9 April - Sidcup in the sun. Belvedere beached. Wilton Road wrecked
Pictures from around the borough have taken a bit of a back seat recently, as
usual time is the enemy. In Bexley there is rarely anywhere to safely park and
the buses are so damned slow I now rarely use them. Official statistics show
I
am not alone in that.
However here are some pictures taken, with one exception, over the past few days.
The
Rob Leitch Memorial Garden in Sidcup was looking particularly fine late last
Friday afternoon. These pictures fail to do it justice, it will be better still with a bit more colour.
A quick walk along the High Street failed to reveal any obvious reason for the constant traffic congestion past the hospital and along Elm Road.
Bexley Council’s plan for the former Splashpark in Belvedere wrecks the 100 year
old water tradition on the site in what otherwise appears to be magnificent
fashion. The first report that work had started on what is to be known as
Belvedere Beach came two months ago but the photo taken on a dull February day
revealed no sign of it, however this week Cabinet Member Peter Craske, no less, said that work had started.
If you count a Heras fence and the presence of a rubbish skip as a start then Councillor Craske
is absolutely correct. However work is so little advanced that even the old Splash Park
notice is still standing proudly two years after the last toddler dipped his toe
into the alleged Cryptosporidium solution.
The
report last month that the Lesnes Abbey café had opened for business was probably fake news
although the man who told me was obviously convinced he had seen it open,
however it definitely is now and hasn’t it been lucky with the weather?
The park was pretty busy last week and the café had at least a few patrons. I
have no idea if a bacon sandwich really does cost £3·50 but I did notice that a
banana was fifty pence.
And the toilets are open.
The public realm works in Wilton Road, Abbey Wood which began on 9th January were
supposed to have been completed in eight weeks but I would put money on it taking twice as long.
The Greenwich side is already suffering from the hard sand surface being kicked
up in places and the narrowness of
the Bexley side has created an uncomfortable walking surface.
To provide easy disabled access to shop doorways the paving has been raised
about three inches overall but the kerb remains as it always was. The unusually
steep slope to the kerb gives rise to a one leg shorter than the other sensation when
walking the length of the footpath. Some doorways are higher still and been
provided with a ramp. They create an uncomfortable undulating surface for walkers.
It would have been better to have made the new shop fronts fit the new footway
although the availability of the separate funds prohibited reversing the installation sequence.
A
longstanding problem in Wilton Road (Bexley side only) has been that the roof
rainwater is drained to the pavement and the steeper slope should solve the
puddling problem. However last week someone decided that the down pipes would look better if boxed in.
This has barred access to the shutter securing bolts so that adjustments are no
longer possible and adjustment is required because the undulating footpath means
that the shutter no longer neatly meets the ground. It would be easy now to put
a lever under a shutter and force it up.
And if that is not enough damage the Council’s contractor has bent a shutter
and removed the enamel surface. I imagine an insurance claim will be going in to
Greenwich Council first thing tomorrow morning.