24 October - Public Cabinet report
This week’s Public Cabinet meeting chaired by Council Leader David Leaf was
commendably short but included nothing of great interest. The Financial report
for the period April to June 2026 revealed nothing new, basically things are “stable” and little is changing.
The Corporate Plan was introduced by the Chairman with his new favourite and
already over-used slogan, “Bexley is a great place to
live, work and raise a family”.
The plan will build on what has gone before.
It concentrates on Prevention, People, Place and Prosperity
and aims “to put residents at the heart of everything we do”. One can almost
guarantee that like previous manifesto promises, none of us will notice the difference.
Cabinet Member Chris Taylor was “really excited” by the “ambitious” plan.
Councillor Sandhu said “it is a superb document” and he mentioned Green Flags
and the improvements in food waste collections and how it is much better than
in neighbouring boroughs.
Cabinet Member Bishop mentioned the new libraries several times and claimed
credit for the
Story Teller cinema in Sidcup. Cabinet Member Cameron Smith could not
resist reiterating his £30 million investment in roads over the next four years.
He has also been trying to rebut Sadiq Khan’s plan to build on Bexley’s green belt.
Labour Leader Stefano Borella said the plan was remarkably similar to the
Conservative’s manifesto - which is presumably a good thing - but he would have
done things differently. He reminded the Cabinet that it was his party that
introduced food waste collection and the number of Green Flags for parks
has fallen. Bexley was number one borough in London for recycling under Labour
and now no one is talking about it. The Council Leader had spoken of
reduced funding for Bexley and Stefano said that was “nonsense”. Councillor Leaf
said the cuts were a matter of fact.
Councillor Borella said that the Cabinet Member had forgotten to mention that 36% of the £30
million road funding is coming from central government. The achievements so far
have been “underwhelming”. Presumably he too thinks that few will have noticed them.
He summarised with the comment; “Is that it?”
Councillor Jeremy Fosten (Labour, Belvedere) asked what was being done to bring
the DLR to Belvedere. (Greenwich and Bexley Councils are working on it jointly with the backing of several more.)
There were two further uses by Conservative Cabinet Members of the great place to raise a family slogan before
discussion moved on to budget monitoring.
There has been a 0·6 million overspend in the past quarter. Most capital expenditure projects have slipped ‘saving’ £10·6 million.
Councillor Sean Brackstone (Reform, Northumberland Heath) asked if there was anything that could be
done to stop the relentless maximum possible Council Tax increases. The Council
Leader said there wasn’t anything and Council Tax would go up by 4·99% again. He blamed the Labour Government for its grant cuts.