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