10 April (Part 2) - The North South Divide
As residents of Abbey Wood and Thamesmead will know, it has not been easy to get around the area by road for
several years and especially the last two when Bexley Council took over from
Crossrail as the principal architect of chaos.
This
week they have excelled themselves. Eastern Way, the dual carriageway town
bypass that runs from Plumstead bus garage to Erith has been closed east of
Harrow Manorway. Not just lane restricted as one would expect of a Council with
a ha’porth of sense but all four carriageways at the same time. The excuse
offered is central reservation repairs.
The diversion is via Harrow Manorway which is cone restricted to half its proper
width and into Yarnton Way which is also lane restricted via a roundabout which
can barely be seen for cones. People are reporting five minute journeys taking
forty or more with tailbacks to the bus garage on one side and Abbey Wood station on the other.
This photo was taken mid-afternoon today.
On Facebook some are asking who could be so irresponsible as to inflict so much damage on the
local economy and asking for his head.
Maybe the answer is Bexley’s Head of Highway Services Andrew Bashford. The same
Andrew Bashford who as a mere Team Leader effectively created Bexley-is-Bonkers
by lying to me about Abbey Road which he decided should be made so narrow in 2009 that
buses do not pass each other on the Lesnes Abbey stretch.
Andrew Bashford told me that his road design was compliant with Transport
Research Laboratory guidance on how to safely make roads narrower. Unfortunately
for Andrew Bashford he was unaware that the Senior Road Safety Consultant at TRL
at the time was my own son. He passed his own judgment on Andrew Bashford’s road designing skills.
Only at a local authority would someone caught out so spectacularly be promoted.
The photo below was posted on Facebook by Danni Değirmenci. It shows the
roundabout at the northern end of Harrow Manorway looking towards Abbey Wood
station. Progress is so slow that people are driving over the central
reservation in order to find another route, but I don’t think there is another
route. Maybe they are just going back home.
LBC radio has been featuring the Council inflicted problem on their news bulletins.
Bexley Council plans to create this chaos for the whole of this month and into
May. It should be fun when the schools reopen after Easter. One despairs for the
intellect of some public servants.
