25 September - Here we go round the Mulberry Bush
Bonkers has quite
often given a Lesnes Abbey update on a Sunday but I was going to give it a miss
today. Some of the weeds have gone from around the Mulberry tree but apart from
that there has been little obvious progress since the park was last mentioned
on 7th September when Tom Smith gave an excellent
presentation to the
Belvedere Forum. He thought the Visitor Centre would open next month.
The Abbey is back in the news today because a reader tipped me off about the Lesnes
Abbey Woods ‘stakeholder’ meeting. There is a brief report on
the Park Run
website where it is reported that the centre is unlikely to be open for the school half term. Half term begins on 31st October.
That will mean the Visitor Centre will be between a year and 18 months late depending on which
original guestimate you believe.
Parking is going to be a problem once Crossrail services begin. Bexley Council
plans to make the Abbey Wood Controlled Parking Zone four times bigger which will mean that all the
park entrances will be compromised. As there are no houses facing the park on
Abbey Road, or for that matter on the upper part of New Road, it seems to me that
continuing with the present four hour parking limit would meet the needs of park
visitors and deter commuters.
Apart from Councillor John Davey,
no Conservative is sympathetic to the parking
problem around Lesnes Abbey or in Abbey Wood generally. Bexley’s motto must
be ‘If it stops,
tax it or
fine it’.