3 March (Part 3) - Crossrail and Bexley council. Ripping the heart out of the community
The parking situation around Abbey Wood station can be dire. The combination
of Crossrail’s needs and Bexley council’s greed has delivered a trading
nightmare to Wilton Road, apart perhaps from the Abbey Cafe and Greg’s which
appear to be favoured by the men in orange suits.
MP Teresa Pearce and local councillor Danny Hackett have done what they can, meeting traders and
putting ideas for parking relief to the council.
I heard Danny Hackett extract promises that the problem would be looked at but in typical
Bexley council fashion the top brass has done absolutely nothing beyond drawing their fat salaries.
That was predicted in the relevant blog.
More than 20 parking spaces have been taken from Wilton Road and those within
the surrounding 50 yards. The proportion of spaces which are disabled only is
still ridiculously high.
I
am on first name terms with some of the Wilton Road shop owners and I hear tales of £800 a
week drops in takings. According to several of them, a decision has been taken
to close the Abbey Arms. That’s not come from the public house management but
from its trading neighbours, but the probability is that the story is true.
Bexley council will be unconcerned, it never is. Parking space could have been
made available on the Harrow Inn site. They
plan to sell the plot of land
nearest the station, why not quickly provide a dozen parking spaces on it until
the sale goes through? There is nothing there apart from some trees which are to
come down under the station redevelopment plans, so why not now?
Bexley council will probably never take much notice of what a Labour
councillor or MP suggests, their high command is too fond of political point
scoring. Maybe it’s a a crusade Anna Firth would care to take up. It might be more likely to
succeed than ill-conceived
petitions for English votes or
punctual trains.