2 December - Bexley Council. Not guilty; this time
Bexley Council put up new parking restriction notices in Wilton Road at the beginning of this week -
as if the shop keepers there hadn’t enough to contend with already.
I asked three of them on the Bexley side if they knew what was going on; none
did, not even by yesterday afternoon. However a Greenwich Council notice appeared
on the other side of the road and provided some information.
Network Rail have closed the railway line all weekend so that they can remove
the mid-platform footbridge that served the temporary
Abbey Wood booking hall and some very large vehicles require access.
It was Network Rail, or more precisely their main contractor Balfour Beatty, who put
out the barriers early yesterday morning. If it was left any later the weekend
disabled parkers might arrive and block the road. The barriers were subsequently
extended all the way to the junction with Abbey Road. Why the weighted plastic
blocks had to be placed end on end and not with short gaps between them is hard
to fathom. As a result not only is Wilton Road parking space more than halved, no pedestrian can cross the road either.
It may all prove to be overkill, the footbridge was taken down at 4 a.m. this
morning and the low loaders to take it away are due in around midday (or
midnight dependent on who you ask) today - but the parking
restrictions will not be removed until Tuesday morning. Thanks Bexley Council.
We may have the Royal Borough to thank for the only source of prior information
on what is going on but on the other side of the track Greenwich is not doing so well. The Felixstowe
Road stairs to the station opened on 26th October but the litter bins on the
path which leads to them have not been emptied even once. (Photo 4.)
Note: Several gaps were created in the barrier a couple of hours after this blog was first posted.