The Eastside Quarter
If like me you went to look at the old Civic Offices site when
Bellway held their exhibitions there you might have been deluged recently by
emails requesting your support for their plans. (17/02745/FULM).
Bellway can’t be faulted for effort!
I personally don’t have any real issues with what they have in mind but you should
remember that I don’t live there and I don’t go anywhere near Bexleyheath if it can be avoided.
It is a town centre housing development so it is blocks of flats with 44%
parking spaces and space for up to nine shops; what else would one expect? Despite cars
being discouraged Bellway’s sales blurb refers to the ease of access to major roads and the
railway station being only ten minutes away by car.
If I have an objection it is the decision to close Highland Road which will
cause long detours and force more vehicles on to the major roads which are no
longer as free flowing as they used to be thanks to Bexley Council’s obsession
with narrow roads. My postbag suggests I am not alone in being concerned about
the loss of Highland Road and some objectors submitted alternative
arrangements. However when I spoke to a Bellway man he said that the closure of Highland Road was a
condition imposed by Bexley Council. Why doesn’t that surprise me?
Highland Road appears to be open in this illustration.
Others are concerned about the loss of existing trees and the Bexley Wildlife conservation group has
published a comprehensive critique of Bellway and Bexley Council.
As is nearly always the case with major developments like this,
fromthemurkydepths has delved in more deeply than BiB would attempt. He points out that The Eastside quarter will provide Bexley Council with an
immediate bonus payment of at least £7 million and boost Council Tax receipts by about £800,000.
I doubt the Planning Committee will want to delay that sort of income with petty nitpicking.
The news on the street
I am no longer Secretary of the Abbey Wood Traders’ Association. Recruited for my local knowledge and of Council
personalities and structure but that is no longer seen as an asset.
Harassment News
Not a lot but two national news outlets were in contact with me yesterday. One by email and the other by email and telephone.
A fair amount of correspondence has been sent in which I had better not publish right now, but hopefully one day…
Every cloud has a silver lining; 60 more Twitter followers in the past five weeks.
Fiction or non-fiction?
@bexleynews is at it again, trying to deceive you. @bexleynews is Bexley
Conservative’s emulation of Joseph Goebbels on Twitter and should at best be taken with a pinch of salt.
A few days ago they were making out that
they alone saved Bexleyheath Police Station
from closure when they did little more than stamp their feet and wave banners like a bunch of student lefties.
This time they have libraries and Labour in their sights. They claim that
libraries are flourishing in Bexley and maybe some are, Bexley Council doesn’t
always make bad decisions but they do always lie about them.
The current deception is that only the Tories keep libraries open when in truth
they have closed more than the preceding Labour administration, five if one
includes the mobile libraries.
No mention of that here.
It may not be true that the number of users has rocketed either. Real numbers
are hard to get hold of but things were not looking too good this time last year. Attendance at three out of four libraries was down.
As a student of Bexley Tories’ Twitter outpourings I think I detect the same phrases cropping up in @bexleynews and @PhilipRead1.