5 November (Part 3) - It’s Abbey Wood Village if you don’t mind
Sally
Williams is the consultant appointed by Greenwich and Bexley councils to see
how Wilton Road might be transformed into a nicer place to shop. She addressed another
traders’ meeting last night which was well attended. Sally showed her
confidence in local businesses by hosting the event in the Abbey Arms which has
been noticeably improved externally over the past month or two. Internally, I wouldn’t know, I’d never
before been inside.
It wasn’t clear to me who had called the meeting. Everyone I spoke to was saying
Bexley council, but
Greenwich has done so previously. If it was Bexley it was especially badly
done. I heard two different days at two different times before things settled on
4th November at the very same time as Bexley was running an awards ceremony
followed by a Full Council meeting.
Only Danny Hackett (Labour, Lesnes Abbey) managed to squeeze in a brief
appearance. No one thought to invite the MP, Teresa Pearce.
It
was primarily a progress report including a summary of the public consultation.
222 people had filled in the long form
at the street tent which considering how
many responses Bexley council usually gets across the whole borough,
333 last time, is a very good score indeed.
The theme generally was that people would like to see all sorts of improvements
but while the area suffers more than its fair share of anti-social behaviour
people will tend to stay away.
For example, 100% of respondents thought it would be nice to have street benches
but barely half wanted them to be installed, fearing they would attract more and
even longer term problems. Experience outside the new Sainsbury’s suggests they may have a point. (Photo 2.)
On a brighter note, shoppers praised the good service and reasonable prices on offer.
Formal submission to traders of the proposed redesign is still up to a month
away but some sketches were available for viewing. It is already clear that the
consensus is moving towards the new name being ‘Abbey Wood Village’.
A brief discussion of crime levels revealed that traders do not always report
the petty crime that goes on and one lady said that police foot patrols are
entirely absent. She may be right. In all the years I have made near daily trips
to Wilton Road I don’t remember seeing a copper there either.
A council officer from Greenwich pleaded with the traders to report crime to her
even if they were reluctant to involve the police. One man who I did not
recognise said he would not be “a snitch” on his customers and stormed out of
the meeting at the very thought that his fellow shopkeepers might become “grasses”.
I suspect that Wilton Road is not the easiest problem for Sally Williams to
solve what with the Crossrail disruption, the very difficult parking situation
and the division between two boroughs neither of which has shown the area much
love. The last thing she needs is bolshie shopkeepers.
Note: I was able to stay only for the first hour because of
the aforementioned Bexley council meeting.