22 June (Part 3) - Bexley bridge renewal
Renewal of the weak bridge over the River Cray in Bexley comes up for
planning permission on Thursday evening. It has to be replaced and there
will be nine months of the traffic chaos with which Bexley’s drivers are all
too familiar. The cost to the taxpayer will be in the region of £1·7 million and
the expenditure will please almost no one.
The road will be about 20 inches wider than it is now but those who live on the heavy vehicle diversion
route will get no respite because the 7·5 tonne limit is to be retained, you
wouldn’t want anything much bigger going through the village.
The most obvious advantage is that it is unlikely to fall down in the immediate
future and the absence of any enforcement measures by the police can continue
without the risks associated with their neglect since the restriction was first
imposed in 1992. That neglect and the 20 tonne fully laden buses is what has
brought the present situation about.
I don’t usually go to planning meetings but I shall make an exception for this one.
It will be a bore if the chairman doesn’t bring the bridge proposals forward from its fifth
position on the list but if he does he won't have to put up with me and my
recorder longer than necessary.