19 March (Part 2) - Wilton Road regeneration, running very late
Bexley
Council may have taken nearly three years to improve Lesnes Abbey park
but Greenwich Council is not much better at forecasting completion dates.
They said that the public realm improvements to both sides of Wilton Road would start on 9th
January and be completed in eight weeks, so it should have been finished two weeks ago.
Guessing that they would overrun the target,
the photos page
was set up for publication today, but even the Greenwich side of the road is not yet finished. Nearly but not quite.
The Bexley side (†) should not take too long,
it has been worked on for two weeks and is nearly half done already.
The quality of the materials looks to be first class but there is a problem
outside the estate agents. Hunters had their forecourt replaced not many years ago and
have been slow to agree to its replacement by Greenwich Council.
The Council’s proposal is very fair, the land would be privately owned but all
installation, maintenance and insurance costs would be met from public funds. A
week ago the final decision on Hunters hung in the balance but it seemed likely that the
area shown in the associated picture would be replaced.
The Abbey Arms forecourt will not be replaced as part of the current project
because it forms part of the Crossrail station environs and will be improved
along with Gayton Road and Felixstowe Road as part of the station improvements.
Works very likely won’t start until January next year.
† The plastic barriers strewn across the road are not there because of vandals, it was the wind.