A reader suggested that Bexley village is no better than
Bexleyheath and
Welling
for closed shops so I wandered down to take a look.
Apart from the taxi office (†) which
went somewhere else a couple of weeks ago I found
only seven premises that appeared to be permanently closed. Seems to me that is not
very many but it is six more than a tour around the village via the year old
photos on Google Street View would suggest.
On the other hand there are only about 60 business premises facing the High
Street and Bourne Road and that includes, banks, take-aways,
restaurants, several estate agents and a handful of charity shops, so perhaps
percentagewise Bexley is on a par with Bexleyheath after all.
Maybe
UKIP’s
free parking ideas
would help to keep the village alive.
It’s not all downhill though, the business centre in Bourne Road is occupied thanks
to an initiative by Bexley council, well someone who works there anyway.
Do you remember the name of Bexley’s traffic engineer who master minded
the
almost unnegotiable roundabout and the man who
plonked a keep left sign
outside someone’s drive so that they couldn’t drive all the way home? Well it seems he has a second string to his bow
and has established himself in Bourne Road. If it keeps him busy, maybe we can look forward to fewer
poor road designs. Click the right hand image for more details.
† There is a full page advertisement for Bexley Cabs in this week’s News Shopper. No address is given.