19 May - Three for the price of one
Nice work if you can get it
Councillor Michael Barnbrook (the Parish of Cliffsend in Kent if you are wondering) offered
to buy me a drink on Wednesday evening, I should have known there would be a catch.
He turned up with a new printer in a box in one hand and his laptop in the
other. The two didn’t want to talk to each other and he needed to print something urgently.
I must admit the printer was a bit of a fiddle to get going in part because it
was controlled via an inconveniently placed LCD screen the size of a postage stamp.
And what was the document that he was keen to get into the following day’s post?
A complaint to the Parliamentary Commissioner about
Priti Patel paying her husband
£25,000 for doing very little and him not disclosing his NASDAQ earnings.
Not sure how he will get on, the Commissioner has something of a reputation for defending malpractice by MPs.
Note: A bit of poetic licence here, Mick is always very generous at the bar.
Welcome to Abbey Wood
For years the old Harrow Inn site in Abbey Wood
was an eyesore, but then Peabody bought it and it
was enclosed by a high quality screen. It helps that Teresa Pearce and Danny
Hackett liaise with Peabody regularly and are able to twist an arm or two.
Around the end of this year a planning application will be submitted, probably
for shops and flats above, which means nothing much is likely to happen there
for about a year, so why not decorate the screen?
I shall reserve judgment until it is finished but I don’t find it easy to read.
Crossrail
The Crossrail photos attract a decent number of visitors - search ‘Abbey
Wood Crossrail Index’ if anyone asks where they are - and more than 5,000 photos tell the construction story almost day by day since the temporary station
opened on 26th October 2014.
But there is not much to see before that, an omission which is now remedied.
It’s not a daily record but
a further year of history has now been added.
You can see what a nice tree lined road Felixstowe Road used to be. Bet you had forgotten that.
In case you missed it you can also take a look
inside the new station as it moves towards completion.