24 December - Not a Happy Christmas

It has not been a good week. Within hours of the trip to Swanley a dose of flu came up out of nowhere and left me shivering, shaking and sweating in bed so weak from coughing and sneezing that there were times when I was unable to get to the kitchen tap to assuage the thirst. This morning is the first time my body feels as though it wants to work even though my head gives the impression of detachment and being somewhere else.

Then on Thursday morning Newham Hospital rang to give five hours notice of their intention to discharge my 97 year old aunt back into her own house to fend for herself. All they can do for her condition now, caused by two and a half years of neglect by her named GP (Goodyear, Wordsworth Surgery, Newham) who has never seen her, not even once, is to give her the correct pills and hope they reverse some of the brain damage. Taking pills does not warrant a long hospital stay so she is condemned to sit at home alone a danger to herself and her neighbours.

Having won a 24 hour stay of execution I managed to organise a chaperoned taxi ride to Hampshire where the old lady is now with my sister while we hope her mental condition will improve.

There has been much thinking about the actions of Councillor Fothergill who is campaigning for the news of her lost libel action to be taken off line. She emailed and phoned to that effect several times, her solicitor must have told her there was nothing he could do, so in desperation she went to the police. Kent Police had previously arrested six people because of false allegations by Councillor Fothergill, it must have seemed worth another shot.

Would the police have entertained such a complaint if the news source was an established newspaper?

The first hard evidence of her expensive mistake did not reach this website until 16th November and three days later further news came with the headline ‘Drawing a line’. I considered the story told and it was time to move on.

If a Councillor is able to convince the police that reporting news without so much as giving an opinion is criminal harassment then it seems to me that there is no hope left for democracy and we all may as well give up.

Thank you to the one reader who emailed to voice his disgust with the situation but it will take a lot more than that to persuade me to take Bonkers into the New Year.

But maybe it’s just the flu bug still talking…

 

20 December (Part 2) - Black bags and buses. Lust and litter

The East Side Centre goes to Bexley Council
No one does planning applications better than fromthemurkydepths so there is little to add to his report of The East Side Centre planning application which has surfaced today.

I too like the curved building at the corner of Highland Road and Albion Road but not at all sure of the remaining half dozen blocks. Mr. Murky describes them as lumpen and grey which seems to be a reasonable description. Viewed from Sainsbury’s I would go as far as saying ugly, the styles vary from one block to the next.

Bexley Council will be anxious to give approval as soon as they can for the £790,000 Council Tax income and the £7·3 million of various one off levies.

As I understand it the closure of Highland Road and converting the Sainsbury’s car park to a town square is a Bexley Council proposal. According to the Bellway man at their first presentation every planning application must assume the car park will go if an application is to succeed.

17/02745/FULM

Fly tipping
Bexley hasn’t got a fly tipping problem, I know that because such statements about reduced levels of tipping have been made in Council.

A Thamesmead resident would beg to differ. While walking around yesterday he found tips at both ends of Overton Road and in Lensbury Way.

The chicken shops are the source of much litter, the man from Thamesmead asks why the Council cannot have a quiet word with the shop owner.

The 301 bus
Following the analysis of Bexley Council’s failure to provide a safe route up Knee Hill a reader suggests a simple solution. A sign supported by CCTV that except for buses no vehicles over a certain weight are allowed on the hill.

It is what they do for the Bexley Village bridge so why not? The answer is as usual that no one really cares about the area north of Brampton Road.

The cigarette police
Someone asks why the litter patrols don’t come to Abbey Wood and other minor towns in Bexley. That’s an easy question to answer. Because the object of the exercise is making money and there is not much to be made outside the bigger towns. Only three offenders found in Abbey Wood so far.

Love (well lust!) is in the air
Two recent messages from within Bexley Council provide a list of the various liaisons alleged to flourish within the Civic Centre.

Don’t such informants realise that Bexley Council is already out to get me for imagined crimes? I’m not sure that publishing a list of who is shagging who will do my plea of innocence a lot of good.

 

20 December (Part 1) - Trouble comes in threes

The following is not the original blog but an announcement placed here in February 2025 as part of the long term project to progressively restore old blogs.

A dishonest statement made by a Conservative Councillor in December 2017 persuaded Kent Police to charge me with harassment for a series of supportive blogs. (The Councillor’s solicitor accepted that they were supportive). Further blogs revealed that the same Councillor had been involved in a High Court libel case. BiB was supported by a libel lawyer, a media lawyer and the MP for Erith and Thamesmead.

Among many dishonest statements to Kent Police was that I invented the ‘Guilty’ verdict recorded on Bexley Council’s website and that the verdict was in fact ‘Not Guilty’. An outright lie! As if that was not sufficiently obvious from the evidence the Statement went on to say that Bexley’s decision was being considered for Judicial Review. Found ’Not Guilty’ but challenging the verdict in Court! A clear contradiction of one statement by another.

Sergeant Robbie Cooke based in Swanley ignored the obvious inconsistencies and without reference to the CPS decided my support for the Councillor was Harassment and the entirely factual reporting of the High Court Libel case merely exacerbated it.

Naturally the CPS dropped the case when the papers reached them.

This blog was removed on 2nd June 2019 but an archived copy remains available to legitimate enquirers.

 

19 December - Express bus service for Crossrail. Forget it

Buses are far too slow. Until the coming of the B11 service I could walk home from Bexleyheath (the downhill direction) quicker than the average 229 could carry me. The quickest bus route if one is lucky with the connection is the 401 to Belvedere station and change buses there.

Abbey Wood badly needs a direct bus service to Bexleyheath and the coming of Crossrail has given Transport for London the excuse it needed to provide one.

They proposed route 301 to go up Knee Hill, Brampton Road, Long Lane and Woolwich Road to the town centre and about time too.

Doubts were expressed about the suitability of Knee Hill for large vehicles but TfL proposed only small single deckers and they would be far from being the biggest vehicles to use the hill.

When they do problems can arise. There is a kink in the road near the summit and large vehicles descending tend to wander across the white line and squeeze even very small cars like mine into the kerb. Irrespective of it becoming a bus route, Bexley Council should be doing something about it. They spend millions on wrecking perfectly good roads but a well known danger point is ignored.

It seems that Bexley Council regards Knee Hill as a historic monument which must be preserved at all costs.

TfL ran test buses up and down Knee Hill recently and at great expense discovered what any local motorist could have told them for nothing. Knee Hill is a bit awkward at the top.

Because of this Bexley Council is recommending that the new 301 route uses New Road instead. The kink at the top of Knee Hill could be easily fixed, it wouldn’t even need any trees to come down. It could be eased out by 18" on the Bexley side and maybe 2'6" on the Greenwich side. Four feet would improve matters enormously, as can be seen from the tyre tracks, the land is already used as a muddy road.

If the 301 runs up New Road it will no longer be a quick route into Bexleyheath and back. New Road introduces three new significant right hand turn junctions, five extra bus stops, a pedestrian crossing and a near impossible left hand turn compared to Knee Hill.

Four buses an hour in each direction on New Road is already a problem. Buses cannot pass the free parking spaces without waiting for a clear run. Just imagine a bus every two and a half minutes as is proposed. (The 469 is going to be rerouted via New Road too.)

Before long those free parking spaces will go and the only ‘benefit’ will be the loss of faster bus service. The diversion will put five minutes on the journey, maybe more.

When you get on the Crossrail train you may be two services behind the one you should have caught.

 

18 December (Part 2) - Your obedient servant

I was never sure what to make of Bexley’s former Chief Executive Will Tuckley. Was he just very good at covering up for the Council’s bad guys and gals or was he a bad guy in his own right?

By the time he took over the poisoned chalice that is Tower Hamlets I was inclined to think he was glad to get away from Bexley and leave the corruption behind.

Despite Tuckley being no friend of mine I found myself giving him the benefit of the doubt.

In 2011 after the obscene blog was traced to Councillor Peter Craske’s IP address and the police decided to do nothing about it, Will Tuckley wrote to the police to suggest I was prosecuted instead for placing a copy of what was found on Craske’s laptop on BiB behind a password. His idea or was he put up to it? Who knows?

More clear cut was Tuckley’s plotting with the police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to get Craske off the hook.

When Councillor Cheryl Bacon set out on a non-stop lying spree in 2013 claiming that I along with several others ran riot in the Council chamber shouting and waving papers I accumulated ten written statements, four from Councillors, all of which said that Cheryly Bacon was one big liar.

Cheryl Bacon herself was not supported by anyone but herself - and Will Tuckley who wasn’t there and knew nothing.

Will Tuckley refused to undertake any form of investigation even though one Councillor was telling Tuckley that he should because he was being mislead.

It would be surprising if Tuckley didn’t know that he was being misled but misplaced loyalty and a £250,000 salary package ensured Councillor Bacon’s safety.

When I made a formal complaint about the lies being told in Bacon’s defence and not unnaturally used the word lying - but only once - Bexley Council’s response was that the regarded my complaint as abusive and they were not going to answer it.

A large file about Tuckley’s refusal to accept a complaint or the word of the four Councillors confirming Bacon’s string of lies a big file went to the police. To ensure it was not whitewashed Greenwich police was persuaded to take the case from Bexley.

Greenwich police did a good job and sent their case for prosecuting Tuckley to the CPS where it lay for twelve whole months. “Unprecedented” according to the investigating officer.

Meanwhile Will Tuckley was appointed by the Government Commissioners who were running the failed Council, to be CEO at Tower Hamlets.

When the Commissioners were told about Tuckley’s possible prosecution, Bexley-is-Bonkers was labelled a “fascist blog” and the warning was dismissed. A similar warning to the Department for Communities and Local Government was more politely dismissed.

However certain wheels were provoked into motion and if one can believe the leak that came from CPS they contrived to lose the important evidence. The real reason is still unknown. Neither the CPS nor Greenwich police ever owned up as to exactly how they had decided that Tuckley was wholly innocent.

But is he? He still attracts trouble wherever he goes.

In Tower Hamlets a plan was hatched by a property developer to erect a 63 storey tower. The Council’s planning committee rejected it - twice - but was overruled by Boris Johnson when Mayor.

Nothing very out of the ordinary you might think but two weeks ago the Sunday Times revealed evidence - and the audio recording to prove it - a £2 million pound bribe was being dangled before Councillors.

Bearing in mind that Will Tuckley was sent to Tower Hamlets to clear the place up, indeed he set up a team to tackle it with that very name. you would think he would be haring off to the police station as quickly as when he wanted me prosecuted for several things I had not done.

But no he didn’t. Maybe loyalty to his masters took precedence over honesty.

It was six months before he tipped off the police and even then only when various advisers pushed him into doing so.

 

18 December (Part 1) - You’re under arrest! Well not quite

The following is not the original blog but an announcement placed here in February 2025 as part of the long term project to progressively restore old blogs.

A dishonest statement made by a Conservative Councillor in December 2017 persuaded Kent Police to charge me with harassment for a series of supportive blogs. (The Councillor’s solicitor accepted that they were supportive). Further blogs revealed that the same Councillor had been involved in a High Court libel case. BiB was supported by a libel lawyer, a media lawyer and the MP for Erith and Thamesmead.

Among many dishonest statements to Kent Police was that I invented the ‘Guilty’ verdict recorded on Bexley Council’s website and that the verdict was in fact ‘Not Guilty’. An outright lie! As if that was not sufficiently obvious from the evidence the Statement went on to say that Bexley’s decision was being considered for Judicial Review. Found ’Not Guilty’ but challenging the verdict in Court! A clear contradiction of one statement by another.

Sergeant Robbie Cooke based in Swanley ignored the obvious inconsistencies and without reference to the CPS decided my support for the Councillor was Harassment and the entirely factual reporting of the High Court Libel case merely exacerbated it.

Naturally the CPS dropped the case when the papers reached them.

This blog was removed on 2nd June 2019 but an archived copy remains available to legitimate enquirers.

 

17 December (Part 4) - Raising the BID

It is more than two weeks since I went to the Places Scrutiny meeting which is usually the most interesting of the three scrutinies and I am beginning to forget what it was like.

I remember several Councillors and council officials were more than usually friendly and the public attendance level was poor verging on the non-existent.

It is not much of a surprise that the friendly voices all belong to the most effective Councillors and officials, among them the Assistant Chief Executive and her Strategy Manager.

The guest speaker was Tony Garratt who is Manager of the Bexleyheath Business Improvement District (BID). He took over more than two years ago from Ian Payne who was a natural showman and probably a hard act to follow.

Mr. Payne had the measure of Bexley Council; nearly three years on it may be safe to say we had several informal chats about them.

At the beginning of the year the BID was ‘rebranded’ which took the usual form. New logos and slogan; ‘Enjoy Bexleyheath. Shop, Celebrate, Stay’ which aims to be more inclusive of the night time economy.

Footfall is now very close to 200,000 a week but has declined slightly over the year. Major road works were blamed but poor weather has its effect too.

Vacancy rates “spiked at 4% this year” but have improved since to an all time low of 2½%.

Bexleyheath was seen as an important bus transport hub with 240,000 people a week coming through it but it is also “a bit of a hindrance”. School children are the problem.

Mr. Garratt has come to the conclusion that “parking is not particularly an issue for consumers but is a massive issue for businesses and their staff”. Utilisation of car parks is uneven and needs to be looked at.

The BID is funding two police officers for the town centre looking at business crime and customer safety. The Christmas lights and summer flowers are all the work of the BID but the Council usually gets the credit.

The day time and night time economies are not well integrated. “It is rare to see people come into a restaurant with bags of shopping.” The period between 5 p.m. and 7 has seen the biggest increase in footfall but it may be due to commuter traffic, the answer is presently unknown.

Closing the main shopping centre car park (it’s not Council owned) at 6:30 is definitely having an adverse effect on the town centre economy. People who come into town for events such as the Christmas lights switch on cannot get back to their car. “It is unheard of.”

The Chairman asked Mr. Garratt to bring his presentation to a premature end, him having overrun his allotted time by three minutes.

Question time revealed that 77% of the 200,000 visitors each week lived within the borough, 6% of them in the town centre. 90% of businesses had been in town for more than ten years.

Councillor Cheryl Bacon (Conservative, Crayford Meadows) was interested in parking. She would like to see signs on the approach to town indicating where vacancies might be (tell Alex Sawyer Cheryl, not Tony) and admitted to very nearly being trapped in the car park after a hairdressing appointment.

Mr. Garrett held out little hope of an extension to the hours as they are controlled by a different management team, the same one that decided it was a good idea to more than double parking charges. He was critical of existing signage which was directing people to the more expensive car parks.

Councillor Seán Newman (Labour, Belvedere) said the day and night time economies were unlikely to integrate further while the premises remained geographically separated. “Bexleyheath is one long corridor but there as a lack of a mix. There is no shopping in Bexleyheath after 5:30 so for three four or five hours there is nothing to do. Until that is addressed things will not get better. You go back to the car park and go somewhere else.”

The BID is very aware of these problems.

Councillor Aileen Beckwith (Conservative, Sidcup) said she could “drive to Bluewater in ten to fifteen minutes and park for free among a wealth of shops” and “unless Bexleyheath can do something like that I don’t see how you can get people to come to Bexleyheath”.

Mrs. Beckwith may not speak often but she knows how to hit a nail squarely on its head. Mr. Garratt had no answer and there were murmurs of agreement from around the chamber. There is no easy answer.

Councillor Esther Amaning (Labour, Lesnes Abbey) asked what effect Brexit may have had. It may have caused a bit of unease but not a lot else was the BID Manager’s answer. “It’s the press that creates the big illusion that there is a problem around Brexit.” Business Rate increases for the worst affected businesses (60% up) were a much bigger problem.

Councillor John Waters (Conservative, Danson Park) brought up the question of the doubled car parking charges in Broadway Square. “Were the traders livid?”

Tony Garrett gave a one word answer. “Yes.” and then “it is shooting ourselves in the foot”. The car park is managed by people beyond his control or the Council’s.

 

17 December (Part 3) - What would your advice be?

It seems I am supposed to be an expert on everything; this question dropped into the Inbox yesterday.

The Council gave planning permission to a builder to build a three storey house right behind our property, right up against our rear fence.

The planning was approved by saying our property has no ground floor windows; we objected but were ignored.

We have documents to show that the Council officers made deliberate factual errors about our property and two neighbouring properties.

They used the fallacies to justify the permission.

We have discovered that the builder has close links with the Council but the Local Government Ombudsman is not interested in our complaint. We want to name and shame everyone involved.

What is the best way of doing it?

I really don’t know the answer to that question. When something similar happened to me I set up a website and look what happened to that. Bexley Council is only slightly less crooked and devious now than it was all those years ago and thousands of hours have been expended trying to get the message out. It annoys Bexley Council but makes very little difference to anything.

As for the Local Government Ombudsman; in my experience a total waste of space. No doubt stuffed full of former local government officers with loyalties to match.

So what can be done against bad planning decisions? Would anyone care to comment?

Note: If anyone in Bexley’s Planning Department reads this, don’t go raking through the files; the complaint didn’t come from Bexley.

 

17 December (Part 2) - Another two weeks in Abbey Wood. The not good and the simply bad

Hugh Neal’s Maggott Sandwich must be far more influential that Bexley-is-Bonkers. Today he blogs that he reported some fly tipping in Erith and Bexley Council came along and removed it almost at once.

These photographs were taken two weeks apart and the mini-tip was reported to Bexley Council on 6th December and again a week ago.

Steve Didsbury’s department failing again. He now joins the elite pictured on the site banner.

Bexley Council continues to remain silent following my request for information about why they ignored my fly tipping in October last year.

The acknowledgment said this…

We are dealing with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and we aim to send a response by 8 November 2017 (which is 20 working days beginning on the first working day after the date we received your request).

Unless Annemarie Caroll looks at her emails only once in a while their date calculation is wrong but she will be under instruction not to respond to me. Presumably Steve Didsbury will be similarly instructed.

In the New Year I will submit a formal complaint against him and it’s more than likely that Bexley Council’s stupidity will then be escalated to the Local Government Ombudsman as well as Information Commissioner for their FOI law breaking.

It is so unnecessary! Why is Bexley Council so keen on turning molehills into mountains?

 

17 December (Part 1) - Another Four Weeks in Abbey Wood. The good and the not so good

It’s time to release the latest batch of Crossrail photos. 28 more to go to break the 7,000 barrier.

Over the past month the Gayton Road lifts were brought into use and a couple of days ago the toilets were opened and already flooded once by ‘jokers’ who jammed the taps open.

On the downside the barriers are overcharging Oyster users and the platform maps are still wrong. They do not show the Crayford loop.

Work is slowly advancing on Harrow Manorway and the pedestrian crossing has reverted to a 15 second cycle for the passage of road traffic. According to the imbeciles at TfL that is how it should be. I am sure Councillor John Davey will join with me in saying that holding up traffic unnecessarily is simply Bonkers.

 

16 December - What’s sauce for five gooses is not sauce for one gander

Bexleyֹ’s Growth Strategy had top billing at last Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting. After two years of hard work, a bit of debate and a roadshow or two (14 after being criticised for not going to Slade Green) seven Councillors were required to rubber stamp the plans.

Six members of the public thought that changing the borough into a very different sort of place might be of interest and the whole show was over in half an hour.

I find it slightly amusing that Cabinet Members speak of “if” Cabinet plans are approved at debates such as these when there is no chance whatsoever of them not being. And they are not even debates, it’s close to electioneering.

Not that it is a bad plan, far from it. 31,500 new homes sounds frightening but it will be over 30 years and without a plan, ad hoc expansion will only create an incohesive mess.

Bexley Council says it wants to produce “places not houses”, so maybe their heart is in the right place. Whether their brain is may be a different matter. They are pinning their hopes on a Crossrail extension to Dartford at the very least.

If they are expecting a two track five minute interval service as is to come to Abbey Wood in twelve months time I think they will be sorely disappointed. There are compromise solutions of course but who is going to accept the partial demolition of Abbey Wood station which is still months away from completion?

Following a few introductory words from Council Leader O’Neill about the need to provide “the right infrastructure”, she indulged in a little politicking by criticising Mayor Khan’s growth proposals and “Bexley will be responding robustly to show him that Bexley is not like other boroughs, it has no Underground etc.”

Chief Executive Gill Steward was then invited to begin the 30 minute advertisement for a new look Bexley.

The plan is “fantastic and the right thing to do for Bexley” and beyond that we did not learn a lot from the desk snatcher. Only that infrastructure is important, so is transport but the consultation process was not overwhelmingly supportive. (70% of respondents were against it and 86% had concerns.)

You don't get a lot for £200k. a year. Six minutes and fifty seconds of nothing much.

Cabinet Member Linda Bailey was pleased that the plan had reached this stage and thanked everyone who had worked on it.

Councillor Bailey thought that the negative consultation responses may be due to residents “not reading the document as a whole”.

Like the Leader before her, Linda Bailey did not like the Mayor’s London Plan. He wants “big blocks of flats” and in Bexley “we want communities”. The Mayor is “at odds with our aspirations. We do not want his high rise blocks in the wrong places and massive intensification of town centres which block up roads”.

The Mayor has forgotten that an Outer London borough needs parking spaces and what he wants is not what our residents want. She moved Bexley’s plan for adoption.

Cabinet Member Philip Read thought the plan was “exciting” and “welcomed the renaissance of the North of the borough”.

Like the Leader and Councillor Bailey before him Councillor Read was critical of the London Mayor’s “high rise blocks with minimal car parking to be built on the back gardens of Bexley”.

Cabinet Member Alex Sawyer agreed with everything said so far and added that Crossrail was “underpinning the strategy”. Once again straying into politics, Alex regretted that only a week earlier Local Implementation Plan funding to Bexley had been cut back. It will leave some projects “unviable” and plans for Erith, Crayford and Yarnton Way will have to be cut as will some road safety improvements. The wicked Sadiq again.

Cabinet Member Don Massey didn’t “want to be too political but Sadiq Khan’s London Plan is far too much Inner London centric. We need to get across to the Mayor that Outer London is very different. It is not one size fits all”.

Cabinet Members having had their say, Councillor Danny Hackett (Labour, Lesnes Abbey) was allowed to praise the Growth Strategy as well but he made the mistake of mentioning Sadiq Khan’s London Plan and offered to explain it outside the meeting to any interested Cabinet Member.

Danny went out of his way to say that his party fully supported the Growth Strategy and how proud he was to see the ideas he and his colleagues put forward in 2014 enthusiastically adopted. Among them were the Crossrail and DLR extensions and support for river crossings. “If the former Mayor of London hadn’t cancelled a crossing we would have had one now”.

He made a plea for Bexley’s Planning Committee to stop approving developments that provide no affordable housing.

The Leader failed to acknowledge Labour’s enthusiastic support for the Growth Strategy and the hypocrite preferred to say “it is a shame that Councillor Hackett has brought politics into the debate”. Bailey, Read, Sawyer, Massey and the Leader herself can all criticise the hapless (hopeless?) Sadiq Khan but when Councillor Hackett offers to provide a counter argument it is shameful. Bexley Council will never change.

The first part of Councillor O’Neill’s follow up retort was more justifiable, quite amusing actually.

“The former Mayor cancelled one crossing, the current Mayor cancelled two crossings.”

The second part of her response was not funny. “It is a shame you make comments that are not substantiated”. The Leader was unable to explain which of Danny’s comments she had in mind.

Councillor Colin McGannon added UKIP’s support for the Growth Strategy, it was “fantastic” but he was concerned about the number of people who were unaware of the consultation and urged the Council to put in a greater effort.

The Leader referred to the Bexley Magazine and a member of the public shouted out that she never gets one. It is unusual (unheard of?) for the Leader to engage with members of the public during a meeting but perhaps better circulation of propaganda is a special case. When another member of the public interrupted two seconds later he was told to shut up.

Councillor Bailey came back with a further little dig at the Mayor, “we don’t want to end up with some rubbish”.

Unlike Danny’s it was not a shameful comment.

The rubber stamp came down. 31,500 houses, a shopping centre in Belvedere, Crossrail to Ebbsfleet, DLR to Bexleyheath are all on their way. Believe it if you like.

Labour Party statement on growth and affordable housing.

 

15 December - Two very annoying words

Modern life is very annoying, full of injustices, idiocies sometimes known as political correctness, and snowflakes ready to be offended by terms such as White Christmas.

Fortunately I’m not easily stressed and shrug it off. If it were otherwise I would be constantly enraged by things such as today’s letter from the IPCC which says it will be a minimum of ten weeks before the Appeal against the Metropolitan Police’s whitewash job is allocated to a case worker.

However just two words can make me very annoyed indeed. They are in no particular order homes and affordable. No home is truly affordable any more, not like while still little more than an office junior I wandered into the Headquarters of the Lambeth Building Society and left one half hour interview later with a 90% mortgage on a £3,400 flat.

My first 20 years of life were spent in various council houses, my parent’s council houses obviously, and I have never been homeless. I rented a house for three or four months and hated it. Hence the trip to Lambeth

The rent on the last council house vacated in 1963 was £12.8s.4d per calendar month. I have no idea what my father was earning at the time but whatever it was housing was never an issue. It was something pretty much everyone took for granted.

Not any more.

Obviously the population level has been allowed to grow far to high and with it the price of housing. So called affordable housing is now out of reach to everyone on average pay who does not have an account with The Bank of Mum and Dad.

I know of 40 year old men with reasonable jobs who still flat share, and not from choice. It is a national disgrace.

So what is Bexley Council doing about the affordable home situation? Does it take the issue seriously? It would appear not. Lack of time and expertise prevents BiB delving deeply into planning matters, that is something best left to fromthemurkydepths, but the following comes from Labour party sources.

• Permission was granted in 2016 for 359 homes at Maxim Road in Crayford. The permission includes zero affordable homes.
• Permission was granted in 2015 for 600 homes at Erith Quarry. The permission includes zero affordable homes. This development is currently being constructed.
• Permission was granted in 2012 for 192 units at the former Bexley College site in Belvedere. It includes 34 shared ownership units with zero affordable rented units. Building of this development has recently been concluded.
• A variation of a condition to build 402 units at Belvedere Park was granted in 2010. This allowed the developer to scrap the original approval to include 62 affordable homes. As a result, the final scheme concluded in 2016 includes zero affordable homes.

 

14 December - A slow news day

Writing the minutes of last week’s Abbey Wood Traders’ Association minutes took up all morning and more, they are the longest ever and there is not a single thing I can drop hints about.

I suppose that as a local resident I can offer the personal view that I remain pessimistic about the area south of the railway line. To the north the old can be pulled down and renewed but there is no prospect of that in and around Wilton Road.

Regeneration can be a mixed blessing. My house was so badly plumbed I gradually stripped it all out and did the job properly, like actually putting an olive and nut on the inlet to the hot water tank and solving the dreadful internal condensation problems. I became quite a good customer of Plumb Center opposite Sainsbury’s.

Plumb Center’s last day of trading will be 20th December and every one of the staff, some of whom have been there 20 plus years, have been made redundant. Really helpful people too and the Crayford branch is unlikely to be as good.

Those who have been moaning about Greenwich Council not emptying their Felixstowe Road bins since the new station opened seven and a half weeks ago can stop moaning now. By lunchtime today everything had been cleaned up.

I don’t think Greenwich did too badly. It is understandable that an abandoned footpath would be dropped off the cleaning schedule and the first reports of a problem would not have reached them until last Friday.

A day to argue whether it was their problem or Bexley’s. A day to decide to inform their cleaning contractor and another day to rearrange the schedules.

Whatever the case they attended to the mess quicker than a new Belvedere fly tip reported to Bexley Council on Wednesday last week.

 

13 December - A bit of this and a bit of that

It must be Christmas - 1
I don’t think Bexley’s Cabinet Member for roads, transport and unnecessary traffic jams, Alex Sawyer was ever very keen on imposing Sunday parking restrictions in Bexleyheath. Alex occasionally shows signs of possessing common sense unbecoming of a Bexley Cabinet Member and he has found an excuse to defer the planned attack on motorists and the town centre itself.

Click the image above to read all of the letter.

It must be Christmas - 2
At last night’s Cabinet Meeting approval was given to a scheme whereby all of London’s 32 boroughs will pool their Business Rate income and redistribute it according to a formula thrashed out by representatives of each Council, in Bexley’s case Councillor Teresa O’Neill.

Bexley’s share will be £2·8 million (just over 1% of the capital’s total hand out) though the figure will not be confirmed until the Summer of 2019. (Nineteen!)

It is not all good news, Bexley will lose £8·5 million of Revenue Support Grant.

Bexley Council is claiming that “the £2·8 million is new money” but they lie so often that one wonders if it is or whether it is just the usual gloss. Where did the £8·5 million go?

Memorandum of Understanding.

It’s not Christmas after all. Bah humbug!
While other London borough's have been advertising their pre-Christmas free parking, Bexley Council has said nothing. But there are a couple of weekends to go yet.

Before BiB caused a change in lifestyle in 2009 I went to Bexleyheath only once a year, just before Christmas and came back loaded. Since then the immediate family all agreed to give up on presents but my son married into a family which goes overboard on it and that is where I will be this Christmas. Everything has come from Amazon, well strictly speaking not, the last two parcels are due today but not been seen yet.(And it is nearly six o’clock!)

Bexleyheath and its constant road works are best avoided. The Christmas respite has come too late for me.

It’s Greenwich’s problem

Over on Facebook Bexley Council has been slated for not emptying these bins. They are only a few metres into the Royal Borough but they are most definitely not on Bexley’s patch.

I reported them to Greenwich Council last Thursday but almost a week later they are in an even worse state. Greenwich is reported to have denied they are theirs which is nonsense. It is surprising they have not blamed the snow.

Any excuse will do.

The World is your Lobster
What sort idiot names a travel card after a shell fish? It’s always been a puzzle to me.

I have never owned an Oyster card but I have used a contactless debit card occasionally because it saves a few pennies - but not at Abbey Wood apparently.

It has been widely reported that one of the ticket barriers at our shiny new station has been failing to register anything on TfL’s central computer so maximum fares have been applied.

If you have been through Abbey Wood since (or on) 22nd October it might be worth looking at your bank statement.

Fighting fibs - again!
Why can’t people stick to the truth and try not to exaggerate everything? BiB could not exist if it lied all the time, it would tie me in knots within a week or two because I would not have the time or mental capacity to avoid the traps and contradictions that would be created.

Crossrail meetings can get heated at times because there is not much doubt that Network Rail sometimes rides rough shod over things. I am tempted to say the tactic has sometimes been to delay remedies until the problem goes away naturally.

I still have no idea why the track fences and trees along my road had to be removed, and even less about why they were never replaced. If someone called it arrogance you wouldn’t find me arguing but I have recently found myself caught on the other side of a Crossrail argument on Facebook.

Referring to the Crossrail Liaison Panel meeting about the flooding problems in Abbey Grove someone posted this…

I could not believe the audacity of what Network Rail & Balfour Beatty reps were spewing out; they obviously don’t survey the area but still deny there are problems and just want to walk away. Well done everyone who contributed to their angst.

Leaving aside the fact that Balfour Beatty’s men take their theodolites to bed with them and never do anything without a survey, the statement that they deny there are flooding problems is the sheerest nonsense. If that was the case they would not be boring exploratory holes and requesting permission to lay 350 metres of very expensive deep drainage pipes.

For taking a view which did not find favour with the baying mob I was called a hypocrite and asked to withdraw my defence of Balfour Beatty. No way!

You may be interested to hear what Balfour Beatty’s manager said last week at the Crossrail meeting in front of ‘the Facebook someone’.

Good evening everybody, my name is Andy Bradshaw, I’m the Project Leader for Balfour Beatty on the Abbey Wood station project, I have met some of you, we are talking now about the Abbey Grove flooding. Raj [Pathak, Network Rail project manager] alluded to the floods in June 2016, I was party to them, I witnessed those and I could see the appalling conditions that people were having to deal with in their back gardens and I hope it came across that we were empathetic and that had highlighted an issue which we thought merited a good deal of further consideration.

It doesn’t sound much like a denial to me.

With hindsight Network Rail should have taken more account of what local residents told them about water courses in 2014 but if the Environment Agency and the Royal Borough of Greenwich were on the record as saying “no problem” there is no way funds would become available to explore local concerns.

It’s not a good situation and Network Rail now finds itself in a difficult position but shouting at them and distorting the facts is unlikely to win any friends, and the residents of Abbey Grove are in dire need of a solution to their problem right now.

Note: There is a solution but it fails because one resident refuses to accept it.

Useless Head of Waste Department
It is more than two months since I FOI’d Bexley Council about Steve Didsbury’s promise to do something sensible with my photos of a fly tipper caught in the act. Instead he did nothing. The FOI was acknowledged but Bexley Council has refused to enter into any correspondence about it since. 20 days is the time the law allows for answers.

A few lines to the Information Commissioner was a lot easier to write than 30 odd pages to the Independent Police Complaints Commissioner.

The Royal Mail confirmed the IPCC delivery on Monday. Expect a response in six months minimum.

This is just Bonkers
It doesn’t happen very often but sometimes Bexley residents Google for Bexley Council and come up with Bexley-is-Bonkers. Then they go to the Contact page and dip their digital pen into the green ink.

This message arrived today.

Waist paper for recycling.
Hi, I reported to you on your web site that the dustmen did not take my waist paper on Monday, that is when I reported it to you and you said they will come within to days and take it away, but now one as come round and collected it.
If you are not going to empty my paper bin I am not going to put it out anymore, as me and my wife are both registered disabled and we have great difficulty in putting it out once without having to take it back in again.
If you are not going to take it we will not bother putting out.

No address provided.

Litigious Councillors
It was on 19th November that BiB announced it would drop the Maxine Fothergill business; she is not in any sense a target of this website however Councillor Fothergill has let it be known by email that she is unhappy with the decision to post nothing more, she wants the earlier reports withdrawn.

But there will be no more. Everything that needs to be covered has been covered.

 

12 December (Part 2) - Alan gives it to them straight

There are about 280,000 people living in Bexley and 279,999 of them made the right decision and didn’t go to see James Hunt and his People Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on 29th November. I found it tedious which isn’t to say it is unimportant but concentrating, as that particular meeting did, on medical matters does not make it the easiest for a layman to follow.

Blogs of a reasonable length can only report highlights and they were few and far between. As usual the public (that’s me) was herded into a place not well served by the audio system and with poor views of the proceedings. (I wandered around to find the view in the photo.)

Once again I was occasionally reduced to studying socks.

Probably the most interesting report came from Mr. Michael Ridgewell, the Director of NHS stroke services in Kent. More correctly the Programme Director, Kent and Medway Sustainability and Transformation Partnership which is reviewing stroke services in Kent and Medway in which Bexley is included.

Things are not going well, he said “stroke outcomes are poor”.

They are poor because fewer than 50% of patients are admitted within four hours and fewer than 50% receive thrombolysis within the recommended 60 minutes.

Staff shortages make seven day a week working inconsistent across the seven hospitals offering a stroke service.

A significant contributory factor is that with patients spread across seven hospitals none of them receive enough patients to develop the necessary facilities, skills and staffing levels.

A nationally recommended figure is that each unit sees between 500 and 1,500 patients a year. None in Kent reach the 500 admissions threshold. Consolidation is suggested as the solution to the problems which then poses transport problems.

Not for the first time, it was left to Councillor Alan Downing to put the arguments that might be made by a concerned resident.

He was “very disappointed with the paper in front of me. It should be of great concern to everyone representing the residents of Bexley”.

“Having read this paper I am so alarmed that decisions are going to be put forward to the NHS on 22nd [month coughed over!] and I do not know anything about this, I don’t think anyone in this room knows anything about it.”

“Someone is jumping the gun. It is not good enough. I am so concerned, [bad] timing can put that person back for life.”

“Here we are saying that it is only 27,000 people over 70 in Bexley who might have a stroke, you can’t just sit there and say I am sorry but we are going to do this and we are going to do that. I am very concerned that it has come this far without consultation. We should have a full blown consultation.”

“Thanet is one of your worst areas [for strokes] and it will be nowhere near any [stroke] hospital if this programme goes ahead. Stroke is something to be dealt with efficiently and fastly, don’t give me a programme which tells me we are going to have only three centres. People in Bexley will not be able to get to Ashford in time to deal with a stroke. Every morning there are problems on the A2 and M25. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Get this sorted out. I am not happy at all. Go back to zero and start all over again.”

Councillor Eileen Pallen insisted that ambulance timings on blue lights must be measured.

Now if you will excuse me I am off to Newham Hospital where an old lady is slowly recovering from near death due to neglect by her named doctor (Goodyear, Wordsworth Surgery, Newham) who has never ever seen her and who has failed to conduct the required six monthly thyroid check. It was last done in June 2015 during a routine hospital visit but the GP prescribed the wrong dose. Only a third of what it should have been. The endocrinologist has said that those mistakes will have caused most of the confusion evident over the past year or two.

 

12 December (Part 1) - The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing

The following is not the original blog but an announcement placed here in September 2024 as part of the long term project to progressively restore old blogs.

In 2016 a Bexley Councillor was successfully sued by an employee and a business partner for a serious libel. Extracts from the Court documents were published here as is legally permissible and checked over by both libel and media lawyers. Bonkers was charged by Kent Police for its entirely legal and totally accurate reports but quite rightly the Crown Prosecution Service dropped proceedings as soon as they heard of them. However the Councillor continued to pursue legal attacks on Bonkers and eventually met with a degree of success when it was ruled that publishing verbatim one of the Councillors own sworn legal statements which was untruthful made Bonkers guilty of spreading the same misinformation.

The High Court judgment against the Bexley Councillor is presumably still held by the Court but the extracts are no longer available here because it is simply not worth the aggravation that results, not to mention the huge legal costs involved in the defence.

The unexpurgated blogs were removed on 2nd June 2019 but archived copies remain available to legitimate enquirers.

 

11 December (Part 2) - When the word of the left is far from right

The following is not the original blog but an announcement placed here in September 2024 as part of the long term project to progressively restore old blogs.

In 2016 a Bexley Councillor was successfully sued by an employee and a business partner for a serious libel. Extracts from the Court documents were published here as is legally permissible and checked over by both libel and media lawyers. Bonkers was charged by Kent Police for its entirely legal and totally accurate reports but quite rightly the Crown Prosecution Service dropped proceedings as soon as they heard of them. However the Councillor continued to pursue legal attacks on Bonkers and eventually met with a degree of success when it was ruled that publishing verbatim one of the Councillors own sworn legal statements which was untruthful made Bonkers guilty of spreading the same misinformation.

The High Court judgment against the Bexley Councillor is presumably still held by the Court but the extracts are no longer available here because it is simply not worth the aggravation that results, not to mention the huge legal costs involved in the defence.

The unexpurgated blogs were removed on 2nd June 2019 but archived copies remain available to legitimate enquirers.

 

11 December (Part 1) - Councillor Daniel Francis, an easy winner

It’s amazing how the most disreputable Conservatives have gravitated towards Bexley, maybe it’s a case of a one bad apple spreading the rot.

The Biggest Apple reports critics to the police for err… “criticising Councillors” and then her disciples abuse the Localism Act by hiding their addresses. The Act allows a Councillor claiming to be frightened of an elector to censor his Register of Interests. When I last checked there were 15 Councillors across the whole of London who were frightened of their electors, eleven of them in Bexley.

Over the weekend someone noticed just how obnoxious some Bexley Councillors can be and remarked on it on Twitter.

Sidcup Bloke it must be said is a local Labour party activist.

A few people provided examples of insults. The insults were mainly sent anonymously from @bexleynews. I am biased of course but I thought I may have won that competition with “idiot” and “cretin” from Councillor Philip Read.

However the prize was rapidly snatched away from me by Councillor Daniel Francis (Labour, Belvedere).

Three See You Next Tuesdays and a Dickhead plus an implied punch in the mouth for good measure.

 

10 December (Part 2) - Fibbing is not corruption

The following is not the original blog but an announcement placed here in September 2024 as part of the long term project to progressively restore old blogs.

In 2016 a Bexley Councillor was successfully sued by an employee and a business partner for a serious libel. Extracts from the Court documents were published here as is legally permissible and checked over by both libel and media lawyers. Bonkers was charged by Kent Police for its entirely legal and totally accurate reports but quite rightly the Crown Prosecution Service dropped proceedings as soon as they heard of them. However the Councillor continued to pursue legal attacks on Bonkers and eventually met with a degree of success when it was ruled that publishing verbatim one of the Councillors own sworn legal statements which was untruthful made Bonkers guilty of spreading the same misinformation.

The High Court judgment against the Bexley Councillor is presumably still held by the Court but the extracts are no longer available here because it is simply not worth the aggravation that results, not to mention the huge legal costs involved in the defence.

The unexpurgated blogs were removed on 2nd June 2019 but archived copies remain available to legitimate enquirers.

 

10 December (Part 1) - Crossrail again. Do the negatives outweigh the positive?

There was more to last Thursday’s Crossrail meeting than flooded gardens and the search for a solution.

Chairman Councillor Steve Offord (Greenwich Council) began the meeting optimistically by saying it was the final Panel meeting and all that was left to be done was “to pick up on a few outstanding items”.

Raj Pathak, one of the Network Rail Project Managers, kicked off the meeting with his regular update presentation.

After proudly showing off pictures of the new station and Elizabeth Line train he thanked the residents for their “massive support and cooperation” and was rewarded with cynical laughter from the usual suspects.

He apologised for “the issues with the lifts. The two outside took longer than we expected”. He was every bit as diplomatic about “the issues” as you would expect of a senior manager and neatly avoided the S word. However word on the ground is that Stannah messed up the communications system and the emergency button didn’t call the Control Centre.

They failed to make it work and eventually reinstalled all the cabling. That’s what the orange men said and it sounds all too plausible given the lift company’s reputation in the nearby Sainsbury’s and the temporary station.

The target opening date for the Felixstowe Road lifts is 15th December. Men were working on them in the snow this morning.

Andy Bradshaw from Balfour Beatty is the man who has been trying to fix the Abbey Grove flooding problems. He had seen “the appalling conditions, we were empathetic and they merited a good deal of further consideration”.

The original railway design had considered flooding and the various records and experts were consulted. “No one expected [an Environment Agency approved plan] to make things worse.”

While discussing the various options for new drainage solutions and fence alignments Andy happened to mention that some residents had found themselves with longer gardens than before work started. “A bit of a bonus there for people.” An entirely reasonable remark for which he was condemned. It was a very cynical remark apparently. If you have ever wondered why these Crossrail reports tend to be critical of the guests you have another example.

Mr. Bradshaw was then wrongly accused of making new announcements by people who had not attended all the meetings.

Another argument was about where the water came from. The sky or an underground river? The fact that the flooding occurs only after heavy rainfall suggests the former. The fact the ground is soggy all the time suggests the latter.

No one is arguing any more that Crossrail didn’t cause the flooding problem. Network Rail has explored two options, one has proved unviable, the other is beginning to look that way and they are now castigated for taking their responsibilities very seriously. The next move is to examine a third and even more expensive solution as reported two days ago.

Such was the lack of trust of Network Rail that they were pressed to supply a copy of the Environment Agency report with the next set of minutes. They agreed to make copies available.

Let’s move on to other things.

St. Benet’s Church and the loss of their fire escape was the next subject. In essence Network Rail has paid for a solution to be designed, submitted it to the local authority and the Catholic Diocesan surveyor some months ago and heard nothing since. When agreement is reached Network Rail will foot the bill. Probably they will be criticised for that too.

The Bostal Manorway footbridge ramp was opened on 4th December. It was built two years ago but not brought into use because of objections to being overlooked by one or two residents and they were supported by Greenwich Council.

Bureaucracy being what it is it has taken most of those two years for Greenwich Council to decide that trees are the answer. Panel Members being what they are meant that their chosen solution is not good enough. There are not enough trees and they are not trees, they are saplings.

Having taken a look myself earlier today I would agree that there is currently an unacceptable overlooking problem. The small trees do not solve the problem but trees grow. What other solution is there? Block the ramps in with screens and they will be the haunt of muggers.

At the meeting there was aggressive shouting and complaints that the lights on the bridge are too bright. Outside in the real world, Facebook and the like, people are overjoyed at being able to get around so much more easily than before.

After that we returned to the long standing gripes about lighting and noise pollution from announcements. As usual there were those who cannot get their heads around the fact many loudspeakers turned down low are less likely to cause a disturbance than a few speakers turned up loud. Maybe the solution is to issue every traveller with headphones. Many many speakers turned down very very low. Network Rail has been trying to do the next best thing but few appreciate it.

There was a complaint about an emergency announcement at 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning. Mathew White the MTR (station operator) man said no tests were scheduled and at that time of the morning it could only be a fault condition which he would look into. Nobody believed him.

MTR said they observed the same announcement schedule as Southeastern did.

Network Rail said they had changed the lighting on Platforms 1 and 2. An audience member said they had not.

Raj Pathak showed Panel members a picture of the inside of the western footbridge. He was criticised for his choice of glass which had been chosen to protect train drivers from glare.

The escalators are too steep claimed a know all audience member holding his hand at a 45 degree angle to prove his point. They are exactly the same as those at all other modern TfL stations said Andy Bradshaw who obviously hasn’t a clue and has stupidly commissioned a unique pair of escalators.

The Abbey Wood Traders’ Association has been assured by every Tom Dick and Mary from the two Councils that they would all be sitting on little goldmines once the new station and Crossrail opened. (As AWTA Secretary I heard them myself.)

Their Chairman said that thanks to the main exit being on the flyover with nice new footpaths that allowed Wilton Road to be bypassed, footfall was well down since 22nd October.

Bexley Council had not helped by keeping the old Gayton Road staircase open leading yet more potential customers away from the shops and holding up traffic on the flyover more than necessary.

The AWTA Chairman was assured there would eventually be a large sign to tell strangers to the area that the ugly blob at the end of Wilton Road is a railway station.

Tiffany Lynch, Bexley Council’s Head of Something or Other was “disappointed” by the lack of lifts on the opening day. Raj said there was such a long chain of contractors, sub contractors and sub sub contractors that difficulties sometimes arise. He had had long arguments with the main contractor. (It’s the S word again Tiff, Raj is too much of a gentleman to say.)

Ms. Lynch said she “felt a complete fool” for telling the Leader of Bexley Council that all was well with all the lifts when that was not the case. Maybe Tiffany would do well to look at the daily photo record in future. Oh, I nearly forgot, Bexley Council staff are forbidden to look at Bexley is Bonkers.

The lifts will be remotely monitored from the MTR Control Centre in Romford.

There was a complaint that a cherry picker was causing a dangerous situation around 9 p.m. on the 26th November when the station was closed but the concourse was accessible. I was there a few hours before that and spoke to some of the ֹ‘cherrymen’ working there. No danger then but things (and shifts) can change.

There were the usual questions about low and high level access to the station and different travel time restrictions for Freedom Pass users which were given the same old answers.

A new complaint was that the new ticket office wasn’t selling tickets and seat reservations covering other parts of the country. The MTR man said that shouldn’t be a problem and he would attend to it.

Ms. Lynch was asked about Felixstowe Road and in reply said it would be restored to two way working but be of restricted width and would remain a mess until the Autumn of next year.

And that was about it. Chairman Steve Offord may have thought it was the final Panel meeting at the outset but by the time he brought it to a close two hours later he was not so sure.

 

9 December (Part 4) - Hide your lodger

HMOs, Houses in Multiple Occupation, are not usually very popular, they have caused some ugly scenes in Bexley already.

Bexley Council wants to take action against them and is running a consultation through to the 24th January.

Nothing is done for nothing in Bexley so landlords will typically pay £985 for their licence, a fee that will undoubtedly be passed on to their tenants. Bexley Council expects to issue nearly 3,000 licences, it’s big money. Bigger even than the revenue from Yellow Money Boxes.

Neighbours might welcome fewer HMOs which they usually regard with suspicion but there will be opposition too.

One correspondent sees HMOs as the thin end of a wedge.

My son lives within the Manor Road HMO area (Slade Green) and he’s had a letter from Bexley Council indicating that they are aware that he might have a lodger. He has, he owns a normal three bed ex-Council semi; it’s not an HMO, it’s just a friend who helps him pay the mortgage.

I have a bad feeling about this so-called trial scheme. As usual it is presented as if it is to deal with anti-social behaviour in the poorer areas. I can barely see the link between this scheme and anti-social behaviour!

I am familiar with a similar scheme introduced a couple of years ago to the ‘poorer areas’ of Thanet. I think it’s another way of taking control of the borough residents who are savvy enough to let out a spare room in their own house to bring in a bit cash. I have done it for years.

As with all these schemes that encourage people to blindly register thinking it makes their activities more respectable - the real aim is for the Council to impose additional regulations on the house and the letting agreement until the whole lodger idea becomes more trouble than it’s worth.

The state is interfering in our lives more and more and in ways that we can be monitored more easily. Examples being the cashless society, smart energy and water metering, no more cash on buses and phone parking. I accept some of these things are very convenient but they are driven on relentlessly to control us ever more closely.

What do you think about this scheme?

It is true that Britain has become a Big Brother state and true freedom is just a memory. To that list you can add location tracking by mobile phone, Oyster cards, Automatic Number Plate Recognition, web site data collection and Nectar cards!

I am informed that taking in lodgers does not make a house an HMO.

Rent it Right Questions and Answers.

 

9 December (Part 3) - Fake invoices or fake news?

The following is not the original blog but an announcement placed here in September 2024 as part of the long term project to progressively restore old blogs.

In 2016 a Bexley Councillor was successfully sued by an employee and a business partner for a serious libel. Extracts from the Court documents were published here as is legally permissible and checked over by both libel and media lawyers. Bonkers was charged by Kent Police for its entirely legal and totally accurate reports but quite rightly the Crown Prosecution Service dropped proceedings as soon as they heard of them. However the Councillor continued to pursue legal attacks on Bonkers and eventually met with a degree of success when it was ruled that publishing verbatim one of the Councillors own sworn legal statements which was untruthful made Bonkers guilty of spreading the same misinformation.

The High Court judgment against the Bexley Councillor is presumably still held by the Court but the extracts are no longer available here because it is simply not worth the aggravation that results, not to mention the huge legal costs involved in the defence.

The unexpurgated blogs were removed on 2nd June 2019 but archived copies remain available to legitimate enquirers.

 

9 December (Part 2) - Normal service can now resume

The Appeal letter finally went off to the IPCC this morning after a 4:30 start to find and print all the Appendices. An eight page letter and 28 A4 documents some of them double sided. £2·40 for Recorded Delivery. I couldn’t find any facility on the IPCC website that allowed electronic upload of masses of documents.

The enclosures included little gems of evidence like the Bexley police officer who told me that nothing interesting was found on Councillor Craske’s computer when forensics had reported otherwise three months earlier.

The officer who said there had been political interference, then denied it, then owned up to the DPS that there had been and then the DPS simply dropped all enquiries into it.

And for good measure the letter from Chief Executive Will Tuckley’s to the police recommending that they prosecute me for allowing BiB readers to read the passworded file. They were all desperate to deflect attention from Cabinet Member Peter Craske. Not a single police officer did anything wrong.

In a year’s time today’s letter may reach the top of the IPCC’s pile. Once that happens the Appeal letter will probably be posted alongside all the other ‘obscene blog’ documents.

 

9 December (Part 1) - What is corruption?

The following is not the original blog but an announcement placed here in September 2024 as part of the long term project to progressively restore old blogs.

In 2016 a Bexley Councillor was successfully sued by an employee and a business partner for a serious libel. Extracts from the Court documents were published here as is legally permissible and checked over by both libel and media lawyers. Bonkers was charged by Kent Police for its entirely legal and totally accurate reports but quite rightly the Crown Prosecution Service dropped proceedings as soon as they heard of them. However the Councillor continued to pursue legal attacks on Bonkers and eventually met with a degree of success when it was ruled that publishing verbatim one of the Councillors own sworn legal statements which was untruthful made Bonkers guilty of spreading the same misinformation.

The High Court judgment against the Bexley Councillor is presumably still held by the Court but the extracts are no longer available here because it is simply not worth the aggravation that results, not to mention the huge legal costs involved in the defence.

The unexpurgated blogs were removed on 2nd June 2019 but archived copies remain available to legitimate enquirers.

 

8 December (Part 2) - Don’t ignore old wives’ tales

I went to my 13th Crossrail Liaison Panel last night, an extra one thrown in to thrash out some outstanding problems.

As such there was not a lot of new dates to announce, the main job is done and no more Crossrail related rail closures are scheduled.

It was said that the Bostall Manorway footbridge was fully opened on 4th December, ramps and all. A few trees have been planted to screen overlooked gardens.

As usual that did not meet with universal approval. The trees are not big enough, green enough, woody enough or something. There is always something to complain about.

Crossrail Panel meetings have always been contentious affairs and I have frequently felt less than sympathetic towards the critics, some are antagonistic, some are aggressive, some may be both.

I’ve never quite managed to get my head around a fear of being trapped on the platform while the booking hall is on fire. Isn’t it obvious that 200 metres of platform, arguably 400 metres, is a ready made refuge until someone turns up with a bucket of water?

if things became really crowded the track bed is available, one of the few non-technical benefits of overhead power.

A new complaint yesterday was that the hoarding around the mothballed escalator compels wheelchair users to go dangerously over the yellow line. I went to measure the narrow platform this afternoon. It is three long strides wide. It is a bit narrower alongside the stairs but wheel chairs could get by two abreast if necessary.

Then there are those who cannot get their head around the fact that many speakers kept at whisper level are quieter at longer distances than one or two speakers blaring out.

“More speakers are being installed on the Crossrail platform, why was the public not consulted?” Why should they be consulted? Speakers are part of a modern railway station, so is the asphalted platform surface, the tactile paving, the yellow line and the canopy. No consultations on them either.

It’s like the boy who kept crying wolf; when a really serious problem comes along no one takes any notice until it is too late. And now it is too late.

At the very first Panel meeting in December 2014 there was a big turnout of residents and concern was expressed by many of them that piling for the new track would disrupt as many as seven underground rivers that ran down from the hills behind Plumstead and Abbey Wood towards the Thames.

The three year old BiB report makes reference to Thames Water being consulted about the drainage problems and last night Network Rail added Greenwich Council and the Environment Agency to the equation. All of them had said that Crossrail’s plans would not cause any water problems, go ahead.

Faced with such expert advice Network Rail not unreasonably ignored the old wives’ tales and the divining rods. It is what any large corporate body would do - but they were wrong. Crossrail has created a dreadful flooding problem in the gardens behind Abbey Grove.

Network Rail is not unwilling to fix the problem, they have employed surveyors and engineers to produce a solution. It is a 350 metre pipe running beneath gardens into the station’s main drainage system; but there is a problem, well several problems really.

When some people lost the end of gardens to Crossrail many sheds had to be moved and some fell apart in the process. The new ones are sitting exactly where the drainage pipe needs to go. If they didn’t fall apart during the first move they will now.

But there is an even bigger problem. One awkward resident refuses to have a pipe buried deep in his garden, Stupid, sensible or selfish? Who knows?

With no pipe in prospect, Network Rail sunk a bore hole to see if a collection of soakaways would do the trick. That didn’t work. More a water gusher than a soakaway!

The biggest problem with the pipe solution which no one is likely to accept, is that the residents will be responsible for cleaning out the silt occasionally. What! Who is going to welcome that?

So it is stalemate unless by chance Network Rail listens to the old wives and their old men this time. They want Network Rail to remove the acoustic fencing that runs from the station to Bostall Manorway and place it closer to the railway and put in a pipe on the exposed railway land.

Not easy, the levels are all wrong for a start. The communications and power cables will all have to be moved and squashed into a smaller space, vertically stacked instead of horizontal. It’s going to cost a fortune, it will probably cause more railway closures, it probably isn’t a viable solution, but Network Rail has gone away to work out how it could be done.

I don’t see it ever being done. It would be cheaper to Compulsory Purchase the awkward home owner’s house and deposit a million pounds or whatever with Greenwich Council to bribe them into a 100 year maintenance agreement.

These Crossrail Liaison Panel meetings are going to run and run!

 

8 December (Part 1) - ‘Threatened’ by a solicitor who asked for no action

The following is not the original blog but an announcement placed here in September 2024 as part of the long term project to progressively restore old blogs.

In 2016 a Bexley Councillor was successfully sued by an employee and a business partner for a serious libel. Extracts from the Court documents were published here as is legally permissible and checked over by both libel and media lawyers. Bonkers was charged by Kent Police for its entirely legal and totally accurate reports but quite rightly the Crown Prosecution Service dropped proceedings as soon as they heard of them. However the Councillor continued to pursue legal attacks on Bonkers and eventually met with a degree of success when it was ruled that publishing verbatim one of the Councillors own sworn legal statements which was untruthful made Bonkers guilty of spreading the same misinformation.

The High Court judgment against the Bexley Councillor is presumably still held by the Court but the extracts are no longer available here because it is simply not worth the aggravation that results, not to mention the huge legal costs involved in the defence.

The unexpurgated blogs were removed on 2nd June 2019 but archived copies remain available to legitimate enquirers.

 

7 December (Part 2) - A Tale of Two Councils

It was a damp sort of day but I have known a lot worse. I was out and about three times and never bothered to use my umbrella but even a fine drizzle can flood Gayton Road. Thirty or more years it has been like it and Bexley Council has never bothered to fix it.

Fortunately it would have to be another foot deeper for the new station lifts to go under water so they should be safe. Maybe the plans for a new improved Gayton Road include plans for a proper drainage system.

On the other side of the railway it is Greenwich Council that is neglecting its duties but maybe understandably so. The two litter bins on the path to the station have not been put back on the cleaning schedule. They haven’t been emptied since the new station opened. Just an oversight presumably but the mess is getting worse as each day goes by.

The situation was reported to an Abbey Wood Councillor this evening. We will soon find out if he is better or worse than his counterpart in Bexley at litter removal.

 

7 December (Part 1) - Police official report. Delay, ignoring CPS, political interference. The aim? Get Craske off the hook

With a certain amount of relief I can report that the Appeal against the Directorate of Professional Standards’ response to a complaint originally made on 7th June 2012 is now complete and ready to go to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

The penultimate comment by the DPS which took nearly 2,000 days to compile concludes that the complaint against various Bexley officers is “completely contrary to the evidence”.

Their 15 page report helpfully provides quite a lot of evidence but no answers to any of the questions asked by fellow complainant Elwyn Bryant and myself. Judge for yourself if you think the evidence supports the police’s view that absolutely no one did anything wrong.

The crime was reported on 8th June 2011.

• The first police enquiries were made in Bexley Council’s offices in July 2011. There is no evidence that the principal witness was interviewed and there was an attempt to turn the tables on the victims by linking the obscene blog with John Kerlen who Bexley Council were intending to maliciously prosecute.
• In August 2011 the police told me that there was no evidence which would allow the case to be pursued.
• This was very obviously untrue. My MP Teresa Pearce brought this to the attention of the Borough Commander and the DPS report regards her support for a constituent as “political interference”.
• The Borough Commander called for a review and as a result the obscene blog was traced to Bexley Cabinet Member Peter Craske’s Talk Talk internet connection in October 2011.
• The Borough Commander consulted the Crown Prosecution Service in February 2012 by which time the offence he had in mind was time expired.
• The CPS suggested a different charge but Bexley police ignored their suggestion, preferring “no further action”.
• A new Borough Commander came on the scene in mid-May 2012 and at the same time Elwyn Bryant met Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe at a public meeting in Sidcup.
• Hogan-Howe listened sympathetically and asked the new Commander to follow up Elwyn's complaint.
• A week later there was an application for a search warrant and on 21st June 2012 Cabinet Member Peter Craske was arrested. Alarm bells would have been ringing in Bexley Council’s offices.
• In August 2012 forensics found the obscene blog on Councillor Craske’s computer and “another of a similar nature”.
• When it was argued (by Craske presumably) that the obscene blog was not written by him the police did not look for an alternative author, neither did they ask Councillor Craske how the second (unpublished) blog came to be on his laptop.
• Later in August the police arranged a meeting with the CPS and Bexley Council “to resolve Councillor Craske’s situation”. More than a year earlier, all parties had accepted that Bexley Council was in no way implicated in the crime, it was Craske’s and Craske alone.
• The DPS has been unable to give any reason for the police calling that meeting, indeed they have not mentioned it in their report at all.
• At a meeting with Elwyn and me in December 2012 a Detective Sergeant in Bexley admitted that the case had been “crippled by political interference”.
• When those comments reached the ears of the Borough Commander in January 2013 they were denied.
• In a telephone interview with the DPS that same officer agreed that the words "crippled by political interference" had been used.

If that officer could see the political interference, how is it that nobody else can?

There were innumerable silly mistakes too, like filling in dates on forms incorrectly and delaying evidence that should have gone to forensics immediately.

Is it possible that the delay was contrived to push the enquiry out of time? When the CPS showed the police how that could be overcome they did nothing - until a new Borough Commander came on the scene, a Commander unaware of the need to comply with Bexley Council’s every wish.

When I write letters of complaint I try to keep them to a maximum size of one double sided A4 sheet. The Appeal letter is eight pages long with nearly 30 pages of appended documents. It will cost a fortune to post. A copy will be sent electronically too.

By the end of this week things may be back to normal on BiB with one or more Scrutiny meeting reports. Tomorrow I have to find a dressing gown for an old lady, she is feeling a bit better now.

 

6 December (Part 2) - Albion Road improvements shredded!

Here’s something that was received two weeks ago and slipped through the net; Bexley Council’s propaganda sheet explaining their latest cock-up, the Albion Road ‘improvements’.

Click image for four pages of Council propaganda.

Things are not quite as described, the changes to Gravel Hill began last January and were supposed to be completed within ten months. Now we learn that work will continue until next Spring. 50% longer than planned then?

Having messed up a perfectly good road by installing cycle tracks almost at random, Bexley Council is now encouraging cyclists to ride on the footpath, probably good advice given how narrow the main carriageways are.

On the southern side of Albion Road there is a cycle lane except where it is needed most. At the junctions and roundabouts. Councillor Davey had it right when he said the roads in Bexley are Bonkers.

One of my correspondents spent a long time analysing the propaganda sheet, far more time than I have free so let’s go with him…

Better Access to the Town centre
Quote: ‘The central brick wall barrier which cut off the north and south sides of Albion Road has been removed to open up the street’. Unquote.
In the same context how about also removing the end sections of the massive six foot high wall across the top end of Royal Oak Road (south side of Albion Road)?
New brighter street lighting
Quote: ‘… and provide better colour definition’. Unquote.
The LED lights give everything a ghostly grey pallor ideal perhaps for Hammer House of Horror films but not very attractive for residents.
New Footpaths
Quote: ‘New footpaths …. where cyclists will be allowed to share them… ’Unquote.
This would seem to be contrary the Highway Code where the only reference I can find is that cyclists MUST NOT ride on pavements. Note the use of MUST NOT in the Highway Code makes it a legal requirement and offenders liable to prosecution.
Also Quote ‘Dark paving indicates that the footpath is shared between pedestrians and cyclists.Light paving indicates that the footpath is pedestrian only’. Unquote.
Again cannot find any reference to this this in the Highway Code. Wonder how would you expect cyclists and pedestrians to be aware of this distinction?
Six new pedestrian crossings
Quote: ‘…a new form of zebra crossing which allows cyclists to also cross at the side of the pedestrian striped zone. … drivers are expected to stop when a pedestrian OR CYCLIST is crossing…’Unquote.
Again I cannot find this in the Highway Code and wonder how would you intend to educate drivers that they must also stop for cyclists at these crossings?
Oaklands Car park to Townley Road
Quote: ‘… with an overrunnable central divide… ’ Unquote.
Partially over runnable might be a truer description since the whole central divide has edge kerbing with some of it up to approximately six inches high. In addition the central divide would seem to have been designed by someone with a very wonky flexicurve or after one too many at lunchtime. The central divide kerb lines wander around all over the place for no obvious reason.
Quote: ‘A new pedestrian crossing has been provided at Royal Oak Road…’ Unquote.
It is just a pity that it is on the west side of Royal Oak Road where it leads smack into a six foot high brick wall. Had the crossing been positioned on the east side of Royal Oak Road it would have been adjacent to a section of the wall which could (should) be removed.
Quote: ‘No Right Turn is permitted out of (Royal Oak Road)’ Unquote.
Why not? Vehicles are presumably permitted right turns out of the Conservatory Club car park and Cardamon Court. Why not Royal Oak Road also? In addition the Council has narrowed the exit/entrance of Royal Oak Road by curving out the kerb line for no apparent benefit since there still needs to be sufficient width for traffic both ways at this junction.
The south side edge strip of Albion Road between Royal Oak Road and the War Memorial has still to be finished. It is presently being used as a Conway dumping area.
Townley Road to Highland Road and Highland Road to Gravel Hill
The provision of parking bays with little islands on the outside of the cycle lane between Pincott Road and Victoria Road seems bizarre. All properties along this stretch have access to parking in their rear gardens that they could readily use.
In addition the kerb line along this stretch has peculiar kinks. Conways really should learn to use a taut stringline. Just stand by the junction with Pincott Road say and sight along the kerbline. The greenest of apprentices could have set it out better. Trust you have a contract provision making Conway responsible for redoing poor workmanship at their cost.
In contrast to the above cycle lane plus parking lane bays on the south side of Albion Road on the North side there are sections without even a cycle lane viz. between Townley Road roundabout and the shopping centre car park entrance and again from the shopping centre car park exit to the Marriott Hotel car park entrance/exit.
What is the point of spending vast amounts of TFL money and with the massive disruption to residents lives all to provide cycle lanes but then totally omit large sections? The pavement in these sections is amply wide enough to accommodate a separate cycle lane plus footpath.
The Townley Road and Highland Road roundabouts have still to be completed. If planting is proposed I trust it will it include bluebells to replace those which were massacred by Conways.
Update on Gravel Hill improvements
Quote: ‘The improvements are expected to be complete in Spring 2018’ Unquote.
When the work commenced in January 2017 there were notices stating that it would be complete in ten months i.e. October 2017. Hence an overrun in the order of 6 months is now being predicted. Trust for the costs associated with this overrun are down to Conways.
General
Could Conways be prevailed upon to prioritise the total finishing of ALL, repeat ALL, work between Oakland car park roundabout and Gravel Hill i.e. line painting, roundabout approach island infill etc. etc. and then to remove all their paraphernalia (barriers, cones ,materials etc.) and all their equipment from this section of Albion Road.

I drove from the direction of the bus garage, past the Civic Offices and down Gravel Hill twice last week. All the roads are being made narrower with kerbs built out from their previous positions. My family road safety expert has told me several times that all things being equal narrow roads are not as safe as wide roads because they encourage head on collisions.

I’m not sure how he has the cheek to demand such large fees for advice like that because it is a statement of the blooming obvious isn’t it?

Bexley has not only made Albion Road narrower they have removed the central reservation. And the borough’s accident statistics are creeping up.

Will my correspondent get an answer to his questions? Not one he will like obviously.

 

6 December (Part 1) - Department of inconsequential blogs

Lame Excuses Department 2
More time or less for BIB following the hospitalisation?

What I hadn’t bargained for is the number of calls from friends seeking information, one lasted 55 minutes, and from NHS staff. When Newham’s utterly useless Social Workers start to ring they are going to get a very curt response. Before I even speak to them I will demand an apology for writing to me a little over two years ago to say all my aunt’s problems were due to me expecting too much help.

I have been going to East Ham at least weekly for 30 years and have never asked Newham Council for any help beyond their standard allocation of free parking permits. It was their totally incompetent Social Services Department who muscled in on the act against my aunt’s wishes.

They were one almighty disaster zone never getting anything right and when my complaint found its way to the Mayor, Sir Robin Wales, they became even stroppier.

I doubt that Paula Peaty will want to speak to me again.

Criminal Investigation Department 2
No progress. I have ten more days to get the Appeal in. Should be enough; but that is what I always say.

Useless Head of Waste Department 2
I suppose it shouldn’t take long to dash off a note to the Information Commissioner’s Office to tell them that not only has Bexley Council failed to meet the FOI timetable, they are also refusing to enter into any correspondence about it.

Their reasons will be simple enough, if they tell me the truth, Steve Didsbury will be on the receiving end of a complaint that he did nothing as soon as he discovered who was trying to help him.

Christmas Decorations Department 2
I didn’t find out who is responsible for the Christmas lighting in Wilton Road because there was no one at last night’s meeting who might know beyond those I had already asked. The Greenwich Council officer didn’t attend as planned for what is probably a very good reason which must remain under wraps, however a couple of topics are not in any way confidential; everyone who goes around with their eyes open will have worked out one for themselves anyway.

Now that Bexley Council has built a rather nice footpath from the Knee Hill roundabout to the station concourse where one never existed until two weeks ago; people who live in the Co-op Estate area of Abbey Wood have no further need to use Wilton Road.

A very gentle slope over the flyover is far preferable to dropping down into Wilton Road and then climbing 42 steps. It could eventually kill the village shops, especially with Bexley Council planning an attractive alternative facility on the other side of the railway.

The other little thing brought to my attention last night is obvious but only if you take a moment to think about it.

While picking up a copy of the Telegraph this morning a lady who lives almost under the flyover asked me what I thought of the new station. “It is ugly” I said. She agreed, adding “it looks like a space ship dropped out of the sky”, and that’s the problem. It doesn’t look like a railway station and from ground level there is nothing to suggest it is a railway station.

The shopkeepers were reporting that people come into the Wilton Road shops and ask for directions to Abbey Wood station. The only clue to it being a station is the old British Railways sign 35 feet up in the air above the lift shaft - and that cannot be seen from Wilton Road.

Earlier today the Network Rail boss told me when the Felixstowe Road lifts will open. It is really appreciated how much inside information he is prepared to pass on but his forecast for the Gayton Road lifts was wrong (and he has since explained why) so I am not going to risk looking silly by handing out Crossrail dates again.

Note: This blog may have been longer but I am dragged away to deal with something for the Abbey Wood Traders’ Association. I get the distinct impression that the two Councils do not like the idea of me being the AWTA’s Secretary cum Odd Job Man. I suspect I will be eased out by political interference before long which will be a win-win situation. I won’t have to write the minutes but I bet I still get to see them - without perhaps feeling quite so much that I must protect the contents.

 

5 December - Department of silly blogs

Lame Excuses Department
The aunt in East Ham was transformed from a remarkably self-sufficient 97 year old to a gibbering wreck over the weekend and she is now tucked up in Newham hospital. I’m not sure yet whether that will result in more spare time for BiB or less.

Fearing a stroke or worse the initial diagnosis has proved far more encouraging. A thyroid deficiency that is off the scale, lowest the consultant has ever seen, resulting in hypothermia (33°), extreme confusion and near total loss of voice.

She has always had a thyroid deficiency and now I learn it should have been tested every six months and it was last tested in the summer of 2014. The GP simply refused to make visits insisting the old lady phoned and made an appointment in the normal way. Despite complaints I got a doctor out only once in those three years - for a leg ailment - after threatening to call the MP for East Ham and claiming him as an old school friend. Not entirely true, we went to the same school but I am twelve years older than he is. But I once shook his hand in church!

Rather too late in the day I realise that being constantly cold and running electric fires throughout the summer was an alarm signal a doctor might recognise when I didn’t.

So don’t ignore it if your old folk are always cold.

Criminal Investigation Department
Elwyn Bryant and I spent an afternoon refining the Craske cover-up Appeal letter to the IPCC. We were looking at the bit of the DPS report on what happened right at the beginning of the failed enquiry when two police officers went to chat with a few people in Bexley Council’s Chief Executive’s office.

The police should have interviewed the Council officer who Elwyn and I had been with who would have known everything that showed up on the obscene blog fewer than 24 hours later, but the police could not remember much about it and any statements had gone AWOL.

Elwyn had a brainwave, a vague recollection that he knew more about that meeting than the police pretended to. We found the evidence.

Back in 2011 the police didn’t know one blogger from another and their malicious politically motivated prosecution of the blogger then known as Olly Cromwell muddled his blog with Bonkers. The police actually sent out a press release with my name on it and not Olly’s, but that is another story.

Buried in the Olly Cromwell evidence bundle is the statement which reveals the lies told by Bexleyheath police officers - it is written evidence that what they said to the DPS was not entirely truthful. The DPS may not have known about the statement, it was filed with the wrong case papers.

Bexleyheath police were not really in the Civic Offices to investigate the obscene blog they were discussing how the tables could be turned on the victim, which may partially explain why Chief Executive Will Tuckley wrote to Bexley police suggesting they try prosecuting me for its publication.

So there are a few revisions to the Appeal letter to be made.

History and English Language Department
Someone with a long memory has sort of suggested why Cheryl Curr is off her head.

A newspaper report from 2001 reveals how a camel had the good sense to throw her over its shoulders and bounce her along a road in Cairo.

Maybe the injuries are more permanent than at first thought.

Not that the head teacher has things all his own way in this debate. Some readers are hot under the collar about a school Principal who cannot spell principle. Quite right too!

Street Cleaning Department
Bexley Council, on behalf of the blog addicted Peter Craske, is looking for a name for his new street cleaning toy. The Council has thought it worthy of a Press Release.

That Craske should be besotted by something that will spend most of its working life in the gutter is entirely natural but a catchy name will be hard to find. If I suggest one it will be ignored.

So that rules out a reader’s Porno Pete and, from one of BiB’s surprisingly large number of readers with parliament.uk email addresses, Liar McLiarface.

God Save Us from Sadiq Khan Department
The dominant bus theme at Transport User meetings is how passenger numbers are in decline, the reason being that buses are just too damn slow. I have stopped using them for that exact reason.

So in another example of joined up thinking the gormless Mayor has decided that making all main roads 20 m.p.h. zones is a good plan.

When we get autonomous buses capable of driving themselves - with a driver on board I must add before anyone gets too excited - they will not be capable of exceeding speed limits so then we can be sure that bus journeys will be even slower and TfL revenues will fall even more.

Believe me, it will happen.

Useless Head of Waste Department
Not another Steve Didsbury three weeks overdue FOI story, but close.

Bexley Council has issued another of its Press Releases and its street bins for plastics are for the chop. The problem is contamination and it is a very real problem. But is the solution to take the bins away?

If I was a bin contaminator seeing no plastics bin I’d just dump my stuff in the paper bin instead. How is withdrawing bins ever a good idea? The Council says the contents of a contaminated bin have to go to landfill, but so will the rubbish strewn around the streets. Who is gaining by Bexley’s move, except perhaps the people who run the service?

Christmas Decorations Department
The Abbey Wood Traders will gather for their monthly meeting in the Abbey Arms this evening and not a drop will be drunk, never has been so why change things just because Christmas approaches?

I will be sworn to secrecy again so if the Councils have anything interesting to say I will try to keep shtum. However I will try to find out who is responsible for Wilton Road’s Christmas lights. I do not remember seeing them in previous years and none of the traders I have spoken to, even the Chairman of their Association, has any idea where they came from.

 

4 December - Cheryl Curr; Despicable Me

Last week I heard the Bexleyheath Business Improvement District manager address the Places Scrutiny Committee. Nothing remarkable about that; it was interesting to hear him say that the BID gets little credit for all the activities it arranges and the town improvements it introduces because everyone assumes the Council has done it.

No wonder Bexley Council is so keen on BIDs. They sanctioned a new one in Sidcup about a year ago. Cabinet Member Linda Bailey is very proud of her achievement but it appears to be a Stalinist organisation devoid of any humanity or common sense.

Its manager, with the blessing of Bexley Council, has designated schools as profit making businesses within her remit. Her remit being basically to improve the profitability of shops.

The annual bill to Holy Trinity Lamorbey CE Primary School, along with four other schools, is £16,545 which is more than 10% of the BID’s total budget - and it goes indirectly into shops’ bank accounts.

Writing BiB for eight years has brought to my attention many examples of Bexley’s injustices but rarely if ever have I been as shocked as I am by the actions and attitude of the Sidcup BID Manager, Cheryl Curr.

Please read a school head teacher’s response (PDF), it tells you everything you need to know about Cheryl Curr and her supporters in Council. Next time Bexley Council tells you how good their education system is, remember the money that they are happy to see go into the BID’s pocket.

Unlike Sidcup, Bexleyheath’s BID does not levy unwarranted taxes on schools within its boundaries.

 

3 December - Normal service will be resumed - eventually!

The Appeal letter to the IPCC which must inevitably follow the catalogue of errors and unexplained failures by Bexley police on their Craske investigation is very nearly complete, it may take a couple of days to find and add the required Appendices and make sure it all makes sense, but basically it is done.

So will BiB resume normal service tomorrow and report on the two recent Scrutiny meetings? Probably not.

The 97 year old aunt in East Ham has taken a turn for the worse and caused emergency situations on each of the past three days. Among other things she has decided that “now she is nearly 69 I think it is time I gave up work. Will I have to send them a letter?”.

Worse is that she has suddenly started to do things which I consider to be dangerous.

So a Scrutiny meeting report tomorrow? I doubt it. I have a date in East Ham.

In local news, I was lucky enough to be in the right place when the Abbey Wood station footbridge was trundled out of town this morning. The plastic barriers have been removed from Wilton Road but Bexley Council has not yet removed their parking restriction notices which no longer serve any purpose - except perhaps to unnecessarily fleece motorists.

38 bridge removal pictures.

 

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.

 

1 December - Three days off?

An Appeal against the Metropolitan Police’s Directorate of Professional Standards’ report into how Bexleyheath police contrived to delay and eventually thoroughly compromise their investigation into the obscenities found on Cabinet Member Peter Craske’s laptop must be submitted within the next two weeks.

The report took 2,000 days to compile, most of it in the last 500, and in 15 pages records a litany of failure by Bexleyheath police. Mistakes, inaction, snubbing Crown Prosecution Service advice and incompetence galore. Not to mention not even looking down any avenue that might lead to an embarrassing conclusion.

Compiling all the counter-arguments into a logical and readable form is not an easy task and the next three days have been set aside to do little else.

Unless something that can be reported within just a few minutes comes along, you will see nothing much here until Monday.