15 August (Part 2) - The ‘delightful’ Cllr. John Davey
Probably he won’t thank me for reminding you, but it was Councillor John
Davey, late of Lesnes Abbey ward, who was the inspiration for Bonkers, for that
is how he described Bexley’s road planning.
He would probably want me to tell you that he was referring to TfL funded
schemes that were hang-overs from Ken Livingstone’s
time (the first Labour Mayor of London) but things have not got any better since as the works in Albion Road ought to tell you.
John Davey may not have been directly responsible for
ruining perfectly good
roads in the borough but he did himself no favours by ignoring emails in 2009 about
motorists being fleeced by parking restrictions put in place after they had legally parked.
Because of that history Bonkers was more than a little rude about
Councillor John Davey in its early days but over time I came to recognise that I
misjudged the man. Maybe not the greatest accolade one could award but in terms of honesty and integrity he stands head
and shoulders above Councillor Philip Read.
Both have something in common, a Twitter addiction.
The big difference is that John Davey is happy to debate issues with almost
anyone, even those who loudly voice their disagreement. (I can think of one exception.)
A few days ago he was trumpeting the official Bexley Council line that road
accident statistics are on an improving trend and I replied that things were not
quite as simple as that and some figures were giving cause for concern.
John said he would be delighted if I could prove him wrong.
Can you imagine the Northumberland numpty doing that?
All the ‘evidence’ I have to hand is in the Agenda for the last Transport
Users’ Sub-Committee meeting. The accident tables are reproduced below.
In line with Bonkers’ usual policy of providing as much of the evidence as
possible you may see more of the report by clicking on the accident tables.
Serious accidents and the resultant casualties have been going up while slight
accidents are much the same, up by an almost immeasurable amount in 2016.
As John had rightly said or at least implied, serious injuries are well down on
what they were ten years ago. On average 90 a year then but only 29 now.
Bexley Councillors, John Davey included, will be under instructions to put a
positive spin on everything but Bonkers’ brief is to probe a little deeper.
Accident statistics over the past two or three years have been trending in the
wrong direction. It may be a statistical blip, the sample size is small,
but it may just be the result of Bexley’s roads being designed to cause maximum
frustration for drivers. Meanwhile Bexley Council would much rather look the
other way and tell you fibs.
Don’t tell anyone but Councillor Davey will actually speak to me if he thinks no
one else is looking.