30 March (Part 1) - Dishonest, Incompetent, Vindictive
’Though I say so myself, Bonkers has become an amazing repository of Council
history which would otherwise be forgotten. Indeed if it was not for what
sometimes shows up during site maintenance sessions, I would probably have forgotten
myself. Only this morning (Sunday), a researcher called me to ask about the desecration
of Old Farm Park and I was able to find a photo of Councillor June Slaughter with her arms
folded at a Scrutiny meeting in December 2015, alone in a sea of raised Tory
hands eager to sell it.
Almost nothing is ever deleted from Bonkers and it has grown to very nearly
seven gigabytes and just short of 100,000 files. The result is that things can be
impossible to find. The only pages to have been withdrawn relate to the wicked
litigious witch who has been thrown out of more political parties than of which
I have ever been a member.
No one will remember, but before Bonkers adopted the style of a daily blog, it
was more like a newspaper in format, with a front page, comment pages and an
occasional blog buried deep in its structure. It needed a Site Map to get around.
Without that Site Map, some pages are effectively lost for ever. Whilst many
will never display properly on anything less than an HD screen, I have been
checking them over and making sure most of their links still work. They prove beyond any
reasonable doubt that Bexley Council has behaved appallingly at times, not just
lying but fully living up to the original tagline of ‘Dishonest, Incompetent, Vindictive’.
Would you believe that in 2008 an eccentric old man living in Crayford and bullied by the local yobs was
refused help by Bexley Council 81 times but they did stir themselves to
accuse him of Benefit Fraud. A barrister warned Bexley Council that they were
going to become a laughing stock and after considering their verdict for 20
minutes a jury agreed. Despite that Bexley Council tried to put a charge on his
house in a vain attempt to take the money a Court said he didn’t owe.
Totally shameless. The old man was definitely an odd ball and it was alleged that he drove a car towards Councillor Melvin Seymour who
appeared as a witness in Court. “He angled his car towards me as I crossed the road in the
Crayford Way shopping parade and he missed me and a parked car by a matter of
inches”. Councillor Seymour went on to make more allegations about another
Crayford resident only a year later.
Maybe as the election approaches, and with no meetings to report, more history
should be resurrected.
How about this from a
long forgotten Bonkers page published on 1st June 2011?
Bexley is a London borough bordering the county of Kent. It shows every
sign of being a thoroughly incompetent council, an often dishonest council
and a sometimes corrupt council.
Among its claims to fame is…
• Being severely criticised by a High Court Judge for attempting to trick a
resident out of £1·25 million.
• Persecuting an unstable resident to the extent he burned his own house down.
• A former Leader of the Council who used his publicly provided credit card
dishonestly and was convicted of fraud.
• A former chief executive who left on health grounds with a pay off
reported to be £300k. and a £50k. pension but immediately found a similar
job in another London Borough.
• Having a mayor so unstable that she twice wrote to residents complaining
of their “parsimonious appreciation” while attending council meetings.
• Calling in more police to protect councillors than there are members of
the public at a council meeting most of whom are pensioners.
• When recommended by a government minister to make council meetings more
open and transparent, convened a meeting to ensure their Constitution made that impossible.
• Attempting to place obstacles in the way of Freedom of Information requests.
• Restricting questions to the council by refusing, losing, reducing time
for answers, planting fakes and publishing personal details on the web of
anyone who asks questions.
• Attempting to stifle adverse comment by referring local bloggers to the police for harassing them.
• Allowing private information about residents known only to the council to be posted to the web in a lewd and obscene manner.
• Producing apparently false figures to justify service price increases but won’t provide a detailed breakdown.
• Telling the press that it has the cheapest car parking in SE London when
everywhere in Bromley is cheaper. Greenwich too with the exception of the central ‘tourist’ park.
• Taking itself off to posh hotels in far away places when there is a
perfectly good hotel right next door to its offices.
• Selecting residents who have crossed them for individual vindictive attention costing them hundreds of pounds.