11 August (Part 2) - Confusion is profitable
Someone
has to check Bexley council’s Legal Notices and it might as well be me, they are sometimes
informative but I’m not sure this one (click extract) signed by Mike Frizoni is; not if you don’t live
nearby and need to drive to Lesnes Abbey.
It
concerns some Thames Water works planned for Abbey Road, Belvedere alongside Lesnes Abbey
where it allows free parking on the south side (Photo 1). It’s usually full up
with commuters by 7 a.m. The north side (Photo 2) has a long stretch of double yellow lines.
The Notice warns against parking either 25 metres east or west of No. 4 Bright Close.
Is it supposed to be some sort of puzzle? How can it be sensible to disallow parking in Abbey Road
by referring to distances measured from a different road? The same warning is affixed to a pole in Abbey Road.
Local people might be able to work it out. Bright Close runs parallel to Abbey
Road and the rear gardens extend back to Abbey Road but a six foot brick wall hides
them from view. There is no reason why someone intending to park in Abbey Road
should know anything about Bright Close or even its existence.
It doesn’t help that the only street notice warning about the suspension of parking
is on the north side of the road affixed to a pole midway along a length of double yellow lines.
Lines that indicate ‘No Parking at Any Time’ are effectively modified by a Notice saying there
will be No Parking for two days. Confused? Good, Mike Frizoni will be rubbing his
Fagin-like hands together.
There are no warnings at all alongside the parking bays which are to be suspended where a driver
might have some chance of seeing one. In all probability cones will be put out
early on the day work starts but that is no consolation to someone who parks
there overnight who has no chance of seeing a warning notice adjacent to the
parking bays because there are none. Bexley council has
played this trick in Abbey Road before.
A notice placed on the south side of the road banning parking for 50 metres west of the entrance
to Lesnes Abbey would make perfect sense but Mike Frizoni has provided neither of those things.
Presumably he needs as many parking fines as possible to fund his £108,622 a year.