13 November (Part 1) - Injustices abound. Councils seem not to care
There was no time for reporting on Council meetings yesterday and it will be
the same today so to substitute here is a quick tale of woe which Bexley Council could very
easily sort out but those who might like to do so are hidebound by rules.
A lady of my acquaintance until recently lived for many years with her disabled husband in a
privately rented flat not far from me and close to St. Augustine’s Church in
Belvedere. She earns next to nothing from a very part-time job.
Her landlady wanted her out in order to sell the flat but few landlords are
willing to take on tenants whose income largely relies on state handouts. I saw
a sympathetic letter from the letting agent confirming that she was their only
long term client who had never defaulted on a single payment but apologising
that they still couldn’t help her.
Eventually Bexley Council stepped in and found her a flat in Gravesend which
came with a parking space for a car which is essential for her husband to get around.
Unfortunately the landlord had not only let the flat and parking spot to Bexley
Council he had separately let the parking bay to a Gravesend commuter too. There is no
unrestricted street parking because the flat is too close to the railway station.
The displaced lady immediately applied to Gravesend Council for a resident’s
parking permit to circumvent the problem that Bexley Council had unwittingly
caused but was refused on the grounds that they don’t issue them to people who
already have off street parking which on paper at least she has.
Her husband who gets a disability allowance from the government has been too
proud to ask for a Blue Badge and in Belvedere he didn’t need one. The waiting
list for a Blue Badge is long. Meanwhile as of last week Gravesend Council had dished out ten parking tickets.
This is something that a responsive Council could sort out in an instant and at
the lower levels in Bexley Council some sympathy has been on display but despite
it being Bexley Council that is effectively swindled by an apparently
rogue landlord no one at the right level has the gumption to have a word with Gravesend Council to
sort something out in the short term. If it is not sorted we will all know that Bexley
Council is the uncaring, vindictive, money-grabbing
organisation that many think it is.
Meanwhile a lady through no direct fault of her own is incurring hundreds of pounds a week in penalty charges.