20 October - Erith on the up. Abbey Wood going down
It doesn‘t look as though anything interesting will come along to fill today’s space so I nipped out
to see if the new Crossrail footbridge had opened.
It had, see below.
An email expressed surprise that I had not covered the proposals for Erith Quarry. A pedant might claim that
I did six months ago
but it was passed to Hugh Neal (Arthur Pewty’s Maggot Sandwich) who
picked up the story on the
following Sunday.
Hugh and I have never discussed any formal cooperative links,
we both value our freedom too much but I regard BiB as covering the more
questionable aspects of Bexley council, with a bit of local news thrown in to
fill the gaps and at the risk of putting words into Hugh’s mouth, he covers
local news and history with the occasional pitchfork (sorry, ancient joke for
long term readers) pointed in Bexley council’s direction.
The emailer said that residents living near to the quarry are not at all happy about the extra
traffic likely to be generated by another 600 houses, which is inevitable, the traffic and the unhappiness.
I know a couple of people living nearby so I shall ask their opinions, but until the development comes
before the Planning Committee I feel the subject is more for Hugh than me; and it’s
on his doorstep like Crossrail is on mine.
As
you can see from the pictures, the new Church Manorway footbridge has
opened and whilst it is totally encased in a heavy gauge wire mesh both sides
include a viewing panel. Temporary or otherwise I do not know because there
is no obvious reason for it, but it looks like a permanent feature.
As you can see there is not yet any disabled access. Something that one might
guess has tripled the overall costs.
Whilst returning from today’s photographic excursion via Abbey Wood station,
one of the orange clad staff said we would be seeing a lot of developments
within the next few weeks. Once the temporary station opens, possibly before the
end of the month, the existing platform footbridge will be removed and the 1987
station will be demolished. He said that might take as long as three hours.
Well, it is just an empty brick shell so that’s not too surprising.
Better grab some photos while you can.
Index to past Crossrail blogs.