7 July (Part 2) - Listening to nobody. Working for themselves
As
this website began life by examining Bexley council’s road design disasters -
the name ‘Bonkers’ came from councillor John Davey’s description of local road
planning while he was vice-chairman of the now defunct Traffic Scrutiny
Sub-Committee - I like to return to its roots by looking at road schemes now and again.
Incompetence comes as light relief from dishonesty and corruption.
If you look closely at the notice in the photo, it is just about readable on the larger version (click it),
you will see that Mike Frizoni has given Thames Water permission to close Fossington Road, Belvedere for up to 18 months.
Not many people live in Fossington Road but it leads to the
much more populous Fendyke Road which backs on to the railway. Fendyke Road includes an old
peoples’ home outside which ambulances may often be seen. Fossington Road provides the only
access to Fendyke Road without crossing the borough boundary and fighting one’s way past
delivery vehicles and parked buses in Wilton Road, the approach to Abbey Wood station. The
yellow diversion sign pictured will take you on a 4½ mile detour into Thamesmead. I doubt any
local would fall for that but strangers will expect it to provide an easy alternative route,
but there isn’t one. The railway sees to that.
Why is it that Bexley council is so lazy and unconcerned with the needs of
residents? It’s far from being the only recent case of total road closure
instead of retaining restricted access. This road has been shut all week and all we have to show for it is a
hole on one side of the road and a workers’ toilet parked on the other side.
There isn’t enough traffic for traffic lights, a simple give priority sign would
be enough. Thames Water will no doubt be grateful for being allowed to spread
themselves all over the road but to residents of Fendyke Road Frizoni is a waste
of space. As you can see, nothing is progressing today.
Probably I should expect nothing else but an anti-resident,
anti-motorist stance
from Frizoni. He is the council’s deputy director who when criticized by the parking
appeals adjudicator decided to waste tax payers’ money on
pursuing an ego inflating argument with him.