7 July (Part 4) - Danson Park - fine
Despite the delays the best way to
get to the Danson Park Festival is
always likely to be the bus, but it’s easy for me to say that with a Freedom Pass
in my pocket and a pair of legs which still do their job moderately well. What
if you have your disabled live-in mother-in-law
to cart about?
Those so affected might check the council’s website for any special Danson parking arrangements
and you would draw a blank, but there is a link to the Festival website and there
under the Visitors tag is exactly what you are looking for…
Good ol’ Bexley for a change. Firm but fair. Don’t park across private drives
and we‘ve made it easy for you to recognise prohibited zones by putting out
cones. Look out for those and have a nice day.
However our man with a disabled mother-law
makes an advanced reconnaissance to the park on Saturday to see
what the score actually is and is pleased to see that Blue Badge holders
are being given access to the Stables car park for free. This morning he makes
the return trip with mother-in-law on board, and hits a snag.
Someone
has changed their minds and the yellow shirted boys and girls won’t allow disabled parking any
more. So back towards town he goes to find a cone free space as per the website notice. As he
does so he spies many parking attendants lurking against hedges eager to earn their bonus.
A cone free space wasn’t as difficult to find as one might imagine. Not far
along Bean Road was a suitable gap, no cones, no drives, no yellow lines, no nothing!
A couple of hours later, his car has a ticket on it. Further along Bean Road
he discovers a tatty notice stuck to a lamp post saying “Temporary Restrictions Apply.
Nothing to say what the restrictions are and nothing at all for those approaching
from Danson Road who take the first available cone free space. Why should Bexley
council expect people to go hunting for signs in places they have no reason to go,
when the official advice is simply to look out for cones? Because Bexley council is
run by a bunch of crooks perhaps?
I hope the family took photos, they certainly didn’t send me any so I had to despatch
one of my regular contributors to check there were no cones and everything was
as described. Another family that is unlikely to come back to Bexley in a hurry.
Note: This blog is an amalgam of two separate incident reports.