14 July (Part 1) - Abbey Wood’s night time economy takes a knock
The Wilton Road brothel has gone and Western Union are going to miss the steady outflow of money to Romania.
It
opened in December 2015 and was so popular that the owner opened another one in Fendyke Road,
both in Bexley borough. There has been a steady flow of females dressed in night attire
between the two premises for months, some attractive and some most definitely
not, but one man’s meat etc…
I first became aware of the one in Wilton Road in January 2016 when I was
invited to the Traders Association’s four weekly meeting. The licensee of the
Abbey Arms was not at all happy to have the red light flashing opposite her pub as she
had been desperately trying to rid the place of undesirables since she took over
nearly three years ago. The druggies have gone and you can now get reasonably
priced meals there as well as coffee and cake while you wait for your delayed
train at the station next door.
The
minutes of that meeting record that the police had been told about the knocking
shop and Councillor Danny Hackett told them too. But as far as one can judge,
nothing whatsoever was done about it.
At the Association’s June 2016 meeting the police (Lesnes Abbey officers) were guest speakers and they
were most definitely made aware of the problem opposite and said they would make
a visit if only to check that there were no minors in residence or people held
against their will. Again nothing appeared to happen and at each successive
meeting the pub licensee has voiced her dissatisfaction with the situation.
Then yesterday the police sprang into action; what kept them? The lame excuse is
that they didn’t know whether Wilton Road was in Bexley or in Greenwich. In all
my 30 years in Abbey Wood I have never yet seen a police officer on foot in
Wilton Road, even Greenwich’s parking attendants are there more often. On
average once every 15 years in my experience.