17 May (Part 1) - Sidcup. Once again the message must be, avoid it if you can
Sidcup is not often a destination for me except to take
photographs of holes in the road and
traffic at a standstill, it’s more a place to drive through as quickly as possible.
It was therefore a surprise to me when reports came in earlier in the week of
unnecessary gridlock around Longlands Road.
Apparently Bexley Council in its wisdom has instructed F.M. Conway to close the
road entirely and there is no advance notice of that from the point of view of
both time and geography.
One complainant has asked Andrew Bashford, famed for
his unfortunate big fib to
me, for an explanation. No doubt it will reach me in due course and we will all
be able to see why he thought total closure was a good idea.
Maybe I should have warned a friend who came over to see me this morning.
She took 42 minutes
to drive from Chislehurst war memorial crossroads to the turn off for The
Green in Sidcup. I blamed Bexley Council and the Longlands Road closure and that
may have been a contributory factor but the real problem was another of Thames
Water’s holes in the ground. They are not due to fill it in and go away until next Monday.
So today’s message must be avoid Longlands Road, the centre of Sidcup, Albion
Road, Gravel Hill and Bexley Village. Oh just play safe and avoid Bexley altogether!