12 July (Part 1) - In the absence of adequate explanation the rumour mill will flourish
I’ve not been to any of Bexley Council’s regeneration roadshows, there didn’t seem to be any point. I know what they have planned so all I would likely get out of going is a picture of Council employees peddling Bexley’s chosen line.
Their booklet says that 27,000 new houses are on the way supported by a Crossrail
extension to Dartford (when Abbey Wood’s new station very effectively stops
another two tracks going further to the East), a DLR extension through to
Belvedere, Erith and Crayford which cannot happen soon, two new river crossings when one of the idiot
Khan’s first decisions was to put them on the back burner, an imagined express
bus-way to Dartford and more frequent bus services
elsewhere while TfL is busy moving in the opposite direction.
It wasn’t very clever of Bexley Council to
initially miss Slade Green (8,000 new homes planned) off their
roadshow schedule and to fill the gap a rumour mill started work. This week has
seen a number of worried residents come to light with stories of imminent
compulsory purchase of their homes.
One of my ‘railway friends’ (known to me because of the daily
Crossrail
photographic expeditions) who lives very close to Slade Green station was
bemoaning the imminent loss of his house to make way for a new Crossrail station
“which we know is total bollocks anyway”.
I asked Stefano Borella, one of the Slade Green Councillors, if there was any
truth in the stories of Compulsory Purchases as it was all news to me. The
answer could be summarised as “No”. There might be a handful at some time in the
future but right now he knew of no specific plans.
At last night’s Cabinet meeting Linda Bailey, Cabinet Member for Growth, referred
to a local pressure group that had sprung up and was spreading misinformation.
Council Leader Teresa O’Neill said the same thing. Neither were at all happy about it.
One must therefore assume at the moment that the mass issue of Compulsory Purchase Orders is not planned and the
report on the News Shopper’s
website deserves the same description as that given by my railway friend to the likelihood of a Crossrail extension in my lifetime.