26 November (Part 2) - Halt! Who goes there? Nobody
Yesterday a message said…
You may not be aware of yet another traffic light permit issued by
the council! It’s for National Power for a set of lights at the junction of Long Lane
and Brampton Road.
I’ve just endured an extra 20 minutes on the bus trip from Bexleyheath to ‘North Borough’ due to these lights and then
the bus stop at Abbey Wood station was blocked with contractors vans etc. To top it all the cones
were breeding by the Sainsbury’s site. A lane was closed.
I went to take a look but the B11 wasn’t stopping anywhere near the site of the
chaos. All stops closed and as it was raining I didn’t go back for a closer look.
Today I did and sure enough the area was still badly congested due to a pipe
lying in a rather neat hole. Why does a job like that have to be stretched out to last a week?
The southbound queue stretched half way to Woolwich Road but northbound things weren’t so bad. And the bus stop no longer had a closed sign on it.
The
complaint about contractors blocking the bus stop, whilst true, may be a little unkind. Yesterday
I saw three of their vehicles (two vans and a digger) parked in the Abbey Wood station bus layby but
they were doing an essential job which should be finished soon. I was on a bus
at the time and my camera was packed away, however earlier in the day I had almost ‘caught’
two. (See Photo.)
There will be times when there will be no easy way of getting essential work done. It will be interesting to see how Crossrail proposes to
deliver all the materials for the new station. By crane from below I hope and
not low loaders at the bus stop.
Then another message arrived…
Bexley council must have had a meeting on how to ensure increased footfall in
Bexleyheath in the run up to Christmas.
Answer? Road works in Townley Road. 45 minutes to get through this morning
coming from Sidcup. The Broadway shops won't see me again.
Broadway’s loss. Bluewater’s gain.
As if that wasn’t enough someone from Sidcup who has put up with nearly a year
of road works is not too happy about yet more.
The cones that held up the first correspondent in Harrow Manorway are indeed
breeding. Pedestrians are diverted into the road with a consequent width
reduction to allow utility services to be moved prior to the installation of a
roundabout and another pedestrian crossing to serve the new Sainsbury’s store
and hotel (Cross Quarter).
I am beginning to feel trapped. I can no longer get to Blackwall Tunnel
easily because of Greenwich’s success in making McLeod Road and Plumstead High
Street a no go area for motorists - two shops and the petrol station no longer
get money from me - and now the bypass (A2016) is becoming ever more difficult to
access. Between them, Bexley and Greenwich councils are intent on causing
traffic problems even before any bridge is built.
Bexley’s road planning probably owes much to incompetence but a friend once
found herself at a Christmas party and making conversation with a man who
approached her said “what do you
do?”. The man said he was in charge of Public Realm at Greenwich council and his
job was to “piss off as many motorists as possible”. It was a few years ago now
but true nevertheless.
Returning from the Harrow Manorway photo sortie on foot I realised for the first time that
pedestrians from the north have to cross the dual carriageway three times in order to
get to Wilton Road. The second photo in the group immediately above shows yet more traffic lights
in Felixstowe Road.