30 March (Part 2) - Now it is four bins to clutter your garden

The second part of the Places Overview and Scrutiny meeting was devoted to all things rubbish.

There was an overlong session on how the recycling message was being spread via school children, a technique which probably has merit. It has certainly worked for left wing school teachers who set out to indoctrinate various aspects of political correctness. Retaliation perhaps for my days at grammar school when all the teachers came out as Tories in 1959, but that is enough digression for one blog.

As you have been told so many times before, Bexley has taken a leading role in pushing upwards its recycling rates. In most recent years it has been the highest in London although the figures took a bit of a knock when residents were asked to separate food and garden waste, save £440,000 a year by so doing, and be charged extra for their efforts. The brown bin tax.

As a one time supporter of the Community Charge I am probably on shaky ground if I criticise the policy but once again Bexley Council was intent on deceiving the general population. Not a whisper about how the service became cheaper to operate, only the implication that it wasn’t, hence the charge.

All policies need to be reviewed occasionally and Bexley Council believes it can save another £450,000 a year by moving all waste collections to a two weekly cycle. The widely disliked plastic boxes are to be replaced by two wheelie bins. Green with a blue lid for paper and cardboard and green with a white lid for plastic, glass, cans and cartons. If it is a service cut, and moving to two weekly collections may well be regarded as one, it is nevertheless relatively painless - unlike the bin tax in 2015.

The standard arrangement will be a 180 litre bin for paper and a 240 litre bin for the plastic and stuff. Where that may not be enough space, or perhaps too much, alternatives may be chosen. 140, 180 or 240 litres are available with both lid colours.

I shall order small ones and with any luck be able to get them into the roof space where they can join the three black boxes that went up there ten years ago. I don’t suppose I am alone in having no free space for more ugly wheelie bins in my front garden.

The three bin sizes will be on show in the Broadway on 25th, 26th and 27th of April and you will be able to order your preferred size at www.bexley.gov.uk/request-your-bin-size but not yet, it will be a week or so before the web page goes on line. If you need a bigger paper bin or a non-standard plastics bin (either bigger or smaller) be sure to place your order before the end of May because Bexley Council’s flexibility does not extend to changing the bin size later.

There is no point in restating what is in the leaflet when you can read it for yourself.

Note: If you wonder how I get away without ever having used the three waste boxes, the answer is a compost bin kindly provided to me at a very low price by Bexley Council when it was under Labour and a ‘roadside’ communal collection point just 20 seconds walk away.

 

29 March (Part 2) - Amey down the toilet

There is only one notable thing left unreported from last Wednesday’s Scrutiny Committee meeting and that is Amey. Who is Amey? Among other things it is a facilities management company and Bexley Council became involved with it in 2015.

The plan was - when was it anything else? - to save money by getting Amey to do all the Council’s odd jobs from running the reception desk through school meals to cleaning the Civic Office’s loos. They attend to the housework at 26 Council sites.

Things have not worked out well although the scale of 2015’s poor decision gets nowhere near competing with Conservative Barnet’s decision to hand over pretty well every damned thing to Capita. An all eggs in one basket decision which has brought Barnet to its financial knees.

Bexley Council may be daft at times but it is a long way from being that daft. Here are a couple of choice comments from the meeting.

“Amey did not impress.”

“Amey are not too interested or engaged with us.”

As you might expect the contract is going out to tender again at the first opportunity which is next year.

I asked the doorman on the way out if he knew what was being said in the chamber. He did and he was happy with it, so all’s good.

 

28 March (Part 2) - BexleyCo-lapse

BexleyCo is Bexley Council’s wholly owned subsidiary company set up to enable them to do things they could not legally do otherwise; mainly sell public spaces and build on them for a profit. The target is a 7% return to the Council

Soon after it was set up I met someone who had been to a meeting with its management, I have forgotten exactly what was said but I know it was not at all complimentary. The manager at the time, since departed, came in for particular criticism.

Tuesday’s Resources Scrutiny Committee meeting spent 35 minutes proving the forecasts to be true. Deputy Council Leader Louie French said it was all down to “teething issues” and every new company suffered them.

Bexley Council is the sole shareholder in BexleyCo and acts as its banker. There is no other source of funds. The Council has provided working capital of up to £2 million and a loan of up to £200 million. The Finance Director said that only £300,000 of the loan has so far been handed over (the figures below suggest that some of the working capital must have been spent - or rather wasted) and BexleyCo has yet to put “a shovel in the ground” - to quote Councillor Joe Ferreira (Labour, Erith). He confirmed that the Managing Director position is currently vacant. Cabinet Member Leaf said that another “recruitment process is in place”. A lady Chief Executive has been appointed already.

He went on to say that he wanted the new board to have “expertise” and implied the old one didn’t. Like my ‘someone’ he had been to meetings with BexleyCo and “left more confused than when we went in”.

Cabinet Member French confirmed the gloomy news when he said the new management team “should deliver a better company”. Councillor Cheryl Bacon (Conservative, Sidcup) thought that the management team should be answerable directly to the Resources committee. Her idea was adopted.

It was left to Labour Leader Daniel Francis (Belvedere) to get to the real point. A decision to build on “Old Farm Park was made in May 2017 and only now are we bringing the reserved matters application forward. If it had been a private developer we would be saying why haven’t you got on with it”.

“We brought forward an application on Wilde Road and spent £250,000 of public money on it and refused it.”

“We brought forward an application at Nag’s Head Lane and spent taxpayers’ money on the consultation, the architect, the planning consultants and then withdrew it after submitting the application.”

“We had a Managing Director on a very expensive day rate who left, had an interim Managing Director, one of our own staff, and a new Managing Director and less than a year after his arrival he has left. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money which we have lent the company and not a spade has been put in the ground. Three applications, one refused, one withdrawn, one approved. Not the greatest success rate.”

“The money has been peed up the wall in some respects.”

Deputy Leader French was right to say it was a good thing that the Planning Committee had been impartial and independent when turning down the application for Wilde Road but quite how that excused BexleyCo’s ineptitude he did not say. The point was not lost on Councillor Francis who referred back to the total waste of money which was Nag’s Head Lane. Nobody knew why BexleyCo had withdrawn its expensive application. Deputy Leader French he could shed no light on the matter because no one on the present Committee was in post when the Nag’s Head decision was taken.

 

27 March (Part 2) - Not much enthusiasm shown for local shopping facilities

A year ago a collection of Peer Councils gave Bexley a devastating critique of their Scrutiny procedures. Naturally the Conservatives hid it from view before the election but it all came out in the end. “Thousands of hours taken up to achieve nothing positive” was the verdict of the Peer Review on Scrutiny Committees.

Credit where it is due, the Scrutiny Committees have been changed considerably since then with in some cases new Chairmen.

It may be coincidence but I have found the Resources Scrutiny Committee meetings to be much more interesting than they used to be. A year ago I did not look forward to attending but under its new Chairman, Councillor Andy Dourmoush, it is much improved. It probably helps that he is a friendly sort of guy who welcomes public attendance and last night he had an interesting Agenda going for him too.

The first and most substantial subject matter was the Town Centres Strategy. It revealed several interesting things.

Satisfaction with Bexley’s five main shopping centres has fallen since the last survey in 2013. Town centres are increasingly focusing on culture and leisure and for that Bexleyheath scores a lowly 40% satisfaction level while Sidcup struggles to reach 15%. More than 70% of survey respondents said that Crayford, Erith and Welling were not satisfying at all. Only Sidcup was perceived as having improved Public Realm since 2013.

Bexleyheath has a reasonably high selection of national multiple outlets and is ranked 156th out of 3,500 shopping centres in the UK by that criterion but is generally seen to be much like any other small town. Few see it as a major centre.

Visitors come to the borough’s shopping centres overwhelmingly by car and only Erith has a railway station reasonably close to the shopping centres. Bexleyheath in particular suffers from the proximity of Bluewater where parking is free and Charlton is beginning to make itself felt as yet another competitor destination. A revamped Primark in Bluewater is seen as a serious threat to Bexleyheath.

Councillor Dourmoush said “that if we were serious about improving town centres free short term parking should be considered going forward”.

Crayford has the largest Sainsbury’s store in the UK but hasn’t got much more going for it. The dog track was seen as a natural place for more flats if it ever closed and so was Asda in Bexleyheath. Neither is likely in the near future but once again it shows that Councils are prepared to build housing without, and even reducing, the supporting infrastructure.

However there are some bright spots to look forward to, Sidcup will get a small cinema and Bexleyheath will get free wi-fi before long.

The Town Centre Strategy is a huge 115 page document crammed with information and the foregoing can only skim the surface of a very few things. Anyone with a serious interest in retail should be studying the report very carefully.

For light relief here is what people have been saying about the local nightlife (plus Bexleheath by Day).

Bexleyheath Day and Night

Crayford and Erith (Night)

Sidcup and Welling (Night)

 

26 March (Part 2) - Jackie Belton

It only took eight months or so but Bexley seems to have found someone willing to work here as Chief Executive. Let’s hope this one is more reasonable than the last. Her first move was to attack me and then she apparently fell out big time with the Leader. Bye Bye Gill Steward.

I’m sure we all look forward to a period of peaceful co-existence. When her predecessor Gill Steward rolled up I found the web awash with adverse comment from her time in Cornwall and West Sussex. Numerous bloggers and internet commentators had come to the same conclusion as Bonkers soon did.

But for our latest recruit I found very little and amazingly it was complimentary. Maybe Bexley is on to a good thing. It looks promising so far and we have something in common. Jackie Belton has worked in Newham.

Press Release here.

 

18 March - Sell ’em cheap and buy ’em dear

The days when I could rely on a team of five researching and submitting Bexley stories have long gone and for the most part Bonkers relies on random input from strangers, sometimes anonymous strangers.

One such individual must have an interest in the lamentable housing situation in the borough because he - or she, but I am going to stick with he - has several times pointed me in an interesting direction or comes up with some little gems of information himself.

He has a good memory too and recently steered me all the way back to 1st July 2017. Bonkers had reported that Councillor Stefano Borella revealed at a People Scrutiny meeting that Bexley Council was wasting money - over a longish period perhaps - by selling off its own housing stock only to buy it back again at inflated prices for use as temporary accommodation.

Nearly two years ago 74 homes had been purchased with another 190 to follow soon and we know that it is still going on, Cabinet Member Alex Sawyer said so.

Bonkers’ tame researcher is trying to track them via the Land Registry looking out for large batch purchases

One batch he came up with recently includes the following addresses which at one time may have been Council houses. He thinks Bexley Council is likely to be the buyer; whether it is, only Bexley Council and the immediate neighbours are likely to know.

18 Halstead Road, DA8 3HX
140 Birling Road, DA8 3HS
10 Elmstead Road, DA8 3JA
12 Stelling Road, DA8 3JH
153 Birling Road, DA8 3HR
82 Halcot Avenue, DA6 7QD
169 Halcot Avenue, DA6 7QA
97 Lensbury Way, SE2 9TA

The price of all the DA8 properties was £550,000 while SE2 went for just under half a million and one of the DA6s a hundred grand less than that.

Four months later it sold for an extra £120,000.

 

16 March - Ancient woodland destroyed while Bexley Council stands by powerless to stop it

I think the devastation wreaked on gardens adjacent to the Lesnes Abbey Woods and indeed the woods themselves was first given a public airing here on Bonkers.

From there it went to Belvedere Councillor Sally Hinkley who went around to take a look and she called in Councillor John Davey whose ward it is in. He alerted the Planning Department.

Teresa Pearce MP immediately went to take a look and has lent her support.

Currently the Planning Department appears to be paralysed by the cunning of the rogue developer who has a long track record of circumventing planning law and wrecking the lives of his neighbours.

This week the resident who has the misfortune to live next door to the developer and who was initially fooled by his promises has made a public plea for help.

Bonkers cannot do better than present it to you in full.

Click on the photos to enlarge them and get the best possible view.

Some of you already know about the trouble we have had when a developer purchased the property neighbouring ours. They have destroyed the gently flowing slopes down to the forest, the green garden borders that seamlessly blended into the forest and ripped out the ancient trees. They have excavated the land and created a six metre cliff edge on the other neighbour’s boundary with no protection from falling. They have left our gardens so dangerous, we have to supervise our kids if they play outside.

They have built an enormous concrete raised platform, essentially IN Lesnes Abbey Woods - suitably engineered to put buildings of many storeys in height on top. It looms over the footpath in the woods like a huge monolith and is terribly out of keeping with the gardens around it. Looking out of our windows now is like looking out on a mining operation.

Anyone who has walked in the last six months or so along the south edge of Lesnes Abbey Woods will have seen it – it’s massive, it’s ugly and it overshadows the footpath terribly. Unless we speak up it will stay there.

The council finally put a stop notice on the works and the site has been lying still, our gardens slowly eroding away while not much else happens for months. The developer has now retrospectively applied for planning permission to keep all the existing earthworks and the enormous 300 square metre concrete slab and not repair any of the damage done to the boundaries. The documents they have submitted are a complete work of fiction - suggesting that the concrete structure - that would have cost them upwards of £50k. to pour the concrete and materials - are in fact a base for a lawn! I assume they think we are terribly stupid.

Apart from the horrible situation that this leaves our families in, with the potential that maybe, just maybe, they choose to flout the planning laws again and choose not to put a ‘lawn’ on top of it.... allowing this application to pass without objection will create a precedent to any developer with property on the border of Lesnes Abbey woods to do the same thing. There will be nothing to stop the forest becoming ringed all around with a wall of concrete. Lawns or not.

Unfortunately we are not allowed to object on the basis of what the structure ‘may’ be for, we can only object on what they say they are applying for - however, this is pretty easy as what they have built already is a gross violation of our beautiful forest.

But time is critical!

The first deadline has already passed for objections (13th March), but Bexley Council say they will consider all opinions and objections lodged on the website ‘until they close the application’ whatever that means - so please, please, please, would you consider taking five minutes as soon as you can to go on to the planning portal and registering an objection (if you do?). The sooner you can do this the better. According to the Council, voices really count.

The link to the planning portal is here.

Just enter 238 Woolwich Road in the search box to see the application. It takes five minutes to register, tick some boxes as to why you object and leave a short comment if you wish.

Have a look at the pictures to see what they have done to your forest and our families garden. It’s quite difficult to actually get the scale of the destruction in a few photos, but I think you will get the idea.

Please consider lending your voice to this cause!

Thank you!

Directly related blogs.
2nd October 2018 - The background to this story.
4th October 2018 - Concrete delivery.
9th October 2018 - Bexley Council belatedly marks out the boundary line.
29th January 2019 - Neighbour has to apply for planning permission.
31st January 2019 - Enforcement Notice.
26th February 2019 - Singh makes another planning application.

 

15 March (Part 2) - Not every journey matters. © TfL

Choices, choices. An invitation to a pub quiz? No there will be another one next month. Sadiq Khan speaking at Crook Log? (How apt!) Not a lot of point, that’ll be all over the web later and he’ll only blame someone else for his failings. Bexley’s Transport User’s Sub-Committee? It will have to be that; if I don’t go absolutely no one will know what goes on there and it is usually interesting.

The decision was made, Councillor Clark’s meeting it had to be.

It’s not a meeting where I go overboard with the photography. One or two shots to prove I have been there and put the camera away. Yesterday the shutter button was pressed twice as the meeting started which earned me a minor telling off from the Chairman. I hadn’t waited for her to grant permission for photography.

It is about time that someone told her she has no choice in the matter courtesy of the laws brought in by Saint Eric Pickles in 2013.

Maybe I will take my long lens along next time to make the point.

The meeting was one of two halves; a three quarters of an hour session on railway matters and then a quick run through school transport, police matters, bus performance, road safety and road works.

The non-railway matters were quick because the Youth Council people failed to show up, the Police South East Traffic Team failed to show up, the Police Safer Transport Team were AWOL and Transport for London were presumably lost in transit. Chairman Clark said the TfL non-attendance was “deplorable”.

Cabinet Member Peter Craske didn’t look well; always highly coloured, this time he bore a passing resemblance to a raw steak. He spoke for three whole minutes early on, somewhat incoherently to my mind, and then promptly waddled out banging the door loudly and was never seen again.

I do hope he is well, maybe he went off to do battle on our behalf at Crook Log.

Councillor Clark is probably right about TfL; if they cannot even get the routes on a bus stop right what hope is there?

The brand spanking new stops shown here are right outside Abbey Wood station, Photo 1 is on the southbound side and Photo 2 is for buses to Thamesmead. Where has the B11 gone?

The clue is in the location notice. The second bus stop should not be there at all, marked ‘Lensbury Way’ it belongs outside Thistlebrook. The B11 doesn’t stop there.

With no TfL staff present it was left to a Bexley Council officer to say a very few words about buses. I learned that not only has route 486 had its frequency reduced, eight minutes to ten minute intervals Monday to Friday, twelve Saturdays and 15 on Sunday, the journey time has been stretched by twelve minutes.

Councillor Borella (Labour, Slade Green & Northend) said he had the impression that the 486 bus sometimes skipped the Clock Tower in Bexleyheath because the due time simply disappeared from the display.

Route B14 which is Bexley’s worst performing bus has if anything got slightly worse. TfL are still looking for an extra vehicle but the type required is “not readily available”.

The cycling man never once switched his microphone on so I am not sure what he said; not a great deal but I did hear something in relation to hired bikes that it was easier to go down hill than up. Bexley Council’s cycling expert suggested that electric hire bikes might fix that problem.

Bexley’s killed and seriously injured statistics compare quite well with London as a whole but it is possible that their position as third greatest improver may have something to do with being not very good in the recent past. Car and pedestrian accidents of all severities are all trending upwards.

It continues to be very difficult to recruit school crossing patrols, currently there are three vacancies.

We heard that Yarnton Way in Thamesmead is becoming an accident blackspot which will surprise no one who lives nearby. I have personally encountered drivers who will take a short cut around the wrong side of a roundabout.

Chairman Clark was scathing about the way parents park while dropping off children at school, sometimes turfing them out into the middle of the road. Every one of us out at the right time will have seen the same.

Continuing road works mainly concern Abbey Wood. Gayton Road will be blocked for four weeks in April and on the other side of the railway work on Felixstowe Road will commence after Easter, The station lifts will be taken out of service for anything between six and ten weeks dependent on whether you listen to Network Rail or Bexley Council.

Work at the three ‘gatewaysְ’ to Bexley Village continues and a new Zebra crossing will be installed in Halfway Street Sidcup. When? No one said.

Fortunately the 45 minutes spent on railway matters was much more productive. Full report during the coming weekend.

Note 1: This time last year Bexley was covered with snow and very few buses were running. This was because a recent idiotic rearrangement by TfL had based many of Bexley’s buses in Dartford where they were blocked in by snow drifts. Moves may be afoot to remedy that situation. Arriva has made an application to operate from 185 Manor Road, Erith. As many as 50 buses could be stationed there.

Note 2: I asked my local Councillor how vehicles would get back out of Wilton Road when it is temporarily blocked at the station end and made two way. Her enquiries revealed that a turning circle would be provided. It is hard to see how such a thing would be possible. At busy times vehicles might back up and block Wilton Road to the extent that no one will be able to get out again.

 

14 March (Part 1) - Don’t count on it Philip

The problem with your theory Philip is that Teresa will retain a personal following and your party doesn’t have one.

Then lapsed Conservatives like me who have seen what a shower of traitorous incompetents fill the government benches will not risk putting another one there, not even a Brexiteer like Anna Firth. We have seen how any one of them might prove to be a turncoat. Gove, Davis etc. not to mention quislings like Grieve.

Much more likely is that those of us who share your political views will put their cross against whichever non-mainstream candidate looks likely to do their bidding.

Very likely Teresa would come through the divisions and the Conservatives would reap their just rewards.

Always assuming that Teresa doesn’t decide she would rather have her life back.

 

10 March - The budget debate - Seconds out, Round 2

After the Conservatives’ attempt to shred the Labour budget amendment and refusal to provide additional help for the homeless the Tories set about boosting their own scheme.

The first speaker was Councillor Cafer Munur (Conservative, Blackfen & Lamorbey). He said that the Council’s biggest achievements were in the field of Childrens’ and Adults’ Social Care and praised the voluntary sector for their contribution.

No Conservative speech would be complete without a slagging off of Labour politics and Councillor Munur did not disappoint. He thought that Labour Councillors should apologise for the “disgraceful” behaviour of their activists. They had allegedly referred to Bexley’s children in care as victims of Tory financial policies. Councillor Perfect could be heard protesting the activists’ innocence.

Councillor Caroline Newton (Conservative, East Wickham) was next to speak and wished to see early implementation of the Housing Strategy and not the “rushed” spending of Labour’s £1·5 million. Somehow or other she managed to link their idea to “that other great Socialist and pension fund raider Robert Maxwell”. Councillor Putson (Labour, Belvedere) had been guilty of a “rant”.

Councillor Sybil Camsey (Conservative, Crook Log) spoke on her favourite subject, children and Special Educational Needs children. Unsurprisingly Council Perfect was in her line of fire. Bexley had always done its best for children and had delivered the first Special Needs Free School in the country.

Councillor Melvin Seymour (Conservative, Crayford) referred to the new recycling arrangements and was enthusiastic about the financial savings in prospect and getting rid of the recycling boxes. He was dismissive of complaints about the garden waste charges.

Councillor Alan Downing (Conservative, St. Mary’s & St. James) as already reported made jokes about his idea for a dog walkers’ tax. I heard nothing else worthy of inclusion here apart perhaps for his claim that the housing crisis began under a Labour government.

Nick O’Hare (Conservative, Blendon & Penhill) was another Councillor who managed to add nothing significant to the debate, however he did find time for criticism of Labour. “Setting budgets is about making choices and Labour refuses to make choices.” He then expressed exactly the same message using alternative words before saying that Labour Leader Daniel Francis had engaged “in an extraordinary rant”. Running out of ideas he dragged up Labour’s 2002-2006 40% tax rise again.

Could Councillor Dourmoush (Conservative, Longlands) do any better? It was not a very high bar, but yes, just a bit. As Chairman of the Budget Joint Scrutiny Committee he had asked the Labour Group for “alternative proposals again and again but none was forthcoming, but I was not surprised at all. This is their trademark.”

He spoke in favour of BexleyCo which he said would enable £77 million to be invested in housing and town centres over the next four years.

“It takes a certain amount of skill to prepare a balanced budget. Theirs appear to have been written on the back of a cigarette packet and it is certainly a token gesture.”

Councillor Eileen Pallen (Conservative, Bexleyheath) spoke only about the plans for looking after old people and countering their loneliness. The Council had paid a hospice to provide suitable services.

Councillor Richard Diment (Conservative, Sidcup) spoke in favour of the budget setting process and against the Labour Group’s alleged failure to participate. He praised the increase in the SEN transport budget, up to two and three quarter million pounds in 2018/19 but the costs continue to rise.

“The Council has acted to control this budget” and he referred to the new route planning software which is generating large savings. (About £200,000.) “From next September we are introducing a modest contribution towards costs for those newly passing Keystage 4.”

Price increases are never far away.

Councillor James Hunt (Conservative, Blackfen & Lamorbey) spoke of “car parks and car parking” and “even my mother has grasped paying by phone. It will now always be cheaper to pay by phone. We are also freezing short term rates in car parks and one to two hour rates for on street parking for people who pay by phone”.

Very profound James but what about the 30% increase at my nearest car park?

Councillor Howard Jackson (Conservative, Barnehurst) said the Tory manifesto spoke of “keeping Council Tax as low as possible”. He thought the budget had achieved that. (It is going up by the maximum that the law allows.)

Councillor Peter Reader (Conservative, West Heath) quoted many statistics which suggested that Social Care Services must be much improved. “The Labour Group’s Fake News is laid bare.”

Councillor Cheryl Bacon (Conservative) spoke only about her Sidcup ward and how brilliant it was. The retail experience, the new library, the new cinema, two micro breweries and a spa hotel.

Councillor Daniel Francis said it remained the case that “the cake was 60% smaller than it was nine years ago. As a result of that, for the second year, we have to be heavily supported by drawing on our reserves”.

“In 104 days the budget gap grew from £14·4 million in November to £18·8 million. The Section 551 Officer [Finance Director] has said that in a few months time we will have to rip up the budget.”

He protested that when he had asked questions about overspends at Scrutiny meetings he was told that he could not ask the question. The overspend of the temporary accommodation budget had been kept secret for the first ten months of the financial year. A reference to Page 333 of the Cabinet Agenda published here yesterday.

Leader O’Neill summed up. “Councillor Francis obviously doesn’t understand the financial landscape. The Section 551 Officer has only put down red lines that say we do not know what the future holds”.

“The housing crisis started in 2004, Jeremy Corbyn said so. Bexley punches well above our weight which was shown last year when our residents voted for us and gave us a majority.” She asked the opposition to vote for her budget. They didn’t.

We will now have Tweedledum and Tweedledee Tweeting that Bexley Labour voted against various good things, like freezing short term parking fees. I don’t know why they do that. Having lost the amendment surely it makes sense to go with second best? There’s only a comparatively small difference between the two parties.

I’ll never make a politician will I?

 

9 March (Part 1) - TfL. Failed again

I was out on the weekly reconnoitre of any progress made on the Harrow Manorway regeneration project and risking life and limb crossing it four times between Lensbury Way and Yarnton Way and for the fifth time thought it would be best to cross at the new traffic lights.

Didn’t last long did they? How long since Transport for London commissioned the long awaited pedestrian crossing outside Abbey Wood’s Elizabeth line station? I’ll save you looking it up, it’s nine days.

On the plus side they have put up a proper bus stop flag on the pole.

Note: An eagle eyed reader has spotted that taken literally you had better not wait there for the B11. Reported.

 

3 March (Part 3) - The Leather Bottle site remains a mess, should we believe the developer’s plans for Woolwich Road?

This is just heartbreaking isn’t it? It’s the view from 240 Woolwich Road of the devastation wreaked on the owner’s garden and Lesnes Abbey Woods by Mr. Kulvinder Singh, the rogue property developer responsible for a number of eyesores around town.

How would you feel if the house you bought for its wonderful woodland views and in which you had invested so much time and money was brought to this in just a week or two by someone who ignores the planning laws while Bexley Council slumbers?

Soul destroying.

How does he get away with it?

Beneath the grass is a massive concrete slab held in place by huge walls penetrating many feet into the ground.

The excavated spoil was dumped on neighbours’ gardens resulting in the loss of some trees and the gardens were changed to the extent that one neighbour was advised to seek planning permission for the new and unwanted landscape.

Mr. Singh has been issued with an Enforcement Notice to remove his eyesore and he must do so by the end of April.

The day after the Notice was served Singh submitted another planning application for the works he has done and still wants to do. 19/00194/FUL.

The plans may not be strictly inaccurate. It is not made very obvious that the slab boundary extends into the woods.

The foundation is described as a lawn and the stated boundary wall heights suggest that someone equipped with a tape measure should be taking a close look.

The boundary to 236 is currently in danger of crumbling but there is no reference to any remedial work.

It is all very difficult to understand. In common with its neighbours 238 Woolwich Road had a very steeply falling garden. Now it is being suggested that the primary purpose of the works is terracing connected by attractive sweeping staircases.

Why would a property developer, a property developer with a reputation for leaving ugly blots on the landscape - dare we mention the Leather Bottle - wish to create something worthy of a latter day Capability Brown?

His neighbours are deeply suspicious. Why does a lawn require foundations which they estimated to have cost in the region of £100,000?

It simply doesn't make sense. Will Bexley Council be fool enough to withdraw their Enforcement Notice?

At the present time there does not appear to have been any formal objection to the scheme, perhaps one or two of the regular Lesnes Abbey Wood walkers will have their say about people who encroach on the woods and dramatically change the landscape.

According to a Woolwich Road resident, rather too late in the day, Bexley Council has made a Tree Preservation Order that covers the area in question.

Directly related blogs.
2nd October 2018 - The background to this story.
4th October 2018 - Concrete delivery.
9th October 2018 - Bexley Council belatedly marks out the boundary line.
29th January 2019 - Neighbour has to apply for planning permission.
31st January 2019 - Enforcement Notice.
26th February 2019 - Singh makes another planning application.

 

1 March (Part 2) - Councillor Peter Craske does a hand brake turn. Who yanked his string?

The Cabinet meeting earlier this week was more interesting than budget setting meetings usually are because the decision taken at the start directly affected the decision taken later. More precisely the changes to recycling (a big one or a piddling little one) would in effect set the Council Tax rate.

As such 100% of the Labour Councillors showed up to see the drama played out, plus 16 Conservative Councillors and five members of the public. Most buzzed off home before it finished.

It was good to see the Steward’s Wall absent again. It signified the divide between Bexley Council and its residents and after four consecutive barrier absences one must assume that we are seeing a kinder gentler form of politics in Bexley. © Jeremy Corbyn.

Cabinet Member for Bins Peter Craske had been furiously Tweeting in the days before the meeting that he needed to be bold as the Conservatives were in 2007 when they rearranged recycling in a way that was seen as unpopular at the time but drove the recycling rate to unprecedented levels.

Be bold again he said, it paid off last time and being bold again meant saving £1·3 million a year by collecting residual waste every three weeks.

What else did he say to justify the change? Rubbish collection is something that affects everyone and the Council Leader reminded everyone of that.
Director David Bryce-Smith the Chief Binman was asked to give some details of the collection schemes that could be implemented. Overall he wanted to improve the recycling rate and tackle the problem of wind blown litter.

Both options include “retaining weekly food collection but moving from the current weekly dry recycling in three boxes to two weekly dry recycling with two wheelie bins. One for paper and cardboard and one for plastics cans and glass. Glass would no longer be collected separately”.

“Two options were considered for collecting residual waste [the green bin], one was moving from two weekly collection to three weekly and where that has been done elsewhere experience shows that it leads to a significant improvement in recycling levels and we expect that would move us closer to 60%. It delivers the highest financial savings, nearly £1·3 million. However there were a lot of objections from residents.”

“The other option retains two weekly residual waste collection but we hope there might be some modest improvement in recycling but a reduced level of saving. Those are the two options for Members to make a decision on.”

“In either case the contract with Serco will need to be extended for eighteen months.”

The choice was between the bold decision advocated by Cabinet Member Craske on Twitter or a minor adjustment of the status quo to stop bin box lids being blown down the street.

Cabinet Member Craske set about confirming that he favoured the three weekly deal for residuals.

First he thanked the Council officers for their “forward thinking”. (Ah, he is going for the bold option isn’t he?)

However he admitted that the consultation labelled the new arrangement as “barmy, will lead to fly tipping everywhere, our bins will be overflowing and it will attract flies and maggots and 75% of respondents opposed the plan in a News Shopper poll”.

“But they are not the consultation responses from just now they are the responses we got in 2007 but we put forward the changes from what we had then to what we have now. The reason was to increase recycling rates and reduce the amount going to landfill and here we are eleven years later with a simple scheme that residents got right behind.”

“If we hadn’t taken that decision then we would be paying £3·6 million a year more for the cost of running the service and £11 million in landfill charges. It was a bold decision.” (That’s it then; a clear indication that Councillor Craske is going to be bold again and look after the taxpayers’ hard earned pounds.)

The percentage of residents objecting to the changes now is much the same as in 2007 “but it is part of our job to be bold”. (There, he has said it again.)

About the renewed comments about flies and maggots he said “they made no sense because there is no proposal to change the food waste collections at all and never have been. 50% of the residual waste could be recycled and most of it is food waste.”

(So all the criticisms are answered, Craske is going for three weekly collections isn’t he? It’s the only thing that makes sense.)

“Turning to the options, food waste will remain exactly as it is now. No change at all.”

“Turning to recycling collection, moving to wheelie bins makes perfect sense The boxes are too small. We will make that change. Paper will be collected one week; glass, plastic and tins will be collected in the other week.” (Three cheers for that!)

“Turning to the residual waste collection the recommendation is to leave it as it is or move to a three weekly collection. 75% of people opposed three weekly collection but as I said earlier, in 2007 there was a similar response then and no one can say our decision in 2007 was the wrong one. It is our job to look at things for four or five years ahead. (Here we go. Wait for it.)

“Taking all those factors into account, I can confirm that the residual waste collection that the change we will be making is none. We are going to leave the system as it is.”

(What happened there? Bexley Council’s act of cowardice will cost all of us 1% on or Council Tax bills.)

For the record the decision was backed by the Labour Group.

It reminds me very much of the final police report following their refusal to properly investigate the obscenities posted on line from Councillor Craske’s IP address in 2011.

It went on for page after page listing all the things that Bexley police did wrong. Delays, failure to look at the evidence, deliberate misinformation to the victims etc. but the final paragraph switched tack and said no police officer had done anything wrong.

The investigating officer had quite clearly been got at for political reasons. History has repeated itself. I was under the impression that it was the Labour Party that was inclined to turn its back on financial rectitude. It would appear that Bexley Tories have caught the same disease as their national counterparts. Is there any point to them any more?

 

1 March (Part 1) - There! At last

Not much more than 16 months after Abbey Wood’s Crossrail station opened, Bexley Council has pretty much finished the road that services it. Once again there is a bus stop and what passes for a shelter reasonably close to the station.

Already the complaints have landed in my Inbox, the bus shelters are totally inadequate and not only because there are no electronic destination indicators. Perhaps there will be later, there are some suspicious looking metal boxes close to each one.

The complaint is that when the wind is blowing the rain about as it was yesterday evening the shelters are “woefully inadequate”. The old bus shelter is now a cycle rack and is no good as an overflow bus shelter.

It’s penny pinching and not what was promised at the outset two years ago.

An operational pedestrian crossing does not seem to have stopped cars parking on the zig-zags and dropping off train passengers.

There are more pictures here.