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News and Comment January 2023

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5 January - The square root of sweet Fanny Adams

£15 to park near Abbey Wood stationToday’s rail strike has made no discernible difference to the commuter parking situation around Abbey Wood station. The Elizabeth line is presumably operating normally and attracting even more commuters to the area. Meanwhile Bexley Council is doing its level best to make the situation worse. It had two extra years to plan for Crossrail but what did they do apart from blaming Sadiq Khan for the delayed opening? Absolutely nothing apart from reducing the number of Free parking spaces.

Its most recent act of pure genius was to imposes a £15 charge to park on the wide streets nearest to the station and did not have the brain power to recognise what the knock on effects would be.

Whilst photos of poor parking in my road have been posted here for many years, I first formally raised the issues with Bexley Council on 6th September 2022 but got nowhere with it. My Councillor suffered similarly. Bexley Council is still stuck in the mindset which was official policy six years ago. That is do nothing.


Commuter parking Commuter parking Commuter parking One of my neighbours (@nickyevansbsl) is doing rather well on the publicity front having got the parking issue into a couple of regional newspapers.

What bothers me more is not the parking as such, it is the consequent road blocking, nose to kerb parking which causes me to drive on the footpath occasionally and the parking on blind corners.

Bexley Council’s lame excuse for doing nothing to help residents and improve safety standards is that it requires public consultation. It may be true that there is a huge amount of red tape to be navigated before a Controlled Parking Zone can be implemented but there are no such impediments to enforcing the Highway Code with double yellow lines on corners.

I sent the final photo below to Parking Enforcement in the hope that the owner will get a ticket and learn his lesson. The car is more than 50 centimetres from the kerb.

Commuter parking Commuter parking Commuter parking Commuter parking

Whilst out taking the photographs shown here one resident came out of his house to suggest we get together and write a letter of complaint to Bexley Council. Obviously someone unfamiliar with the ways of Bexley Council. When our Councillors get nowhere with them, what hope is there for the long suffering residents?

Note: At a time when parking was not an issue, the late 1990s, Bexley Council consulted residents of the roads pictured above but did not implement a CPZ. Now that things are far worse they won’t get off their backsides.

 

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