28 October (Part 2) - Money for nothing. Sidcup still in dire straits
Before it was tarted up with £3·5 million of Boris’s money, Bexleyheath Broadway was drifting towards shabbiness but now it would be hard to find anyone that doesn’t think it looks a lot better. Not everyone likes a roundabout preceded by T junction signs (Trinity Place), or a roundabout that is impossible to negotiate while remaining in lane (Albion Road) or junctions where traffic flowed perfectly well before the council’s meddling which now jam up far too frequently (Church Road), but to look at, Broadway is clearly much improved. But can the same be said for Sidcup now that more of Boris’s millions have been poured into the short High Street?
I’m
inclined to think that if you have not been there for the past year and drive
through today you wouldn’t notice a scrap of difference. For now the road
surface is nice and smooth and you might notice that close to the Station Road
junction a short section of road is now made up of grey cobble stones, but that is about all that can be said for it.
I can see shoppers flocking to admire those cobbles, can’t you?
Just what was the point? The new footpaths are indistinguishable from the older ones and as these photographs
taken in the dreadfully harsh light of yesterday afternoon illustrate, with the children off school for half
term, the place is still close to deserted.
Traffic was very light despite the High Street being the new diversionary route
because the utility companies (Water and Gas) decided to dig up Station Road
and close it totally as soon as the High Street was reopened. At
last week’s Scrutiny Committee meeting
David Bryce-Smith, Bexley’s Deputy Director of Housing and Community
Safety said that he had reached an agreement with the utility companies not to dig up Sidcup High
Street during the next two years. Cross your fingers there is no gas leak.
For collectors of buses on unsuitable routes, a couple of photos for your collection…
