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News and Comment July 2022

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30 July - Minor matters

95A Woolwich Road
Yesterday Bexley Council refused Mr. Singh’s application to double the size of his property in Woolwich Road. It is “overdevelopment” and “will detract from the character of the surrounding built environment”. (22/01325/FUL)

So with any luck he will give up and concentrate on wrecking old pubs. A couple of miles to the west the same developer is having more success. See below.

The Plume of Feathers
Greenwich Council has given Dhadda Estates permission to demolish a listed air raid shelter and build nine dwellings in the grounds of The Feathers in Plumstead High Street. (Click for the planning documentation.)

The pub will be retained albeit in a different refurbished form.

It comes as no surprise to learn that there will be no car parking facilities but never fear, the nine houses will be provided with 20 bike racks. The pub gets eight.

The Socialist war on cars continues.

Bad Doctors
It was confirmed last week that three out of four doctors (GPs) are part timers on three days a week or less. I was pleased to see that my opinion of mine was confirmed in an NHS conducted nationwide survey of GP satisfaction. Bexley Group Practice scored only 51% patients satisfied and comes only two steps from the bottom of the list in Bexley.

The Ingleton Avenue surgery comes top with 94% satisfaction.

Drug raid in Erith
Drug RaidThe police announced a major success against drug dealers in Erith last Monday.

I read their report and moved on but on Thursday the penny dropped. This must be the same address about which I have had several reports throughout the year.

I checked with one of the reporters who confirmed it was.

Little can be added to what the police have said except that the situation was reported to Bexley Council more than once over several months past without response and the local Councillors knew something, at least, about what was going on.

The story could not be reported here because doing so might have put the informant’s safety in jeopardy.


Smart meters
Mine broke due to a faulty software update after 41 days of use and Octopus Energy told me that it would be several months before they could even consider what could be done about it. Their customer service people are pretty good but I was not at all happy about the response that it didn’t matter all that much because they could still read my meter remotely.

I considered that depriving me of easy access to my own energy consumption data broke the implied contract between us and retaliated with a Faraday cage. As a result, until yesterday, my meter had not been read since May 9th.

Further negotiations led to me removing the cage a a week ago and Octopus attempted to remotely fix the software to enable my Home Display Unit to work again. The attempt failed but last Wednesday they admitted that they could not any longer read the meter remotely.

On 26th August they are coming out to fit a new set of meters. Bloody mindedness sometimes pays dividends.

For the record my electricity bill for the period 9th May to 28th July is £124·99 which in the present circumstances is probably not too bad. The solar panels are paying off big time but Winter will be the rude awakening.

If a true Conservative is elected in September and if they are to stand any chance of retaining power in 2024, they must abolish VAT on all energy bills. Petrol included. Every inflationary price rise is caused or exacerbated by high and rising energy prices.

 

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