30 March (Part 1) - Cutting remarks
There was a new doorman at the Civic Centre on Thursday evening and he had no
concept of the term Public Meeting. He told me that I couldn’t go inside without
having arranged an escort or sponsor to accompany me. I was told to go away and
“sit down over there” until my escort turned up. No one did and eventually the
gate was opened and I passed through. Good timing. Once again
I found myself holding open the door to the Chamber for none other than Leader Teresa O’Neill.
Her few words were pleasant enough and we went our separate ways. During the
meeting itself she came across to offer me a copy of a document that was being
circulated to the Committee. Nothing like that has ever happened before and
maybe I can assume ‘the war’ is over. I’ve no idea why she inflamed it by
reporting me to the police for “criticising Councillors” all those years ago -
probably poor advice from the Monitoring Officer or Chief Executive - but I
shall try not to mention it again. A truce if not a complete laying down of arms.
I sometimes think the News Shopper is more critical of Bexley Council than
Bonkers is except that it has a short memory and doesn’t highlight Councillors’
lies, deceptions and contradictions. If the Leader could reign in the excesses
of the Terrible Two I might be able to go away and behave like your average 75 year old.
The meeting itself was one of the most boring in recent memory. Part of the
problem was that it was dominated by Network Rail’s report on the Barnehurst
landslip which was expertly presented by their Route Asset Manager, Derek
Butcher, who had
previously addressed the Transport Users’ Sub-Committee. Inevitably his story had not changed.
It was slightly clearer than before that the ground sensors sent an alarm signal
at 03:30 on 11th February and a London bound train crawled through “on caution”
with the driver on the look out for trouble which he saw on the down track on
the London side of Barnehurst station.
Further precautionary work on that section of track is going to cause up to 13
days of line closure over the next two years, the first of them being for 27
hours on the last weekend in April followed by a whole weekend in May. it will
cost “multi-millions of pounds”.
Councillor Linda Bailey who had not had the benefit of attending the Transport
Users’ meeting, asked if there was any chance of “accelerating the work by doing
it over three months and fixing it once and for all”. Mr. Butcher said that
would from his point of view represent better value for money and current work
on the Brighton line had demonstrated the advantages but he would have to
consult Southeastern about a protracted line closure.
Councillor Borella (Labour, Slade Green & Northend) repeated his request for
turn back facilities west of Barnehurst and again suggested that the line could
be put in a tunnel as was done to solve a similar problem at Gerrards Cross. He
asked how much each would cost and Mr. Butcher promised to get back to him but
not before uttering the word “prohibitive”.
Councillor Nigel Betts (Conservative, Falconwood & Welling) said that when he was a boy every
station had crossover points and they have all been taken away. He said that one
should be installed somewhere between Bexleyheath and Barnehurst. The loss of
services in February had caused his residents a great deal of inconvenience and
threatened the survival of some local businesses.
The Chairman, Melvin Seymour (Conservative, Crayford), said that some of his residents were £40 out of
pocket because of the loss of their train services.
Councillor John Davey (Conservative, West Heath) asked about tree management and
was given the same answer as that provided on 14th March.
Councillor Sally Hinkley (Labour, Belvedere) was concerned that the retaining
walls acted as dams and deflected the water elsewhere. Mr. Butcher said the
official report would be covering that issue and added that while inspecting the
site himself he noted that all the houses closest to the landslip had paved over
their front gardens. He was unsure whether that was a good or a bad thing from a
railway drainage point of view but would be looking into it.
Councillor Val Clark (Conservative, Crook Log) said that such paved areas must be
made of permeable materials. (You would think as Vice-Chairman of the Planning
Committee she would know that has only been the case since 1st October 2008.)
Councillor Teresa O’Neill (Conservative, Crook Log) thought the rail
lines could do with some litter picking and that someone should be doing that
and keeping an eye on the state of cuttings too. Mr. Butcher assured her that the
cuttings and embankments were already regularly patrolled by degree qualified
geological engineers - and separately - litter pickers.
Mr. Butcher said he would be willing to address residents directly if that would
be helpful and Leader Teresa O’Neill volunteered to escort him from the building. She did not return.
Next up. Recycling issues. Where the hell will I be able to store four wheelie bins?