17 November (Part 2) - Buses Bulgarians Burglars and Bexley Based Body Botherers
The Police’s transport team is supposed to report to Bexley Council’s
Transport Committee but I think I am right in saying that I have never been at a
meeting where they haven’t turned up without an excuse for not being ready for it.
The 12th of November was no exception.
The Police Inspector on Zoom from Lewisham apologised for not being able to
answer the speed enforcement question posed at the previous Transport meeting.
“Do you have an answer” said the Chairman Smith. “I am afraid nothing really, we have
been really busy lately catching criminals believe it or not and it is quite a
lot of work to get someone convicted so I can’t tell you much on speeding, I do
apologise. Are you concerned about specific locations ’cos we can send some
officers down there with a speed gun?”
“We have caught a man who was sexually touching on buses, the 180, the 99 and
422. He lives in Bexley but he was doing the offences in Greenwich and Woolwich.
We caught him because we saw similar descriptions coming in and when there are
offences on a bus it is really really helpful that people tap on, children often
don’t tap on but the tapping on is how we get to the right CCTV quickly. We looked
at the CCTV and saw the same man on several occasions and we simply; we got on a
bus stop where he got on a bus. He is going to Woolwich Crown Court on, I think,
14th December. So that was touching young girls on the bus.”
“Another small success was that we caught someone dipping into people’s
handbags. There is an organised network of Bulgarians, some Romanians but mainly
Bulgarians, across London and across Europe and they will stop someone
withdrawing money, pretending they are on their phone. Women working in twos and
threes often with scarves and draping clothing. They will follow that person and
create a distraction and one will bump into you and take your money. We caught
one recently and searched her home in Hertfordshire and found some really
interesting intelligence, names and addresses and bank details.”
“Bexleyheath Broadway is a bit of a crime hotspot. It tends to be fights and a
bit of robbery using e-bikes and e-scooters. Most victims are women and we are conducting decoy ops.”
“Thefts of motor vehicles, Mercedes are being targetted, it was Land Rovers for
a while. Not exclusively but it is mainly Mercedes vans but generally Bexley is low for crime.”
The police failed to fulfill any of the commitments made at the previous meeting.
No statistics were forthcoming and the Inspector was clearly scratching around for transport related news so the
Chairman came to her rescue by calling for questions.
Councillor Sally Hinkley said something tactful before moving to a question on
Community Road Watch and in particular Abbey Road, Belvedere “where vehicles go
along very very quickly and
there are frequent accidents along there, quite
nasty ones. Has it ceased there as a location for Community Road Watch, it is
not on your list?” The excuse for the omission was the list is maintained by someone
who has been very ill.
As I can see Abbey Road from where I am sitting right now and use it daily, may I say I have never seen
anyone with a speed gun here and whilst most people drive safely, some go at outrageous speeds on the wrong side of
pedestrian refuges if there is anyone in their way.
Presumably Councillor Hinkey had forgotten that she was sitting right opposite
the Highways Manager who engineered in the dangers and despite his
protestations to the contrary, ignored the recommendations of the Transport
Research Laboratory. And guess who authored that report which I have here right now?
Councillor Smith asked for the restoration of fixed speed cameras on North Cray
Road. There used to be cameras at both ends and in both directions but now there
is only one. Preferably they should be average speed cameras, he said.
The Police Inspector said she “was not too clued up on the criteria but the
object is not raising revenue but no collisions.” TfL “who do not want to spend
any money” will be approached again.
Councillor June Slaughter said she was fed up with “cyclists with no lights who
come out of nowhere” and do the police target them? “Not really but it is a good
idea. We do sometimes apprehend them going through red lights. Are there specific locations?”
Councillor Diment said that “pedestrians dressed head to toe in black” are no better.
The police officer was released from the interrogation suite and sent on her way.
Note: While researching an on-line Thesaurus for a B word relating to the bus
pervert I searched for an equivalent of Paedophile and found that the website
really didn’t like that word. Tried another one. Same result. What a load of old
nonsense. It probably generated an alert sent to some busybody outfit!