19 November - Bexley Council; Spiteful and Vindictive
Bollards
The pictures below are perhaps self explanatory. Bexley Council doesn’t like
people parking off road if they have not paid the exorbitant cost of a
resident’s parking permit or paid out a couple of grand for a dropped kerb.
Putting in bollards is
Bexley’s preferred form of revenge.
All of these pictures were taken today.
Bollards to you too!
Abbey Wood has been a transport mess since 2013 and whilst Network Rail restricted movement when they had to,
Bexley Council inflicts maximum damage because it simply doesn’t care.
For example the four flyover walkways that lead to the railway station
have all been out of use since July and for a lot of that time for no discernible reason.
Today they blocked off Godstow Road and Overton Road for a period said to be
five weeks - but we know how good Bexley’s time estimates are. The whole job
should have finished three months ago and the
simple changes due in Gayton Road
are running more than ten months late.
Opposite Overton Road the access to Sainsbury’s is being rebuilt half a road width at
a time but not so Overton Road where total closure necessitates a detour of very nearly two miles.
If you need to drive out six times a week that’s 100 miles of extra motoring,
and there are an awful lot of residents who will suffer.
A large area to the East of the closure will be deprived of a bus service. How many hundreds of
old people will be unable to get around?
Maybe
it would have been difficult to maintain one way access to Overton Road with
traffic light control and I concede that it might be, but the far end of Overton
Road is already ‘temporarily’ blocked off. (Photo 3.) If Bexley Council cared one jot for its residents
that barrier could have been removed for the duration.
With luck no resident in Overton or adjacent roads will need to call an ambulance this side of Christmas.
Bexley; your caring council.
Bollards to me
There
was a similar operation going on in nearby Godstow Road where fortunately the
detour is less extreme. The photography did not go entirely to plan.
If you look at
the hundreds of photos taken in and around Harrow Manorway you
will note that they are usually long shots that do not place any emphasis on the workers.
When that isn’t possible I ask them if they wish to turn away from the camera
but quite often they ask to be photographed in a good pose, There are examples
of both smiling and thumbs up poses from within the past week or so.
In Godstow Road I was told that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of Conway
employees accompanied by a demand to look at the only photo I had taken. Photo 1 here.
I refused the request. There was a problem with the camera, I had filled the
memory card and while I was fixing that the man shown here towered over me in a threatening manner. I
continued to refuse his request and for some unknown reason he decided that he
would bend over in a bottom exposing gesture - but without exposing it.
The man in the digger was not a lot better although he remained in his cab with
his hands over his face. What were they scared of?
The Leather Bottle
I
had assumed that the Health & Safety investigation into Kulvinder Singh’s
reckless demolition of the Leather Bottle in 2016 had long since been kicked into the
long grass, but apparently not.
Councillor Francis has updated us on the situation today. The Planning Inspector
has agreed that Singh’s plans are unacceptable and confirms that the H&SE
investigation is not yet shelved.
Daniel if of course diplomatic about Bexley Council’s involvement. In fact they stood by
doing nothing to check Singh’s vandalism and when the H&SE asked Bexley Council for
assistance it was refused leaving Daniel, some local residents and me to pass
information to the Executive.
Bexley; your caring Council.