9 December - Venture out at your own risk
Probably
this scene is repeated right across the borough. It is my road early
this morning nine days after the last snowfall. I do not suffer any disability,
of advancing years or anything else, but I dread to think how many less
fortunate Bexley residents have been confined to their home by the borough’s
neglect of roads and pavements. Someone told me that it was featured on the local
television news, the worst the TV company could find.
According to the council’s Contact Centre only 300 of Bexley’s roads are
scheduled for gritting, the rest are deliberately left in a dangerous state. The
knock-on effect is that we lost
the refuse and postal services for a week. And best not to think too much about
the complete absence of A&E facilities in the borough! Very nearly the highest
tax-raising council in London. Just where does all the money go?
When the Contact Centre man was asked why grit could not be left in bins for
residents to use he said it wasn’t Bexley council’s policy. Later on Radio 4
news I heard the relevant minister say that councils should provide grit for
residents to use. It seems that it isn’t only on the subject of pay and expenses
that Bexley has decided that it knows best.