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News and Comment December 2021

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30 December (Part 2) - Not so cash strapped after all?

Street ViewA reader and occasional contributor of valuable information who I suspect has close contacts with Bexley Council was intrigued by the fact that his new neighbour knocked down her rather fine front garden wall. I have learned not to ignore his contributions, even the minor ones and took a trip out to check. He is right, the front section of the wall shown on Street View is well and truly gone.

Being nosy by nature the aforesaid reader browsed the Council’s planning portal and found only an application to install a dropped kerb. Nothing remarkable about that except that the agent for the applicant was Bexley Council itself in the shape of their Grants Team.

Being equally nosy I took a look at Rightmove and found that the property had been sold earlier this year for £455,000.

The reader is of the opinion that the buyer is a Council employee exploiting the grant system but I see no evidence of that but it may be of interest that someone able to buy such an expensive property is eligible for a grant to facilitate the parking of a car. The whole of the grass area shown on the photo above is now replaced by very smart dark grey block paving which if my own quotations are any guide would not have provided change out of £10,000.

According to Bexley’s website means tested grants are available for converting existing bathrooms into wet rooms, adapting kitchens to suit the needs of the applicant, installing ramps to the front and/or rear of the property, installing a stair-lift to improve access to a bathroom, kitchen or bedroom, installing ceiling track hoists to assist with transfers, installing a downstairs bathroom and installing a heating system suitable for the disabled person.

Presumably a dropped kerb just about comes into the ramps category but how is it that a householder able to shell out such huge sums of money on block paving is getting a dropped kerb courtesy of the taxpayer? Little wonder that the Adult Care budget is always under such severe strain.

Meanwhile poor people are made to live in a house with a bucket for a bog. Maybe Councillor Nicola Taylor will be able to check if this is money well spent.

To maintain anonymity the Planning reference number is deliberately withheld.

 

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