An anonymous
submission from a Welling resident who goes by the unlikely name of Fluke provides me with Louie French’s
proud boasts for the achievements of 2024. Please note he does not claim any to
be his own and is content to fall back on the Royal We.
The accompanying comment suggests I am supposed to analyse the list and comment
critically but I am not so very sure Louie has strayed far from the truth; not
by political standards anyway.
I know nothing of a Diagnostics Centre in Sidcup as my references are always to
QEH Woolwich. From what I have seen there recently I would imagine £9·6 million
doesn’t go very far in the NHS.
Louie headed up the political group seeking the restoration of the Loop Line
trains which his own Government caused to be cancelled. From what I have heard
Southeastern people say at the Transport Users’ Sub-Committee
meetings local politicians did help to turn their minds towards restoring
the services and now that a few extra are timetabled (from last Monday) they do
seem quite keen to bring back more when passenger numbers justify it; and they
have been improving recently.
Contrary to what you may have read on another local website, Louie is right to
have said that off-peak services should return soon.
Southeastern managers got as close as they dared to promising it at the last
Transport Users’ meeting.
At Council meetings
Teresa Oְ’Neill has claimed to have led the campaign for one
of the first banking hubs. She made no mention of Louie but maybe that is not significant.
Step free access to Bexley station was delivered using Conservative Government
funds but if Network Rail is to be believed Bexley was favoured simply because it
reached the top of their own priority list. If the decision was anything much
to do with local politics then surely Erith station would have become step free
many years ago. The disabled cannot even get a direct train to London from
Erith. Maybe they are supposed to think that rush hour Loop Line trains are a good enough substitute.
The new pedestrian crossing is a strange one. As recently as November 2022
Bexley Council stated publicly that there was no justification for installing
one outside Bexley Church of England Primary School. “A review of the safety
record did not indicate a need to act as a priority over other work”.
According to @atonyofsidcup’s enquiries to head teachers the school wasn’t asked
for an opinion. Maybe a new political broom put his shoulder to the wheel.
The tennis courts were funded by the Lawn Tennis Association. Bexley Council is
quite good at getting other people to pay for their schemes and claiming the
credit for themselves. I am looking at one right now. It is called Lesnes Abbey Park and most of the money came from the Lottery.
For balance I must now compare Louie with my own MP’s achievements.
Err…
Well that was easy. I am genuinely not aware of any.
Note: For the benefit of
out-of-town readers, I should explain what the Loop
Line is. There are three railway lines from London to Dartford and they all go
through the borough of Bexley. North, Middle and South. It is possible to
run London to London trains in a ‘Loop’ which is very useful in a borough with an
unfriendly North/South road pattern. The trains used to run every 30 minutes throughout the
day. I think we now have four at peak hours. Better than none.