4 April - Battle for Old Manor Way playground taken to council chamber
Councillor Brenda Langstead was intrigued by the fact that the petition against
Bexley council’s proposal to close the Old Manor Way playground was on the
council’s website when, for example, the Belvedere Splash Park is denied that
facility even though its closure would have much wider implications and it has
four times the Facebook support. No one seems to know the answer.
Another question the councillor might have asked is why the campaign was allowed
an audience with the cabinet member in the council chamber when others have had
to make do with scout huts and public houses. Somebody is running an
extraordinarily effective campaign or perhaps councillors are worried for their
seats. If as few as 150 people had placed their cross elsewhere last May
Barnehurst would have been represented by three UKIP councillors. In fact, those
at the count, looking at piles of votes thought the Tories had lost, but something
unexplained happened at the last minute.
I briefly considered going to the campaign’s council meeting on Thursday evening but it felt
a little too close to being an intrusion and in any case when I offered to carry campaign
messages or reports on BiB there was no reply. They are fully able to
report progress on their
own Facebook page.
In the event a report not unlike one I might have written has been
penned by Steve Keene. Everyone interested in how Bexley council operates
should read it. The playground is going to close, no amount of protesting will save it.
The council has already made it very clear that unless all the cabinet’s
proposals and cuts go ahead in full, it will go broke. Bye bye Old Manor Way playground.
