7 March (Part 1) - Alex Sawyer. Heartless money grabbing hypocrite maybe. But not a cretin
Nine months ago BiB featured
Bexley Council’s proposal to extend parking restrictions in Bexleyheath to
Sundays and midnight. If the post bag was a guide,
no one
other than the accountants in Bexley Council was was in favour of the idea.
Then everything went quiet, there were questions asked on the Streetlife
forum , which no longer exists, but no one had any answers.
Yesterday that changed. Bexley Council began to distribute letters to some of
the affected households, or maybe only those that had protested. It is doubtful
that the Council would want their decision to be widely known.
Fortunately the extension of single yellow line restrictions to midnight appears
to have been dropped, but hard luck if you do your shopping in Bexleyheath on a
Sunday. You may wish to spend your money elsewhere.
Click image for complete letter.
I won’t be affected by Bexley Council’s latest raid on motorists’ pockets, I
can’t remember the last time I spent any money in a Bexleyheath shop. Christmas
2014 possibly, but what impact does Sunday parking really have on local
residents? According to Bexley Council they have been complaining about
the impact on their lives. According to Bexley Council traders have been
against shoppers flocking to their shops on a Sunday too. It doesn’t seem to be
very likely, maybe someone took the brake off of Bexley’s lie machine.
I asked someone who lived in the middle of Bexleyheath for an opinion on the
Council’s latest money making scam and this is the reply.
The new letter came from Stephen Bates (Traffic Services). Just a sheet of
paper, no envelope and it said that the Cabinet Member for Traffic and Transport
(which cretin would that be?) has decided to proceed with the imposition of
extra parking restrictions in Bexleyheath Town Centre on SUNDAYS.
This is said to be in response to complaints from local residents and
businesses about the difficulties caused by Sunday parking. What a load of
codswallop! What business in its right mind would want to drive potential
customers away with extra parking restrictions?
As for local residents (and I am one myself), providing the dropped kerb
driveway entrance is left clear then no problem. If on a rare occasion the driveway
is blocked then there are remedies already available.
The Cabinet Member (whoever it is) really must take everyone to be fools and
Stephen Bates should be ashamed to write such obvious untruths.
The only real reason to impose more parking restrictions is of course for the
council to get their money grubbing mitts on even more parking revenue and
parking fines to add to those from their yellow money boxes. They may come
unstuck though as more and more motorists bypass Bexleyheath and take their
business elsewhere. I wonder which Councillors have a financial interest in Bluewater?
Well the
‘cretin’ is Councillor Alex Sawyer and it is not a word I would use to describe him. Heartless money grabbing hypocrite possibly.
Heartless because when Crossrail delivery drivers had the choice of stopping in
the middle of the road while awaiting their turn to back into the construction
site - and blocking a bus route in the process - or pulling into a residents’ parking bay,
he
recommended maintaining the fine for doing so
- and argued with me that his was a sensible decision.
Hypocrite because before he took up his present position he repeatedly argued
that Bexley Council was not fair to motorists and regarded them as cash cows,
and money grabbing because at the last Cabinet meeting Finance Director
Alison
Griffin admitted that Bexley Council is now heavily dependent on maintaining its fine revenue.