easy for a duplicitous Tory apparatchik. Renege on the agreement with Graham and sack him for missing a Council Tax payment. An early example of Never Trust a Bexley Tory.

The foregoing history lesson is a combination of an old Bonkers’ blog, the News Shopper and Wikipedia - which has not yet caught up on the fact that David Leaf is Leader - until May anyway.

I am sure that Independent Councillor James Hunt will lose no time in pointing out that behind the scenes, Bexley Conservatives have been run by a bunch of untrustworthy wrong ’uns.

 

18 April (Part 2) - Why are banks so bloody awful?

The weird and slightly disappointing thing about writing this blog is that off-topic rants usually get a bigger response than a laborious Council meeting report. (Another is due tomorrow.)

So here I go again. It involves my friend in Bromley who is very deaf. She gets by on her current hearing aid (Boots, about £2,000) which she finds to be much better than all their predecessors. She can hear conversation with the assistance of a bit of lip reading when directed straight at her, but the telephone is a total no-go area.

These days she tends to let certain things slide a bit and when helping her tidy up old papers a couple of weeks ago I found a letter from the Kent Reliance Building Society dated July 2021 which told her that as she had not used her account for more than six years they were going to deactivate it unless they heard from her. She ignored it.

Kent Reliance Building Socety
A further search of the old papers turned up what looked like log-in details from 2013. At the second attempt I managed to log in and reactivate the account. It was paying a decent rate of interest, nearly four times as much as she was getting from a Santander ISA so using the on-line facilities I initiated an ISA transfer. Unfortunately the website said that Santander transfers were not automated and I must download a form and post it to Kent. The link was broken and an apology popped up so I sent an email to Kent Reliance on 10th April to ask what should be done. Not as easy as it sounds because the email address on the Contact page provoked an instant bounce back.

I found another but to this day I have not heard a word. On Day 5 I asked the same question via the on-line chat facility. There was no reply so yesterday (Day 7) I tried a phone call.

The security questions were a nightmare because I had to listen to them and relay each one to my deaf friend and ask her to speak the answer. Account number, name, date of birth, address etc.

Sometimes I pointed to the answer on her documentation to try to speed things up. At the end of the rigmarole she was told that she had failed the security checks and not allowed to ask why. She has a very significant sum invested in the Kent Reliance Building Society but they were happy to pee everyone off and risk an account closure. The operative appeared to be going out of his way to be obnoxious.

My suspicion is that when my friend stumbled over her address and I pointed to it printed on the Society’s letter and prompted, “the line beginning with 23” it was against the rules.

The ridiculous thing is that if I had dragged some random woman off the street and put the Kent documents in front of her, there would be no problem. Impersonators are acceptable, the genuine article isn’t.

My friend’s deafness is registered with Kent Reliance and only a week ago they assured both me and her that she will get extra assistance. A worthless promise.

By coincidence I opened an account with the Kent Reliance in March and sent an opening deposit of £5 to test the system. It never arrived. After many phone calls the Kent Reliance admitted that they had given me the details of someone else’s account. The sixth, or thereabouts, person I spoke to had a brain and got to the bottom of it. How in Hell can they issue me a wrong account number? All is well now.

In further proof of banking incompetency, the ISA has now been transferred. The form they said must be filled in and sent to them never has been, nor did they send the promised transfer documentation or acknowledge the email or the follow up ‘chat’ message.

Maybe we should have cut our losses and left such an incompetent bunch.

My current account provider is much cleverer. They use voice recognition on the very few occasions I have to call them.

Santander
There was too much money with Santander earning 1% in two accounts (three including the transferred ISA) and nothing at all in another. Time for some transfers. I set up a payment to a third building society which offered a much higher rate of interest and sent the customary £5 test payment. It arrived OK so I went back to Santander to transfer some more. I had to raise the transfer limit but that was OK too.

Thus encouraged, I set up a second payment authority but when I attempted to transfer more money the website said I was blocked and I must phone. Both payment authorities were to bank accounts in the same name as the Santander customer and verified as such by the Santander website. It had also sent the log-in codes to my friend’s phone - eight times in total!

The talk to a deaf person routine all over again? My friend does not want to be subjected to the trauma. So now I have to go to Santander on Monday to get things back on the road and transfer most of the money from their 1% and 0% accounts to something better. Another bank which delights in scaring away good six figure customers.

To everyone who thinks ‘Power of Atorney’; there is one registered but when did any bank take any notice of one?

MBNA Credit Card
This is nothing to do with my Bromley friend, it is all mine. Last year I spent more than £30,000 on my MBNA card. Not all my money I hasten to add. Among other things, I built several high specification desktop computers for friends and relations. So the money was a long way from being all mine.

On the Saturday before Christmas I arranged for a local tradesman to deliver goods to my door with a price tag of circa £1,500. When he arrived and installed the goods I went to pay by card as pre-arranged. It was declined. I then found a text message on my phone which said that if I opened the MBNA phone app I could authorise the payment. I did so and another text message said that if I repeated the same transaction it would go though. It didn’t. Not another word was heard from MBNA.

Somewhat embarrassed by the man waiting patiently at my door for payment I thought I would phone MBNA only to discover that they do not allow phone contact, only the chat facility which would not be answered until the following Monday.

I have not used my MBNA Credit Card since. Various traders’, Amazon etc. default payment options all changed. I don’t know how much MBNA earns on £30,000 of purchases but you have to hit these customer disregarding cretins where it hurts.

 

18 April (Part 1) - The Independent candidate for Blackfen & Lamorbey

At least someone responds to the plea for more election leaflets; The Man from Lamorbey.

Actually that isn't quite fair, a Conservative source has promised to send some; or one. I understand that all Conservative leaflets are much the same with faces changed.

Archive of old election leaflets.

 

17 April - Blackfen & Lamorbey

The election in Blackfen & Lamorbey looks like it will be interesting. We have five current or former Councillors standing for election. Peter Craske, Brian Bishop and Frazer Brooks for the Conservatives, Lynn Smith for Reform UK and former Conservative, fed up with not being able to do his unrestrained best for residents, James Hunt.

Peter Craske needs no introduction; pretty much barge pole territory for me. The driving force behind the revamped Broadway and all its strange traffic priorities. Maybe you like it…

Brian Bishop has not done a lot in all the years I have known of him, if he has I must have missed it. A bit too close to pub wrecker Kulvinder Singh for my liking. Is it right that the then Chairman of the Planning Committee was so keen to be seen hobnobbing with the man himself?

Frazer Brooks is the all-round nice guy who is employed by Joy Morrisey, MP for Beaconsfield. Frazer is one of the few Councillors to have visited me at home, but only in an electioneering role. He was once very helpful to me in the Council Chamber under the stony gaze of Teresa O’Neill. That takes guts and makes him one of a select half dozen.

Lynn Smith was the UKIP Councillor for Blackfen from 2014 to 2018. We never totally lost touch with each other and whilst she is not a home visitor we have met socially a few times. One of the few people I am happy to trust with my innermost political thoughts and ideas for getting the country out of the mess it is in. You may assume she is in the same political ball park as I am and if you are looking for an old school Conservative, then Lynn will be a safe pair of hands.

Which brings me to my oldest political friend in Bexley, James Hunt. Very much an Independent who will do what he thinks is right without fear or favour.

My choice in Blackfen and Lamorbey would have to be James, Lynn and Frazer. If you want someone who will turn off his Council chamber microphone to spite a deaf man in the public gallery, then Peter Craske is your man obviously.

If only the Belvedere ward offered such talent. Maybe it does, but I have no leaflets and no inside information. Things might be different if I was a Labour supporter but that party has tried my patience - and robbed me rotten - just a little too often since July 2024. That comment will no doubt ensure I never get a Labour leaflet through my letter box.

Note: This blog was outdated by information that came to light two days later.

 

16 April (Part 3) - Bexley Council’s end of term Love-In

After the early morning tease about yesterday’s ritual back slapping festival it is probably justifiable to stand chronology on its head and begin with a summary of the final 135 minutes of interminable self-praise. So as briefly as possible…

David Leaf said 230 years’ worth of experience had elected for not being re-elected. 48 years from Nigel Betts down to four years each from Felix di Netimah and Patrick Adams. The names of Labour Councillors had apparently slipped his mind. He said that despite the bickering everyone respected each other even the “politically misguided and naive cousins sitting opposite”.

He will miss the relentless heckling of the “engaging” Wendy Perfect. Similarly he will miss the twelve years of Mabel Ogundayo, champion for Thamesmead and Black History Month.

He thought that Esther Amaning was to retire but then discovered she was his Labour opponent in Blendon and Penhill ward. He was therefore unable to wish her well.

Cheryl Bacon and Richard Diment were praised for their diligence and good advice, Richard being “absolutely outstanding. A great politician.” Roads, bins and fly tipping all being improved on his watch.

Andy Dourmoush was similarly praised for his Chairmanship. Sue Gower who did such a good job in Housing where she delivered underspends, and a successful Mayor.

John Davey has been a Councillor for 20 years and a strong defender of the environment at Planning meetings. Occasionally forthright; “John stepping down should allow savings in the Corporate Complaints team.”

Peter Reader was an excellent Chairman of both the Audit and Planning Committees. Both he and his ward colleague Philip Read were first elected in 1968. “A strong advocate of free speech” and a success in his role as Cabinet Member for Children’s Services. (From Inadequate to two Outstandings.) “A great champion of Erith.”

Teresa O’Neill was thanked for her outstanding public service in Bexley and across London. She was the the longest serving Leader in Bexley and led Bexley through the financial crash of 2008, Covid and the Ukraine War. “She is owed a debt of immense gratitude.”

Labour Leader Stefano Borella seconded the idea that all Members got on with each other but also referred to “throwing hand grenades at each other”. He praised everybody’s favourite, Sue Gower, and said she was one of Bexleyְ’s best Mayors. “You did a great job.”

While remembering Cheryl Bacon, Stefano referred to the notorious meeting of 19th June 2013 when Cheryl was advised to move it to a private room to the exclusion of the public. “A night I won’t forget” said Stefano. It resulted in the police sending a file to the CPS for Misconduct in Public Office. It would be embarrassing to list the names of Councillors who provided witness statements against Councillor Bacon to the police which helped prove the case. (I still think that Cheryl was relatively innocent, having been wrongly advised and the lying statement issued over her name was likely to have been a forgery by Bexley’s legal team that she knew nothing about. Whatever possessed Stefano to bring that up 12 years later?)

Seeing Teresa O’Neill on his television was “a bit of a nightmare. She is in my living room now!” He wished Councillors Diment and Dourmoush well.

“The fabulous and wonderful Mabel Ogundayo” was the subject of a little good natured bedroom banter who “held Philip Read’s feet to the fire” when she was first elected. (I remember it well and his responses were less than kind.)

Wendy Perfect was gently chided for preferring to be in bed by eight than attend meetings.

Esther Amaning had championed mental health and Stefano hoped she would defeat the Leader in Blendon and Penhill.

Anna Day who acts as Stefano’s chauffeuse had been a great help as his ward colleague and he forgave her for not taking his preferred routes.

With just two speakers done and a quarter of the duration of the festival of self-praise elapsed it is time to wrap up the first part of this report. Fortunately the remainder of the speakers were much less verbose.

Note: Commitments elsewhere are such that this report is unlikely to be extended before Sunday.

 

16 April (Part 2) - Leaf’s last Cabinet?

With the obvious implications for Finance it was reported at the Cabinet meeting on 9th April that the demand for Children’s Care had fallen and there was a decline in the number of care leavers able to enter Education or Training, presumably reflecting the state of the national economy.

At the end of January the finances were overspent by £1·361 million, less than 0·5% of the total budget and better than at the end of the previous quarter.

Cabinet Member Richard Diment reported that Bexley is one of the very few boroughs to see a reduction in fly tipping. Bromley has twice as many incidents, Greenwich four times and Croydon more than ten times as many as Bexley. Bexley is the only London borough to have improved recycling rates last year and is now only one percentage point behind Bromley who only a year ago were 5% ahead.

Councillor Diment confirmed that he had “spent every penny” of the government’s road repair grant and already begun “to dip into this year’s allocation”. £899,000 was spent against the grant total of £895,000. The grant was less than 15% of the total expenditure on road repairs. The Mayor of London, as in the previous ten years, failed to provide any money at all to maintain principal roads. Sixty major resurfacing schemes are scheduled for the coming year.

Richard was far too polite to suggest this made a monkey of the MP who told the Prime Minister that Bexley wasn’t spending its grant and asked that funds be withheld from his own constituency.

Council Leader David Leaf was less reticent about those who “deliberately spread misinformation about our borough”. The Labour Leader protested. Councillor Leaf rubbed salt into the Labour wound with his usual array of statistics. Among them that Councillor Borella had himself calculated that Bexley was 34th best in England for the condition of its roads. The Conservative calculation put them in 7th place.

The Leader said he was disappointed and frustrated by the fact that the Mayor Sadiq Khan was the only Police and Crime Commissioner in the country not to take a share of the additional funds provided by the Conservative government in 2024 which led to the loss of about 1,000 police officers in London.

Labour Leader Borella said that Prime Minister Theresa May cut police numbers too.

The meeting was commendably short at 44 minutes precisely.

 

16 April (Part 1) - The last Full Council

I made a big mistake last night, I decided to listen to the Full Council meeting live and it dragged on for more than four hours. 11:40 is well past my bedtime!

It seemed to be more of a back slapping fest than usual but I briefly listened again to the last pre-election meeting and it was much the same but an hour longer.

It sounded a bit like a party of friends some of whom were due to undergo a life threatening experience the next day and probably never to be seen again.

The speeches were variously interesting, amusing, sad, pointless, cringeworthy and in my view, wholly untruthful. How can the former Leader get so much praise for being a cry baby who runs to the police when faced with the first sign of criticism? A quick check of April 2022 suggests the back slapping was not reported in that pre-election year and maybe that was a mistake. Last night should keep BiB occupied until the election comes.

 

15 April - The one Councillor who did put residents before party

One of James Hunt’s comment on X yesterday reminded me of how anti-democratic Bexley Council has been under the Conservatives and how much they hate criticism. When the Maggot Sandwich blogger Hugh Neal said in 2011…

…and his remarks were referenced on Bonkers, Council Leader Teresa O’Neill was up the cop shop like a shot to ask them to arrest me. Not Hugh. Me.

The police later admitted to me in the presence of my MP that the Council’s preferred charge was arson.

At about the same time she ordered that my blog be banished from all Council web servers and the libraries. They still are. She also ordered all her Councillors never to speak to me. I have an email of apology from the occasionally flirtatious Maxine Fothergill to whom I had been chatting in the Civic Offices and who scuttled off abruptly the moment O’Neill appeared. Or Fat Controller as Fothergill referred to her.

When blogger John Kerlen made a very rude comment about a house he knew belonged to Councillor Melvin Seymour, Seymour signed a statement to the police claiming that Kerlen had put out a request to his followers on Twitter to put dog faeces through his letter box. Neither dogs, faeces or letterboxes were ever mentioned in the Tweet or anywhere else. The statement was nothing other than the product of a vivid imagination. The police knew that and had a copy of the original Tweet, as I have, but Councillor Seymour did not. He was not on Twitter. Someone else put him up to making the false statement.

Every critic of Bexley Council was fair game. (For the record John Kerlen was found not guilty of Malicious Communication on Appeal to the Crown Court.)

And what has this to do with Independent Councillor James Hunt? He quietly rebelled against the persecution of residents.

He was the first Councillor to come to my house for a friendly chat, soon after O’Neill reported me to the police for being, as the police said, personally critical of her. When the Queen’s bust was unveiled on the Clocktower on 9th June 2013 James broke from the ranks of assembled Councillors to shake my hand. Here is a photo of him doing so. Probably he got a good bollocking from the Leader. None of Bexley Council’s Leaders have ever spoken to me or written to me except to acknowledge receipt of my complaint in 2011 about the Craske blog. (Correction; it was the Chief Executive who acknowledged my complaint.)

James Hunt is for residents not puerile rules and party whips. A true Independent. For the record two Labour Councillors (only one current) have visited me at home.

Bexley went a long time without much in the way of critics until Dimitri Shvorob appeared on the scene. For asking too many questions Bexley Council declared him vexatious. A judge overturned that decision and Dimitri set up his own political party. His leaflets may be seen in the archive. An extract from the latest appears below.

If you read the whole thing he expands on his complaints. One of his criticisms is that Bexley Council “simply threw out” a 2,218 signature petition. That is not strictly accurate as it implies that they heard the petition. It never actually got that far. The Council called a meeting to decide whether the petition should be accepted for debate. It wasn’t.

Democracy? Bexley Council doesn’t know what it is!

Bexley Council has been a deeply undemocratic organisation owing their continuation to constant lying to a gullible public and attacking all critics. Not every Councillor has been a bad ’un, there are seven sitting Conservatives I woud be happy to vote for, but their leadership has been ruthless in their quest for power. A change in May may improve things.

Note: The word ‘metaphorically’ was added by Hugh after I was threatened with arrest for referring to his blog. Pitchforks etc. is a quotation from Mary Shelley’s book Frankenstein.

 

14 April - Which Councillors might put residents before party? Not many

After arguing that when voting at a local Council election one should take responsiveness to enquiries from the public into account I looked back at my own correspondence records to see if the Councillor wheat could be extracted from the chaff.

I had in mind rating current Councillors on a percentage scale based on whether they replied to emails or not with some shading between 0 and 100%. It did not work out too well and proved not a lot. For the record I have exchanged emails with 42 different Councillors over more than 16 years but half have left the Council, hence only the 22 shown below.

In an attempt to rejuvenate a failing idea I added a + sign to the names who had at some point or another initiated a conversation but that too failed to provide an interesting story.

A possible improvement was to add a second + sign to those who had initiated the very first conversation. A surprising eleven of them meaning that conversations between me and Councillors are more often initiated by them than me. However it gives an unjustified score to Councillors Amaning, Day and Perfect (all Labour) who had only copied me into something circulated more widely and to which I need not and did not reply.

Peter Reader doesn’t really deserve a zero. I wrote to nine Conservative Councillors who had witnessed an unlawful act in the Council Chamber seeking their support. In response Bexley Council sent a defamatory Press Release to the News Shopper about me and another resident allegedly rampaging and threatening Councillors which was absolutely beyond the pale. The police subsequently investigated and sent a file on Bexley Council to the CPS.

The Press Release was a total lie and presumably the Councillors were under instruction from their Leader to ignore me. Party before honesty. None replied apart from Peter Reader who sent an email apologising for not being allowed to reply. I suppose that makes him a relatively good guy. (Of the other eight four are now dead and four retired.)

Three more Councillor witnesses had emailed me earlier to confirm that far from rampaging and threatening I had not left my seat or opened my mouth. Bexley Council never could stop lying.

Christoforides Kurtis probably doesn’t deserve a 100% ++. He has only ever written to me to tell me off for being too harsh on him. He was probably right.

One of the earliest correspondents was June Slaughter but never anything about Council business except that once she confirmed my assertion that Full Council is rehearsed theatre. Our correspondence was entirely nosy stuff about my past history and telling me about her holidays and long weekends away. Sadly her husband’s failing health but never once a Council secret.

When the despicable Restore Britain Councillor Maxine Fothergill told the outrageous lie about me which resulted in a police charge, June, a retired solicitor, offered her support constantly and phoned me on the day before I was due in Court to wish me luck.

I don’t think Sidcup could ask for a more supportive Councillor than June.

James Hunt had some interesting stuff to say about Fothergill, his descriptions seemed to be very fair to me.

Of the 22 names listed below only 13 are hoping to be re-elected in May. Where’s Frazer Brooks? This is an email analysis. Frazer earns a 100% ++ on X Direct Message

So this blog has not worked out anything like what had been planned but here’s the score table anyway. Maybe something more interesting will turn up tomorrow.

 

Councillor’s name
Andy Dourmoush
Anna Day
Cameron Smith
Caroline Newton
Chris Ball
Christoforides Kurtis
Esther Amaning
James Hunt
Jeremy Fosten
John Davey
June Slaughter
Lisa Moore
Mabel Ogundayo
Melvin Seymour
Nicola Taylor
Peter Reader
Richard Diment
Sally Hinkley
Stefano Borella
Steven Hall
Sue Gower
Wendy Perfect
Response record
100% ++
100% ++
90% +
80%
100% +
100% ++
100% ++
100% ++
100% ++
100%
100% +
100% +
100% ++
100%
100% ++
0%
100% ++
100% ++
100% +
100% ++
100% ++
100% ++

 

13 April - Turning green at the thought

A Green party election leaflet has been added to the archive of such things and it is an entirely policy free zone. The excuse is that the the candidates act independently of the party, in which case why not stand as Independents in an honest fashion rather than hang on to the coat tails of a man famed mainly for tit whispering and dancing with drag queens?

This strikes me as cowardice; hoping to be elected on the transitory Green ascendancy without wishing to be associated with their party’s aspirations.

These include legalising all drugs including date rape potions, nationalising the big five energy suppliers which I suppose will see the end of competition and my five pence a kilowatt hour tariff. Wrecking the economy with a 55 m.p.h. speed limit on motorways when 80 has been shown to be the financially beneficial sweet spot. (The Conservative government sponsored the conclusive study.)

20 m.p.h. in all built up areas which proved to be such a rip roaring success in Wales and wealth taxes to ensure even more millionaires flee the country.

For good measure, halt all fossil fuel projects and build 150,000 new Council houses every year for which there are neither the resources or the skills.

In Longlands and presumably elsewhere the Green candidates may be Independent but they have paid their subscription to an organisation which is undeniably weird. Does anyone believe that they joined up and rose through the ranks but do not support the policies? Do you want to see weirdos running Bexley?

We saw what a protest vote did in July 2024; surely no one wants to be that silly again?

 

12 April - The 2008 Rich List

A reader who says he has been following Bonkers since 2011 sent me this cutting from the Bexley Chronicle, a newspaper which was always very critical of Bexley Council. What happened to this lot he asks to which the obvious response should be “have you really followed Bonkers for the past 15 years? If so you should know.”

The first thing that should be noted is that the allowances paid have not got close to keeping up with inflation. £21,000 in 2008 would be worth £36,000 now and todayְ’s Cabinet Members are on about £25,000; which neatly brings us to the first name on the list.

Councillor Perrior was the founder and boss of the PR Agency InHouse and credited with bringing Boris Johnson to power. After being caught claiming additional expenses she wrote to the Chronicle to claim that as a mother she needed every penny she could get.

Katie Perrior was in charge of Children’s Services when OFSTED gave Bexley an Inadequate rating.

Teresa O’Neill became Leader when Ian Clement was recruited by Mayor Johnson and famously refused to report him to the police when it was discovered that he had dishonestly pocketed £2,087 of Council funds covered up by accounting fiddles. In 2024 she got her reward when elevated to the House of Lords.

Nothing much is known about Simon Windle. It was rumoured that he might have been the Tories one honest guy and was therefore deselected in 2014. “Probing where others fear to tread” was his BiB epitaph.

Gareth Bacon was famous at the time for being the highest paid elected official in London holding down something like six jobs with the GLA and goodness knows what else. But he did them reasonably well and went on to be M.P. for Orpington. On the downside he is almost personally responsible for ensuring that there is no bridge across the Thames at Gallions Reach/Thamesmead.

Chris Ball is still with us. I sometimes wonder why he is in the Labour party. He can be very reasonable and helpful at times.

John Waters is long gone from the Council. A successful businessman and a little infamous in 2012 for telling worried residents that mobile phone masts were no more dangerous than vacuum cleaners. His knowledge of electromagnetic frequencies was not the best.

I have been warned to never talk about Nigel Betts, allegedly something to do with an unsavoury police investigation. An Independent Councillor for the last two years and leaving next month.

Sharon Massey; oh where do we start? I was reported to the police for publishing an anonymised version of what I found on her family’s publicly available Facebook page and was kept in suspense for six months until the police told her I had done nothing wrong. At a Scrutiny meeting in 2016 she asked the Police Borough Commander if he could introduce a law against lying. He immediately arrested everyone present. (Actually he didn’t.) It was not clear who she was targetting. She had made complaints about a Labour Councillor as well as me.

Surely no one needs another catalogue of the misdemeanours of Peter Craske?

Colin Campbell was another rogue. Did a TV interview defaming a Bexley resident in 2013 and every single word, literally, was a lie.

And now we are back to Ian Clement. A suspended prison sentence for doing to Boris Johnson and the GLA what he had done on a ten times larger scale in Bexley but which the Baroness decided should go unpunished here. Few if any of the Conservative Councillors of 2008 could be trusted. Be careful who you vote for next month.

I’m pleased to see I am not the only nerd to file away everything about Bexley Council. Maybe that is why they have stopped sending me their quarterly Magazine. Whatever happened to Letter Box Marketing which was awarded the distribution contract in 2016?

 

11 April (Part 3) - No leaflets. No magazines

There appears to be a dearth of political leaflets in Bexley. If I count paper copies one can hold up and read in the old fashioned way, I have more from Bromley than Bexley.

However the Working for Sidcup party has not been a let down like all the others and its latest leaflet is both informative and for political nerds, amusing.

Worth a quick read.

Something else that is not available is the current Bexley Magazine. For the second consecutive time mine has not been delivered. I popped into a library to see if they had copies as advertised by Bexley Council but the lady said - I had better not offer any clues as to the where and when - said it was the common complaint as a result of which her stock had disappeared very quickly.

Something else that has become worse under the Tories. The archive of old Magazines used to be available on the Council’s website but not any more.

Seriously; just what have Bexley Conservatives improved in this over-taxed borough?

 

11 April (Part 2) - James Hunt. A racing certainty?

Before I found Councillor Hunt’s link to the Daily Express I asked Google to find it. Using Artificial Intelligence I noted that it (Image below right) linked to Bexley is Bonkers as its premier source of news and came up with an image that might surprise Mrs. Hunt.

The newspaper article is behind a paywall and there is no way I am going to pay The Daily Express £6·99 a month to look at it. Being a cheapskate I just about accept The Daily Telegraph’s £29 a year.

The journalist @AJNewbury94 was, you may remember, a Conservative Bexley election candidate in 2022. He has found something better to do with his life than be just an obedient hand in the air for the party machine.

 

11 April (Part 1) - Which way to jump?

In fewer than four weeks time Bexley faces a choice. The feeling is that Labour locally, given the disaster that has unfolded in No. 10 Downing Street, cannot possibly improve on its present total of twelve Councillors; unless perhaps the Right is split and they sneak through the gap.

If Bexley Conservatives win control again what can we look forward to? It is hard to see that the borough would not be forced into more managed decline. Is that even possible? I have several times challenged the Tories to name a single thing that is better now than when they took charge in 2006. Every single service which can be legally outsourced has been outsourced and still the Chief Executive who has no direct control over much of his Empire is paid top dollar.

The Conservatives would argue that they are the safe bet and they will no doubt get the vote of steadfast Tory supporters and the risk averse despite their talent pool of candidates being drained. Many of them are not standing for election again and both the brainy ones have gone, but at least a Tory Council will ensure that Bexley remains relatively free of the wokery that has wrecked our Socialist neighbour to the West.

Councillors, both Conservative and Labour, vote as a single block. There is no room for independent thought and their only distinguishing feature is whether they come across to observers as decent people or are in it for the power trip.

On that basis very few Tories pass muster. Judged solely on whether they have argued well at meetings and/or their responsiveness to the public including me, then if I was a Conservative supporter I would feel happy to vote for Frazer Brooks (Blackfen & Lamorbey) , Steven Hall (East Wickham), Lisa-Jane Moore (Longlands) and Cameron Smith (St. Mary’s & St. James). Maybe David Leaf (Blendon & Penhill) too for his inexhaustible knowledge of pretty much everything.

Newcomer Eliot Smith (West Heath) may be worth a shot (a strong Brexit campaigner in 2016) but other than those, you are endorsing nothing but Conservative voting fodder with few redeeming features. They are a block vote. If you are a dyed in the wool Tory, place your X against any one of them. Ultimately they are all the same. They will plough on along the same old furrow keeping Bexley among the highest taxing boroughs and lying about keeping all their Manifesto promises. Those named are in my experience, the basically good guys but they will all follow the whip.

Applying the same logic to Labour Councillors, if you are a long term supporter but struggling under their national policies, and possibly dithering, then Chris Ball (Erith), Jeremy Fosten and Sally Hinkley (both in Belvedere), Larry Ferguson (Thamesmead East) and Stefano Borella (Slade Green and North End) are all safe bets. Decent enough performers in the Council chamber and/or hard working ward Councillors. All people who want to build Council houses whether it bankrupts us or not but all people I would be happy to have living next door whilst several Tories would have me considering a house move.

So if I was a Tory supporter or a Labour supporter I would know what to do. If I was a Green supporter I would know what to do too. Book an urgent appointment with a mental health professional but what to do if I was inclined towards Reform UK? Maybe it is time we jumped out of the Tory rut that has led us to where we are but the Reform candidates are unknowns to most of us. Fortunately a Bonkers reader helps out a little with both of the upstart parties.

Until a few years ago I lived in Berkeley Avenue [off Brampton Road] but since then moved into Kent. Several of the street trees had died and been cut down. I wrote to Bexley Council about them only to be told that they could not be replaced because of the cost.
I tried contacting Her Royal Highness O’Neill but got a pretty blunt reply with the same message.
Undaunted I put together a catalogue of reasons why the trees were important along with some facts and figures and sent it to every Bexley Councillor and managed to get the News Shopper to do a piece on it.
My own Councillor, John Davey [Conservative, West Heath] came to visit me and was most apologetic. He personally wanted to get the trees replaced but could not go against his Leader’s doctrine.
The only other reply was from Lynn Smith and Mac McGannon who were at the time UKIP Councillors (but not in my ward). They asked if they could come and speak to me and see the road/trees in question.
They spent over an hour with us and Lynn was a really lovely lady. They said they would raise the matter at the earliest possible opportunity and after a bit of a delay the trees were replaced.
I then got an email from Teresa O’Neil attempting to claim credit for the tree replacement. There seems to be a natural transition from UKIP to Reform and based on my experience I can only hope they are elected.
And by the way I’ve just seen that a Green candidate has won an election where I now live in Kent and with a 39% majority. How on earth is that possible? I despair.

Given the foregoing, Blackfen & Lamorbey presents an enormous dilemma; or maybe not. Perhaps the choice is obvious. James Hunt the Independent Councillor the Tories didn’t want because he is a bit too independent minded, Lynn Smith for being “a really lovely lady” prepared to help anyone and Frazer Brooks for old times’ sake and being such a friendly sort of guy.

Memory says it was another Blackfen & Lamorbey candidate who was behind the tree embargo; our notorious blogging friend, Peter Craske but a little research says Public Realm had been taken over by Councillor Don Massey after the police incident.

 

10 April (Part 2) - Nominations

The Nominations list which appeared on Bexley Council's website yesterday outdated the various lists which have appeared here but it is important that BiB retains copies as official Nominations lists are destroyed six months after the election to which they refer; something that has historically turned out to be inconvenient.

The Council’s list as currently published is somewhat half baked as it does not include the names of the proposers or seconders. Maybe more comprehensive copies will be made available later.

Meanwhile a full set of the hopefully interim copies are available via the links below.

 

Barnehurst
Bexleyheath
Belvedere
Blackfen & Lamorbey
Blendon & Penhill
Crayford
Crook Log
East Wickham
Erith
Falconwood & Welling
Longlands
Northumberland Heath
Sidcup
Slade Green & North End
St. Mary’s and St. James
Thamesmead East
West Heath

 

10 April (Part1) - Full House!

I have obtained the complete list of Bexley’s Reform UK election candidates. I hope I have transcribed the names correctly, some are not easy to spell! Blackfen and Lamorbey will have a choice of two Brooks, so that may cause some people, who probably should not be allowed to vote, a little confusion. But not as bad as when the old Brampton ward had a choice of four O’Neills!

Three of the names below are former UKIP Councillors and some were unsuccessful UKIP candidates in 2014.

I suspect I will be accused of pushing Reform’s case on Bonkers, but the truth is rather different. I have published every bit of election news that has come my way. The Conservative list came from an independent contributor, the Green list was found on their website and there has been nothing at all from Labour.

One must hope that transparency and openness from Reform is a sign that if they win in Bexley they will continue to be more democratically focused than any of the other parties. Ones that report some critics to the police for example and declare others vexatious and refuse to talk to them.

 

Ward name list
Barnehurst
Barnehurst
Belvedere
Belvedere
Belvedere
Bexleyheath
Bexleyheath
Bexleyheath
Blackfen
     &     
Lamorbey
Blendon
     &     
Penhill
Crayford
Crayford
Crayford
Crook Log
Crook Log
Crook Log
East Wickham
East Wickham
East Wickham
Erith
Erith
Falconwood
     &     
Welling
Longlands
Longlands
Northumberland
               Heath
Sidcup
Sidcup
Sidcup
Slade Green
North End
St. Mary’s &
St. James   
Thamesmead
             East
Thamesmead
West Heath
West Heath
West Heath
Reform UK
Lois Moules
Deborah Smith
Christopher Calvert
Chris Frampton
Michael Wilson
Andrew Cronin
Colin Grostate
Mike Lyons
Robert Brooks
Graham Holland
Lynn Smith
Mike Ferro
Mac McGannon
Jon Templer
Sandra Cerisola
Oke Ene
Debbie Ryan
Eamonn Delaney
John Dunford
Philip Savage
David Bryne
Miles Jones
Baris Lefkonuklo
Caroline Panetta
Geoff Williams
Catherine Allard
Pamela Andrews
Nicola Jones
Alexander Cleak
Gary Levett
Sean Brackstone
Chris Purfield
Ranw Aso-Rashidk
Daniel Martin
Daniel Kersten
John McDermont
Bright Uwhokorwi
Simon Francis
Garret Lynch
Lee Delaney
Matthew Solo
Tom Staples
Sue Ford
Ian Rowlands
David Simmons

 

9 April (Part 2) Diversity is our strength

Since the AW1 CPZ was introduced seven months ago I have not had any stranger parking on my front drive. At the end of a cul-de-sac people who are hard of thinking tell me that it looks like part of the public road and maybe if one is not too bright there is just a little bit of truth in that. (I think I am being more than a little generous here but never mind.)

Yesterday I was working in my garage for five hours with the door wide open while messing around with wood and saws and drills and things. While there I noticed someone rooting around in my front garden poking shrubs aside as if he was looking for something.

I asked the man what he might be doing and through some not very good English he told me that he had been informed it was an ideal spot on which to dump an old mattress. I told him that he had been misinformed and without arguing he walked away.

I assumed he would find another place to dump it and I guess he has because the nearest big bins have gained a rather stained mattress.

Another cost to taxpayers caused by people of an alternative culture who most of us don’t want here. Reform UK’s plans for immigrants are not what I would advocate but they are looking ever more attractive.

 

9 April (Part 1) - Desperate times for Tories

Thomas Turrell is our London Assembly Member. I cannot tell you a thing he has done for us because I rarely hear about him but I think it is fair to say he is worried that the Conservative administrations in Bexley and Bromley are about to fall.

As a Conservative he is speaking up for Bexley Council on at least two videos. I suppose it is a slip of the tongue that he says Bexley will spend £2 billion on its libraries and £30 million on roads. Or maybe he actually thinks you might believe him.

He shows a clip of Reform UK’s Mayoral Candidate talking about Green Belt land and how it is sometimes pretty much worthless and implies that nothing will be safe with Reform.

I have grave misgivings about the wisdom of appointing Laila Cunningham (the Mayoral candidate) to any political position but no party is perfect and it is a bit rich to complain about building on Green spaces when Bexley Council has set up its own building developer to do exactly that. And run up millions in debt in the process.

“Siding with Sadiq Khan” provided me with a bit of a giggle. I have only met three of the Bexley Reform UK candidates and none will ever side with Sadiq Khan. One I have known for a long time and on a good evening we have tried to out do each other with what form of extreme punishment should be inflicted on Khan for what he has done to our capital city. I would like to think that no one hates him more than I do but after a night out with my Reform candidate friend I am not so sure.

I doubt there is any chance whatsoever that a Reform UK Council in Bexley will be on Sadiq Khan’s side.

A Reform win in Bexley would likely help educate the woeful Ms. Cunningham and the local party has already made a move in that direction by getting her to attend one of their meetings this month.

Links to videos
https://x.com/i/status/2041909289577488803
https://x.com/i/status/2041089077697560587

 

7 April - This bus might terminate you here

This morning I attended TfL’s bus passenger experience seminar or survey or whatever they called it. The venue was Vauxhall bus station and the show was organised by ARUP.

I don’t think it is a trade secret that TfL is seriously worried about bus safety and the number of passengers being injured and worse. I understand the original idea came from my son but it grew legs and was taken over by ARUP. Hence me getting a tip off and being readily accepted because they were short of people aged over 75.

The day did not start well because I arrived at Waterloo with 55 minutes to spare and Vauxhall station is only three minutes away by train, so I thought I would get in the mood by taking a bus. Not a good idea. The traffic was so horrendous that I arrived with only 15 minutes to spare.

The trial bus was a new BYD electric operated by Arriva and was of a type we don’t see in Bexley. Some things were definitely different. A much bigger area for wheelchair users but the ironmongery around it would make getting to the front to pay quite impossible.

Like all new buses there was no central seat at the back because passengers are too often catapulted from it to the front during emergency stops.

The TfL guy on board said that wheelchair users who do not have a free travel card are so few that they can be disregarded and they are not expected to go forward to pay. Only the smallest of baby buggies would be able to get to the front either which rather conflicted with the announcement about not leaving a buggy unattended.

The bus was ‘Not in Service’ but followed Route Number 2 towards Norwood. We were each given a random bus stop name and told we were to fend for ourselves and ring the bell when appropriate. Not as easy as it sounds on an unfamiliar route and I think most of us opened a phone App to get an idea of how far we were from our destination. The alternative would be watching the display board like a hawk. When appropriate we went through the standard routine of bell ringing, door opening and walking to the front to get on again.

We turned around a mile of so south of Brixton.

I think the whole object of the exercise was to find a happy medium between providing a lot of information and making too much noise and driving passengers and driver alike around the bend. The danger then is that people mentally switch off. Not good if you are the driver!

The whole gamut of spoken announcements was used; changing driver, regulating the service interval, closed bus stops and early termination. Plus hold on to the handrail when moving and the essential next stop name. There was a new low frequency boing noise to announce that the driver had something to say. It confused us all because no one knew its significance but I suppose we will get used to it if it becomes standard.

The journey was not very typical because on a regular service you will get couples talking to each other, loudmouths on their mobile phone, mothers trying to pacify crying babies, dogs yapping and children from a school making one hell of a racket. On our test bus no one said a word so maybe the announcements were more easily heard.

Opinions varied widely between those who are fed up with incessant announcements and those lacking in confidence about where they are going. In practice there is not much flexibility because most of the announcements are legally required.

My suggestion was to modify the bell software so that after the first bell press illuminates the ‘Bus Stopping’ notice all further bell presses are suppressed until the system resets after the following stop. The idea was taken away for consideration so if it is adopted you know who to blame.

Further tests are being conducted on whether buses can be equipped with emergency stop systems as found in new cars but in vehicles without seatbelts that is not the easiest of things to safely implement.

 

6 April - Deport or Die. Take your pick

A Labour activist by the name of Anashua Davies has outed herself as their candidate for the election in Longlands next month. (See Image No.1) Because she had a solicitor send me a threatening letter I know that she was the voice behind a notorious Twitter account called Sidcup4RemainSafe.

If that legal letter had not identified her I would never have known that Anashua Davies and Sidcup4Remain were one and the same entity. Going to a solicitor has ironically enabled this blog!

It was a particularly vicious anonymous account, reporting me to the police several times and contriving a false, or at least a horribly contorted complaint against a Conservative Councillor.

Arguably worse is that a Retweet (Image 2) provided an interesting insight into the mindset of a Labour activist and would-be candidate. It passed on to a wider audience the evil thoughts of a Times letter writer who wanted to push Nigel Farage over the White Cliffs of Dover. (Click image 2 to see a little more of The Times letter.)

The ‘Be Kind’ mob are anything but.

I can find no evidence that Reform Bexley has ever called for the Labour candidate for Longlands to be deported or that they even know of her existence but we do have evidence that that same candidate Retweeted the thought that the Reform Leader should be pushed over a cliff.

Leaving aside the fact that the deportation claim is probably not true; which is the most tasteless of the two? Deportation or Death?

 

4 April - Spreading fear. They have nothing else left

It is not something I have tried to hide over the years so you will have noticed that I am 100% against political attacks on motorists. Ever higher and new taxes and the meanest of road traps and parking scams. I have had more than enough of them and it precludes me from voting Labour ever again.

I am wholly against ULEZ which was based on a whacking great lie and yellow box junctions. I had high hopes of Richard Diment when he was appointed to the Cabinet but in my opinion he seriously blotted his copybook on Yellow Money Boxes.

Mostly unnecessary and usually too large but just a few days ago I praised Bexley Council for not being quite as politically correct as most.

Their latest publicity material appears to be going down the same road as I was. If you vote Labour say goodbye to even more of our freedoms.

But Reform UK too? That is just nonsense.

As you might imagine the policy on penalising motorists was a priority question when I first met up with would-be Reform Bexley Councillors. They shared my view. Now one of them has become the local Reform UK leader.

I asked him again about LTNs, 20 m.p.h. nonsense and no to parking charges based on engine size as in the Socialist Republic to our West.

As for concreting over green spaces, here is the list read out in Council eleven years ago. A Conservative list.

Nowhere is safe. The audio quality is poor but one can just about discern 30 sites which might be sold. There were parks included but the majority were not. Most were small open spaces.

A written list of Council property deemed suitable for disposal was published a month earlier.

Things have moved on since with some sites sold and built on but it is a bit rich for Bexley Conservatives to spread the fear that Reform UK will build on Bexley’s Green Spaces when that is exactly what they have been doing surreptitiously for the past ten years. They take us all for fools.

For the record, Reform UK has been very critical of the millstone that is BexleyCo in emails to me going back more than nine months.

 

3 April - Not so much Super as Loopy

When one passes by road hazards in the dark It it is not easy to be sure exactly what the situation is so I didn’t report the one noted on 24th March. A pedestrian refuge in Penhill Road where one Keep Left sign of the pair had been flattened leaving the back of its partner with no reflector and virtually invisible. Rightly or wrongly I tend to assume that those who live nearby will report such things. Maybe they didn’t because at 00:40 on the morning of All Fool’s Day, an SL3 demolished it completely. Note Keep Left sign transferred to tthe footpath.

The SL3 carried on as if nothing had happened but the bang was loud enough to bring residents outside to make sure no neighbour had suffered an accident or explosion.

One called Bexley’s out of hours response team which achieved precisely nothing. “They were appalling.”

A call to the Council at nine o’clock got the run around and a promise to call back. That is now 48 hours ago and still no response. However the Keep Left signs were restored to their rightful place when I went by at 06:30 this morning. They have the same design flaw as their predecessors. If one goes down the back of its exposed partner is black,

 

2 April (Part 2) - Forty four years of decline

It was forty four years ago today that I rolled up to the office on a Friday morning to be told the circuit to Port Stanley was down.

We had a link to Rugby where a long wave radio transmitter struggled against the sunspots to reach Port Stanley on the Falklands Islands. It was the last remaining radio circuit operated by what is now called BT. The link to Kabul had been withdrawn a couple of years earlier by the idiots-that-be and not replaced with anything at all.

The very next day I took my two children down to Portsmouth - I lived in Hampshire at the time - to see what Mrs. Thatcher was doing about it. On a dreadfully dull day supplies were being helicoptered on board and a couple of days later the Royal Navy set sail for the South Atlantic. The rubbish photos are mine.

Now it takes three weeks to get a single boat to the Mediterranean. Whatever has become of us?.

I did eventually manage to re-establish the link to Stanley. The Argentinians were difficult buggers and I have not knowingly bought anything emanating from that country since then. I still examine tins of corned beef to make sure it is not one of theirs!

 

2 April (Part 1) - Is Bexley ready for The Greens?

There is a Bonkers rule that says don’t comment when bringing attention to election material and on this occasion it will be followed. The list below was extracted from The Green’s local website.

One name stands out, that of Jonathan Rooks. It showed up on Bonkers between 2012 and 2014 and then disappeared. Libraries, The Howbury Centre and The Erith Quarry. According to those blogs, Mr. Rooks was once a Conservative Councillor.

He was also featured in a 2014 blog entitled Great tits.

I wish I hadn’t promised not to comment on the breast enhancer now.

 

Wards
Barnehurst
Belvedere
Belvedere
Bexleyheath
Bexleyheath
Blackfen & Lamorbey
Blendon & Penhill
Crayford
Crook Log
East Wickham
Erith
Falconwood & Welling
Longlands
Longlands
Northumberland Heath
Sidcup
Sidcup
Slade Green & North End
St. Mary’s & St. James
Thamesmead East
West Heath
Green Candidate
John Ely
Sarah Barry
Edwin Hollands
Nancy Willmouth-Coates
Yolanda Allen
James Brown
Mariam Zahedi
Francesca Wyvern
Tony Ball
Bob Morris
Martin Radbon
Lis Radbone
Anita Paris
David Paris
Daniel Stamp
Julian Himmerich
Laurence Williams
Sarah Frost
************
Jonathan Rooks
Stuart Carter

 

1 April (Part 2) - And about time too

Never forget that it was the Tories who started this non-crime hate incident business and to many people’s amazement it is a Labour Home Secretary who has had quite enough of it. Whether the police will follow her instructions is another story entirely of course. They are never far removed from corruption.

As some readers will remember, I was charged with a hate crime in 2017 by police acting on an outright and very obvious lie signed by a Bexley Conservative Councillor.

What follows is another of the blasts from the past published on 31st December 2017 but overlooked once blogs became the landing page on Bonkers.

Absolutely disgraceful stuff by the police and the Councillor involved.

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The political police will always obey their masters

According to Kent Police reporting any item of news which might make its subject feel uncomfortable is a potentially criminal act and leaves its author “liable to arrest and a night in the cells”. (Quote)

It matters not whether the news reported is entirely factual. It matters not if the news reported is already in the public domain, neither is the inclusion of documentary evidence to support the news a mitigating factor.

Whether or not the news item is augmented by an opinion piece is of no consequence, news that is negative in any way can according to Kent Police be criminal.

The only relevant factor according to Kent Police is whether or not the truth hurts. If it does they have their victim, the writer of the piece.

Many people will be very relieved to be protected by a police force as stupid as Kent Police appears to be.

At the highest level former Cabinet Member Damian Green can initiate complaints against every national news outlet for reporting the claims of a vengeful retired police officer that a computer used by the Deputy Prime Minister contained images of a pornographic nature.

At the other extreme, every litter lout named and shamed by Bexley Council on its website can ask the police to take action against the Council officer who authorised the publication of their personal details. Those who live in the Swanley police district will find a ready ear attached to PC Abbie Brooks (13546). They will find her willing to listen to each and every complaint, whether it has merit or none and leap into action. According to her everyone who is hurt when their name becomes news has a legitimate complaint and the full force of the law must swing into action.

You may think that Kent Police is just a bad joke but while attitudes like theirs prevail no journalist is safe. Only wholly good news can be reported without threat of arrest.

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1 April (Part 1) - Another blast from the past

A message from Reform UK says that they have chosen their candidates to fight for control of Bexley Council. The nominations have gone in. Obviously I know the name of a Belvedere candidate because i proposed him and I think I know who might take on Peter Craske in Blackfen and Lamorbey because I encouraged its acceptance when the first choice may have been elsewhere. There was strong competition for some wards. I’m not sure why people still vote for Peter Craske in Blackfen, his track record for attacking residents is among the worst.

Here is what was published on Bonkers on 23rd September 2011. It is one of the hard to find Editorial pages from the beginning of Bonkers.

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Peter Craske, Cabinet Member for Public Realm and Bexley councillor for Blackfen & Lamorbey draws an allowance of £22,615 a year. Councillor Craske has an obsession with motoring, he gets free parking when he attends council meetings but imposes ever increasing fees and restrictions on residents. From time to time it is necessary to remind readers who is responsible for Bexley having more expensive parking and residents’ parking permits than any neighbouring borough with the single exception of a car park catering for tourists in the historic centre of Greenwich; but even there, a parking permit is cheaper than in Bexley.

• Peter Craske introduced 24 hour a day parking charges, seven days a week.
• Peter Craske has doubled parking charges since taking office.
• Peter Craske dishonestly claimed that Bexley enjoys the cheapest parking in South East London.
• Peter Craske recommended and implemented the price hike for residents’ parking permits. £35 last year, £100 now.
• Peter Craske levied £2·3 million in parking fines and defies the parking adjudicator by continuing with ineffective or illegal restriction signs.
• Peter Craske plans to enforce moving traffic violations with 24/7 CCTV coverage.
• Peter Craske got rid of town centre parking meters and compelled motorists to pay via mobile phones with a fixed extra fee. No alternative.
• Peter Craske authorised £4m for traffic consultants while retaining his internal department with total salaries in the region of £600,000.
• Peter Craske assured us that a new parking services contractor would provide better value for money. The council’s Budget Book shows increased costs of £55,000.

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If you hate the Yellow Money Boxes that more often than not foul up traffic flow - I saw someone who misjudged the one at Cray Bridge in Bexley Village on Monday evening - please remember that the cameras were the idea of Councillor Peter Craske 15 years ago. His report said fines would maximise income but that would be illegal so for public consumption he called it obtaining value for money from the investment in CCTV. Total dishonesty.