13 August (Part 2) - Lesnes Abbey lies in ruins
The lack of progress on
building the new Lesnes Abbey visitor centre provoked
a small scale response from Bonkers’ readers. As the brochure (see extract below)
says, construction should have commenced months ago and the opening date might
have passed by now. Instead the only thing to see is a hole in the ground.
There is a similar theme running through the feedback but without evidence it must
necessarily be regarded as hearsay.
One
correspondent felt sure that the delay was occasioned by the discovery of
historical artefacts on the site which would confirm in general terms
the rumour which circulated locally
a couple of months ago.
However another correspondent who has attended all the Lesnes Abbey related meetings both at the abbey and the Civic Offices is adamant that Bexley council
has refused to answer all pertinent questions and given no clue to the seven month standstill.
Instead it promised to make an announcement one day. But that has been
the case for a long time now.
If historical artefacts had been found one might ask why no one has been
seen on site digging with a teaspoon of something, but except perhaps for one
day in June no one looking like an archeologist has ever been seen there - and I pass
by pretty much every day.
Since Bexley council cannot be relied upon to tell the truth maybe one of their groundsmen
would be a better source of information. What did the man at the coal face have to say?
Yes there was an artifact, a bit more wall showed up but far more serious is
that someone forgot to order the building’s steel frame and it is taking a long
time to manufacture. Meanwhile everything is at a standstill and the (ex)
project manager no longer works for Bexley council.
I do not know for certain if that is any more truthful than what my correspondents
have been told by Bexley council but it sounds far more plausible to me.
If it wasn’t so incompetently tragic one might laugh.