27 March (Part 1) - Welling’s bus lane
This
is the scene last Friday afternoon with traffic in a single file queue for the
Upper Wickham Lane traffic lights some 500 metres away. Most motorists won’t
drive over red tarmac on the grounds that bus lane restrictions are far too
variable and there is rarely time to read the signs and glance at a clock to
see if it is safe to use them. Far easier to avoid them altogether which is what
these drivers are doing. Locals, however, will know that this bus lane was
abandoned in 2006. The Conservatives won power in Bexley partly on the back of a
promise they would abolish the bus lane after
Labour councillor Daniel Francis refused to do anything about it
wrecking trade in Welling.
Bexley’s Conservatives seem to be very proud of keeping that electoral promise,
it still gets the occasional mention in their publicity material. Scraping their
barrel for good news becomes an essential after so many failures but until
Welling High Street no longer looks like it is a bus lane it is likely to be
treated as a bus lane and traders will continue to suffer to some degree.