27 May - Getting away from it all
I don’t often stray far from home but the last couple of days have seen me
flitting around. Out more than in. There’s a family wedding at the weekend too, the first for more
than 40 years! My own children have favoured the ‘grab two witnesses off the street’
approach to marriage and tell the parents three weeks later. I was annoyed at
the time but it was cheap.
Yesterday’s outing was with Elwyn Bryant who is my fellow complainer about the two Borough Commanders in
the Councillor Craske case and we went to see Mick Barnbrook (too many complaints about the police to mention) in his new abode a
few minutes walk from the Kent coast.
We
spent most of the day at the Royal Air Force Museum in Manston reviving
childhood memories - I grew up In Farnborough famous for its Air Displays.
Mick hasn’t spent all his time with a paint brush in one hand and a glass of
wine in the other. He has three new complaints on the go about different Chief Constables
(Kent, Essex and Nottingham if I remember correctly) whose senior officers have
made up cock and bull stories - really obvious lies they cannot now explain - in connection with his complaints about
Conservatives breaking election spending limits. This has several times
got him mentions on Channel 4 News recently.
Michael was the first and only complainant about alleged overspending in the South Thanet election which saw the police go to court
this week to seek more time for their investigation.
The Conservatives showed up to argue against it. What are they trying to hide?
The new Police and Crime Commissioner in Kent is Matthew Scott. He was a
Conservative Councillor in St. Michael’s Ward from 2006 to 2010. A
Conservative from Bexley must know a thing or two about crime.
Mick has not forgotten Bexley Council completely, he submitted a new Freedom of
Information request a couple of days ago.
Please provide the job description and person specification for the role of
Head of Legal Services and Monitoring Officer for the London Borough of Bexley.
Please provide the job description and person specification for the role of
Manager of Legal Services.
Obviously he is delving into Bexley Council
relying on a layman for legal
advice. The postbag suggests that Councillors did not know that, but given the
quality of his advice, they are not surprised. “It explains a lot.”
Bexley bridge
The
new Bexley bridge opened early and there is not a lot to say about it. It’s a
nicely constructed narrow bridge that crosses the River Cray. Same as the last one.
A dog walking lady I met while taking these photos wasn’t particularly
complimentary. She said the bridge may be wider but the carriageway is not. The
footpath probably benefits but is more dangerous than it used to be because there is less
protection between road and path. The bridge wasn’t somewhere I often went and
can’t remember what it used to be like.
It is hard to miss the new road signs about the 7·5 tonne limit although in
typical Bexley fashion they are of little help to drivers.
Readers
familiar with the southern approach to the village will recognise that whilst
the weight warnings may be prominent enough, by the time you get to them there
is no way of turning back. Over the bridge you must go.
The speed humps that presented sharp edges
to passing tyres have now been renewed. If only a few warning signs had been placed at a useful distance
away from the bridge it would have been a job well done.
PS. A reader with a better memory than mine has drawn attention to the
photos published on 5th December last year which clearly show the better
protected footpath on the old bridge. A regular bridge user said “they have replaced one
crappy little bridge with another crappy little bridge”. I suppose he has a point.
Yellow box junctions
As you should know by now Bexley Council spy cars
regularly lurk near box junctions in the hope of
making up some of their budget shortfall.
Streetlife has been full of comments
about the junction between Danson Lane and Parkview Road.
Our old friends the NoToMob have noticed what Bexley Council is doing.
The NoToMob had this to say about Bexley’s activities this morning…
The box junction skirmish you described in your 25th May blog was not a contravention. The contravention is only
established if you enter the box junction when your exit is not clear i.e. if there is stationary traffic
preventing you from exiting. Councils and TFL like to pretend that stopping within the box is the
contravention but they are wrong in this.
So it looks like Bexley Council is intent on continuing to conning the uneducated. Nothing ever changes.