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News and Comment October 2010

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30 October - More neglect by your caring council

Obscured speed indicator Unfinished cycle path Blocked footpathIt is not as bad as it has been since the Spring but this is how the Vehicle Activated Speed Sign on the B213 looked yesterday. Autumn has ensured it is no longer completely obscured by foliage but is is still impossible to read from an approaching car. For speeds under 40 m.p.h. it doesn’t even work, it simply displays three horizontal bars. It is supposed to be a road safety measure but the Traffic and Road Safety Group at Bexley council has ignored reports that it may as well be broken for all the use it is. Actually another one a quarter of a mile to the West is also broken, it hasn’t worked at all for at least a month. For the record, the white van triggered a 42 m.p.h. reading.

The major inconveniences placed on Bexley’s road users are nearly always said to be due to road safety considerations, even when expert opinion is that Bexley’s road planning is either malicious or incompetent. My suspicion is that big schemes go ahead solely to ensure continuing employment for bureaucrats. If they were seriously interested in road safety they would deal with the trivial end of the spectrum too, like this pavement sign left unfinished for more than a year or the hole in the pedestrian refuge reported yesterday. How is it that Abbey Road was signed off as completed in 2009 when so many sections of it were not properly finished? (See yesterday’s photos). It only confirms my view that project management in Bexley is virtually non-existent. My contracting informant tells me that Bexley’s idea of an inspection is to turn up in a car, sit in it and eat a sandwich and go away again. At least we won’t notice the difference when Teresa O’Neill cuts their jobs. Let’s hope she doesn’t make cuts the same way as the Prime Minister ‘freezes’ our E.U. contribution; by letting it rise by more than £400m.

 

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