14 June - Concede a battle to win the war
I
took the train to Sidcup yesterday to take another look at Mrs. Rita
Grootendorst’s house and her latest bundle of documents.
I have said it before
and it needs to be said again that I think she does herself no favours by
letting her front garden become untidy.
I know that she has been badly let down by a builder
and he has left all sorts of clutter lying around but together with the overgrown hedge which hides an
assortment of objects which don’t belong in a front garden, it makes for a distinctly grubby overall appearance.
I’ll not be popular in a certain quarter for saying that but I try to deal
only in facts. Mrs. G’s secluded back garden, currently
the subject of legal
action by Bexley council can be quaint and unorthodox and remain acceptable but front
gardens should not be used as a long term store for ‘useful’ objects more
appropriate to an industrial scrap yard.
Rita will rightly point out that street facing gardens only a couple of minutes walk away are
worse than hers (see pictures) but their owners do not have a long history of criticising
Bexley council and so they are not on Bexley’s hit list. Digging one’s heels in against a vindictive
council is always tempting but leaving mess in the front garden, whether it be
the builder’s fault or not, is just playing into the council’s hands.
The builder has a lot to answer for. No one should be asked to live through the devastation
he has caused. There are holes in the upstairs floor and walls through which one could all too
easily fall to the ground floor. I almost did. And then there are the holes in the roof under
which lie buckets and water damage.
I walked around some nearby streets and found six similar houses undergoing near identical
extensions. Enquiries revealed what sort of prices were being asked for such extensions and
the disparity with what Mrs. G.’s builder has already taken for doing not a lot is truly
shocking. I suppose it is what one might expect of a builder of house extensions who
consistently misspells the word. Ditto one who has only a mobile number on his letterhead.
I suspect it will not be long before I wander a little from my preferred subject and show
you some of the photos of his handiwork as a warning to others about to embark on such a project.