17 February - Belvedere to be given a horselaugh?
Today’s
News Shopper provides a rich store of council related stories. The
front page tells us that aluminium panels are being stolen from lamp posts in
huge quantities and that the electrical components are left exposed and
dangerous. This is I suppose an extension of last year’s
gully thefts and I have seen one
or two lamp posts with exposed wiring. In future I had better let the council
know. Councillor Craske is quoted by the newspaper and for once it is hard to
disagree with him. It’s a pity that the comedian doesn’t follow his own advice
because the work he inflicted on Abbey Road has left the public exposed to bare
electricity cables for six months or more. (Photograph taken 19th February - and
still the same three months later.)
Among the paper’s reports of Bexley council’s failure to fund community centres, failure
to clear snow and failure to deal with dog mess there is a report that a nationally renowned
sculptor has been commissioned to erect a public work of art in lower Belvedere, on a
roundabout near the industrial estates away from the residential areas. It will presumably
complement Erith’s fish and whilst Belvedere is certainly in need of some sort of
revamp after years of council neglect and worse, one must wonder in a time of austerity
whether the money could be better spent. At least the money won’t come directly from
your council tax but I bet the London Development Agency which is responsible for it filches
the money from us one way or another.