9 September (Part 3) - Tesco is coming to Bexleyheath
Tomorrow
is the last day of the council’s Tesco exhibition, or should I say of Tesco’s
exhibition? They had three big displays to the council’s one, and three staff to
the council’s one too. When I arrived soon after 1 pm today there was a wonderful
silver haired old lady there, complete with waggling walking stick, leading off
alarmingly about Bexley council being corrupt, councillors being on the make and
it had always been the same. She had made one mistake, the people she was
berating were Tesco staff, very nice people they were too. When I managed to get
a word in I confirmed that Bexley council’s dirty tricks department
was every bit as skilled as Tesco’s was reputed to be.
The artist’s impressions of the new 80,000 feet store suggested it would be a
very nice addition to Bexleyheath when it opens in late 2014. There will be an
underground car park which Tesco intends to provide free for the first two
hours. It was admitted that they expect Bexley council to contest the plan and
the council’s shop destroying draconian attitude to parking charges had not gone
unnoticed. (Townley
Road was very nearly empty again when I arrived; just two cars.)
The elderly lady was still having her say about Bexley’s awful council so to
give her something else to complain about I mentioned the extent of their
monthly expenditure on
sandwiches. Naturally the Tesco people said they would do better to buy sandwiches
from them. My neighbour, a civil engineer by profession, who accompanied me on
the trip wandered over to speak to the Bexley council official to ask about the
redevelopment of the old Woolwich site. There he learned that the council does
not believe the electorate would tolerate comforts for their staff, so they have no
space allocated to eating or relaxation, not even a patch of grass outside on
which to sit and eat their own sandwiches if we should ever see another sunny day.
Even in this day and age that seems a bit mean and if you compare the council’s
attitude to staff wellbeing with their own extravagant partying their innate
greed and contempt for everyone else becomes all the more apparent.
When that news was repeated in front of the Tesco people they remarked that in
all their meetings in Bexley’s Civic Office, they were never offered so much as
a cup of coffee, let alone a sandwich.
If you can’t get along to the central library tomorrow, take a look at
www.tescobexleyheath.co.uk.