16 March - Nothing but complaints
You may have noticed that there has been nothing very significant on
BiB for more than a week. First there was that Britelite window installation
which went very well but resulted in the tedious chore of curtain fittings being changed
and the alarm sensors being refitted. Then the cough and cold which
everyone seems to have came and got me. BiB ought to be put on the back
burner while I attempt to catch up on the things that have been neglected in recent years.
Not sure if that will ever happen, but it should and I am going to try.
However while I have been opting out to some extent, it hasn’t put an end to
correspondence, mainly complaints as usual.
Flytipping
With Bexley taking a certain amount of pride in being the most expensive Council
with its charges for removal of large unwanted items and cutting the street cleaning
schedules it comes as no surprise that flytipping is a major problem in the borough.
A report last week said that the footpath behind Elstree Gardens, Belvedere, was
particularly badly affected but by the time I got there, whilst it was far from
being clear of litter, it was not exceptionally bad by Bexley’s dismal standards. Just a couple of
sacks beneath the sign promising offenders 12 months imprisonment.
There are places nearby which are regular flytipping hotspots. Gayton Road Car Park is a
favourite and a newer one is Gayton Road itself.
There used to be a semi-permanent dump
outside the Abbey Arms but a combination
of the landlady and Councillor activity (Danny Hackett’s) put an end to it. However a new pile
was started on the other side of the road. It grew and grew for four weeks and
then it was gone - but a new one took its place a day or two later.
Photos 3 and 4 were taken two days apart. It looks like commercial waste to me. It surely
cannot be impossible for Bexley Council to trace the source.
Road works
Disruption to traffic is never popular especially when it is done with no regard
for motorists, pedestrians, or in the following case, bus passengers.
A report from Thamesmead said that FM Conway was using a bus stop as a lorry
park making passengers walk a long way to the next one for no good reason, and
it turned out to be true.
The bus stop was occupied, maybe temporarily, by a
parked lorry when there is a perfectly good car park not fifty feet away. The
bus lay-by has also been used as a dump for broken paving stones which could very
easily have been put on the very wide footpath.
Residents’ Parking
In most places in Bexley a residents’ Parking Permit costs £100 a year. It went up by that amount because
when Councillor Peter Craske cooked the books four years ago; he claimed that
every permit was costing £240 a year to issue. It wasn’t true than and it
certainly isn’t true now because permits have been abolished. It is all done
electronically now. The CEO punches the registration number into his box of
tricks and it reports whether of not the fee has been paid and by whom and from where.
In Abbey Road, not far from Abbey Wood station, Bexley Council handed over half
the residents’ spaces to Pay & Display, since when residents have found finding
a space ever more difficult.
One has taken to parking in an adjacent street but became the victim of
over-zealous CEOs. A more sympathetic CEO has said that
such ‘wrong street’ parking should be penalised but offered to turn a blind eye.
However both
roads are in the same AW Zone. It makes no sense to me and it makes
none to the lady who has reported it. However, nothing should be surprising
about a Council that issues a PCN to lorries queuing to dump track ballast for
Crossrail. They refused to waive the fines.
Street Lighting
Another complaint concerns the
continuing
lack of street lighting on Harrow Manorway and
refers to the danger to unaccompanied women. The claim was that there has been
no lighting since the end of December. I don’t think that can be right. It was a
month before I got around to getting pictures of the failed lights and I took
them on the 19th December.
Bexley Council clearly could not give a damn or they would be chasing whichever
authority is responsible for the failure. Elsewhere in the borough, Bexley
Council has been wholly responsible for no street lighting and it is now asking
what residents think about it.
Another consultation.
Facebook
It has been said before but perhaps it is worth repeating,
Bexley is Bonkers on
Facebook is not run by me, there is simply not enough time to do everything and
with my full agreement it is run by a volunteer. I rarely engage with the
Comments section and whilst I should see the Message notifications when I log in
and be responsible for dealing with them, it is never likely to be the primary
BiB communications channel.
Today I received an email from Facebook alerting me to an unread Private
Message, I had no idea there was one lying there but it exposed my
unfortunate neglect of the messaging facility.
The
message was from Teri Williams and it said that Bexley Council had labelled hers
a ‘Jeremy Kyle’ family. Even I, who almost never sees any television, knows that is a disgraceful insult.
The incident that could have been on Bexley is Bonkers a week ago is today’s front page news in the News Shopper.
Ms. Williams has achieved something that has never been achieved by Mick Barnbrook or Elwyn Bryant or any other
complainant I know of, she got a written apology out of Bexley Council.
Click for source document
Teri Williams is lucky to have had her complaint heard by David Hogan, if it been handled by Human Resources Manager Nick Hollier,
Teri may have received a warning about referring to trashy morning TV
programmes. I was reprimanded by him for using the word ‘lying’ in a complaint about Bexley Council lying.
Well done Teri, and please accept my apology too for not being aware of your
message for a whole week. Could have been a week ahead of the News Shopper too!