31 May - Fine when it’s raining
My
recollections of working in the city include getting half drowned on the way to the
railway station and having to sit in a pool of water all day wondering how long it would take
for my trousers to dry out or whether anyone would object if I dumped my
shoes on the heating grill. More sensible people may have taken their car to somewhere near the
station, paid a small parking fee and avoided an old age plagued by rheumatism.
That option used to be cheaply available to commuters from Welling station and a reader
who welcomed yesterday’s report on Welling Corner
suggested I keep the spotlight on the town and Bexley council’s fixation with
making things ever more difficult for their residents. It is now a lot more
expensive to leave a car near Welling station while away at work, in fact, using
Bexley’s facilities it cannot be done at all unless the prospect of a parking ticket every day appeals.
Bexley’s
new time restrictions are expressly designed to inconvenience commuters even though
the parking bays are are not a lot of use to shoppers, especially with the supermarkets providing free parking.
To make sure everyone experiences maximum inconvenience, not only are commuters
effectively banned, shoppers are given every disincentive. The new ticket machine
is sited at the station end and as far from the shops as possible. Whichever way
you look at it it, Bexley council is simply Bonkers.
I’ve seen restrictions to four hours in a few places, outside leisure facilities
for example, but a limit of eight and a half hours is a very odd choice and to
pile on the misery, restrictions have been extended from 9 until 8 a.m. I
cannot think of any valid reason for it, leaving an attack on commuters the most
likely explanation. My informant fears an underhand deal with Southeastern.
Whatever Bexley council’s plan was it appears to have hit taxpayers in the pocket.
Soon after midday yesterday the spaces were close to empty and if the
technological complexity, and presumably cost, of the ticket machine is any
guide, the money spent will take a long time to recoup. It’ll be another of
Mike Frizoni’s ill conceived little follies. Probably he will get
another 10% bonus for it.
Remember who voted for these idiocies, overwhelmingly it was you.
Note: Click any image to enlarge. The greenery is the railway embankment to the east of the station.