11 May (Part 1) - Down. The pub
I
had planned to highlight some statistics today to maybe illustrate what good
value Will Tuckley is at a mere quarter million a year but I needed to check
some figures and large chunks of Bexley’s website have been down all morning, so
I decided to go down the pub instead.
The dubious planning goings on in Bexley village have provoked a number of
people to comment on other inexplicable issues involving planning.
The Duchess of Edinburgh public house on Upper Wickham Lane has within the
past month been fenced off and the interior gutted and removed. The notices
that may explain what is going on are fixed to the barriers such that they face
a whitewashed brick wall and are completely inaccessible. Why would that be?
A prolonged search of Bexley’s planning applications reveals nothing recent but
locally it is said the plan is to build another Tesco Express, next door to a
CostCutter and half a mile from the new Tesco superstore in Welling town centre.
Could a gun have been jumped? Someone must think so. Bexley’s website
records an appeal lodged on 9th May, Reference 12/00207/ENF.
Update: It is understood that councillor Steven Hall has
been working with local residents to lodge the enforcement notice but that the law
may allow little or no redress against developers. Steven Hall has been noted
before as being both friendly and helpful and reputed to listen to his electorate.
No hope of him becoming part of Teresa O’Neill’s inner circle or a cabinet member then.