12 February (Part 1) - Places. Mainly good but some cracks appearing
The Places Scrutiny Committee was chaired last night by Councillor Melvin
Seymour in his usual easy going but effective style and his meeting provided
more snippets of interesting information than
James Hunt’s two days earlier.
Councillor Seymour is the only Committee Chairman who continues to go through
the ritual of asking who intends to “film” the meeting and who objects to being
photographed. I think I was the only member of the public present at the time
and was tempted to raise my hand to both questions. I don’t think the law gives
a choice to Committee members. I took only four pictures and I am not expecting
to use all of them.
The
meeting began with a brief update by Thames Water on their progress towards
flooding Bexley with Smart Meters. They started in my road in November, two men
gave me the low down on my doorstep just before Christmas and said I would get a
phone call about a question I raised immediately after the New Year holiday. A
letter said that there would be some tests to ensure my house had been connected
to the right meter in mid-January. As yet none of that has happened.
Thames Water claimed to have fitted 1,300 meters in Bexley by the end of
January. Householders who opted for meters before the current exercise commenced
will not get Smart Meters, at least not for the next five years because no money
is available for them.
Libraries was next on the Agenda and the partial privatisation of the service
appears to have gone very well. None are closing and the Council run branches
will be open for longer hours. There will be no half day closing from next April onwards.
I am tempted to say “going forward” because councillors and officers appear to be
under instruction to inject that annoying phrase as often as possible.
Councillor Stefano Borella said that Slade Green library, privatised a couple of
years ago, was not running as smoothly as it should.
In response to a question from Councillor Ferreira (Labour, Erith), Deputy
Director Bryce-Smith admitted that the charge for
disposing of large items of domestic waste, £33, was completely out of line with
neighbouring boroughs. Inevitably it was a contributory factor to the high level
of fly tipping in the borough. Mr. Bryce-Smith is not known for his ability
to lie, one wonders how he managed to rise to be near the top of Bexley Council’s
tree, so he also admitted that last year’s “huge hike” in parking charges had caused
usage to drop.
The scheme to charge for parking at Hall Place had been put on hold but the
similar scheme for Danson Park was progressing but with difficulty. The needs of
the restaurant have to be accommodated.
Deputy Leader Alex Sawyer continues to let the side down by appearing to be a
rational and decent individual who has somehow wormed his way to the top of
Bexley Council. Whilst not willing to complain quite so loudly about
TfL failing
to come up with the promised money for cycling in the borough as he did a couple
of weeks ago he did accept that “motorists are increasingly being penalised in
this country full stop”.
Councillor Borella (Labour, North End) asked Councillor Sawyer about the proposal to charge
the disabled for use of their designated parking bays proposed by his
predecessor. He made it admirably clear that he thought it was a thoroughly bad
idea and not something he would support. “It doesn’t feel right and my view is
not going to change.” Wow! Integrity and consideration given to the
disadvantaged in Bexley’s council chamber. Pass the smelling salts.
Bexley Council has failed in its bid to get TfL to fund Public Realm improvements in Blackfen,
Councillor Lynn Smith (UKIP, Blackfen and Lamorbey) expressed her disappointment.
The Council has also failed as yet to make any submission to the Thames Crossings
consultation but expects to do so today, the last possible.
The £20 million for the Erith regeneration is expected to be a done deal within the next week.
The second stage of Phase II of the Broadway regeneration is the remodelling of
Albion Road through to Gravel Hill. The four lane dual carriageway will be downgraded to a
single track in each direction with a segregated cycle path. Mr. Bryce Smith said that together
with removing the traffic lights in Gravel Hill at both Albion Road and Watling
Street and replacement roundabouts, traffic speeds should increase.
Like they did in Penhill Road I suppose.
Councillor Howard Marriner (Conservative, Barnehurst) was not impressed by the downgrading of the road
width and expected objections at the consultation stage. Mr. Bryce-Smith said
that the present Albion Road is “over designed”.
Segregated cycle tracks were a condition of TfL funding.
Councillor Stefano Borella was correctly concerned about the use of blocks in
roads. The “deterioration was a disgrace”. Mr. Bryce-Smith said that they had been used only in side roads in the
first stage of Phase II and implied they would not be used where subject to heavy traffic in Albion Road.
Several minutes after Councillor Borella had made his comment,
Councillor Cheryl Bacon (Conservative, Cray Meadows) interjected with the only sour note of the meeting,
her ill grace being allowed to fester for that time. She
said she was “so fed up with Councillor Borello going on about this”. She
objected to him voicing the concerns relayed to him by residents. She always calls him Borello,
she must think it shows contempt but any contempt must be reserved for Councillor Bacon.
Councillor John Davey came up with a few ideas. He thought that pot hole repairs
could be improved - Mr. Bryce-Smith was not sure they were practical
- and he said that Sevenoaks Council was making money from running a petrol station, doing MOTs and clearing cesspits.
Clearing cesspits in Watling Street, there must be a joke there somewhere.
Despite Chairman Seymour’s best efforts the meeting went on until ten minutes
past ten. Out of sight of the webcams three Conservative councillors exchanged
pleasantries with me which was nice. It really was rather silly of Leader O'Neill
to decide that the best way to tackle social media criticism is insisting on
secrecy and abusing police powers whenever necessary. Things could have been
very different. Bexley might be a decent council if the Leader herself was
banished to Manchester and took the Masseys and the Bacons with her.