There
is very little going on. The old weekend standby of
Crossrail has produced nothing. On both sides of the Eynsham Drive bridge a
few men are fiddling around with the North Kent line track and to its east some
more may be preparing a sound deadening fence. For that there are no trains
again. The scheduled work was piling at
the tunnel portal and the installation of ‘modules’ at Abbey Wood station, all
of which has already been completed.
I have several times tried to get a good telephoto picture of the tunnel portal but the
Church Manorway footbridge with its dirty windows and constant vibration which a
tripod only amplifies has defeated every effort so far. Today the bad light
made things worse and the photo shown is shockingly blurred. Maybe summer
will eventually come.
The Murky Depths has some well justified criticism of the Church Manorway
footbridge and not just because it is no good for photography. It is an eyesore
and when the disabled access is opened it is going to provide a magnificent
playground for the skateboaders and illegal motorbikers
For Bexley news you would be better off today taking a look at
the Maggot Sandwich’s report on the the houses and six storey flats that are
proposed by London & Quadrant for the old swimming pool site opposite Erith’s
Riverside Gardens. Hugh Neal, the Maggot Man, is concerned that 71 dwellings will have only 46 parking
spaces and that a dark underground garage area will be a crime magnet. Has nothing been learned since
Tavy Bridge and The Clockwork Orange?
It’s always interesting to me to hear what
one’s peers think of this website. In connection with
last week’s blog about the Bin Tax, Hugh says
that “Malcolm’s Bexley is Bonkers has taken up this issue, as it sits closely with
his mission to expose the ways in which the council fail to deliver on their
promises”. I suppose that he is right and exposing whatever Bexley council would
prefer to be hidden is largely what BiB is all about, a Mission if you like.
However it’s a different M word that keeps it alive most days. Motive. And that is to
teach the blighters over time that the days when a council can abuse the public
without fear of retribution are long gone.
It is possible there has been some progress. It is four years since council
leader Teresa O’Neill regarded writing this blog as worthy of arrest and the
police jumped at her command.
Police statement. Council leader Teresa O'Neill reported me to the police for “criticising councillors”. The warning threatened arrest if Bexley is Bonkers continued.
It is three years since
councillor Peter Craske was arrested for Misconduct in Public
Office and it is two years since councillor Cheryl Bacon and her cronies lied on
a massive scale and encouraged a dishonest Press Release to tarnish the
reputations of several residents. Cheryl Bacon, Will Tuckley the Chief
Executive, and Lynn Tyler the Legal Team Manager remain under continuing police investigation for their pains.
I doubt the three of them will be so obviously dishonest in future.
Since then there has been nothing on a similar scale although if, no, make that when,
the carry on in
the parking department goes public you may think BiB’s constant drip, drip, drip
of revelations is having no effect after all. But what else can one do? Nothing is not an option.
It’s perhaps a bit premature as a story but I Googled ‘Boundary Commission
single member wards’ and found they are more common than I would have imagined.
Some councils have even asked for them.
Not Bexley of course where the Tories threw out the Labour Group’s suggestion
that 42 councillors would be a suitable number. One might assume they would have
liked rather more, you can be absolutely sure they were not prepared to
see a cut twice as large as Labour proposed. Now it seems they are having to
fight a rearguard action to save their allowances from a determined Boundaries
Commission which appears to believe that 21 councillors is plenty.
Will they side with Labour and strive for a reduction of 21 councillors to 42?
Will the Labour Group make mischief by looking sympathetically at the BC’s
proposal? The grapevine says neither. The Tories can’t be seen as going along with
Labour’s 42 so the preferred number will have to be
higher. A consensus appears to be forming around the next best thing; 45. We
shall see, but not quickly or clearly while Bexley’s renowned official secrecy
is maintained. Thank goodness for gossips from all parties.