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News and Comment May 2024

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6 May - Intelligence required

There were two messages of support for the mini-rant about my 49 minute six mile journey to Sidcup last Friday both of them providing examples of how Bexley Council has gone out of its way to make travel more difficult.

Unfortunately both have been reported here before. A lost slip lane in Danson Road can cause tail backs to Crook Log and before and after photos may be seen here.

Nearer home is Florence Road, a previously minor residential route which has become the only road exit from Abbey Wood’s Elizabeth line station and bus terminal. (About 12 buses an hour.) During the morning and evening rush the deliberately engineered congestion in what is a one-way street has a knock on effect in Wilton Road, up Knee Hill and along Abbey Road which in urn blocks the exit from Fossington Road. The sort of clever stuff which one has come to expect from Councils.
Fossington Road

Left: North. Right: Southern exit on to Abbey Road. Top centre: Fendyke Road.

To be fair to Bexley Council they made most of their changes in 2001, long before the Elizabeth line became a consideration. Then in May 2009 they installed the exit width restriction. The Conservative Councillor for the area at the time, one John Davey, pronounced it utterly bonkers and as with many things he was right. As is often the case in Bexley, the idiocy was engineered by Andrew Bashford, subsequently promoted to be head of the Highways Department.

The weekend suggestion goes further than my own. It calls not only for the width restriction to be taken away along with the parking bays at the southern end but also the removal of the footpath opposite which goes from nowhere to nowhere.

There is absolutely no need for it. Nobody heading on foot to the station from the south or west will use it when there are much shorter options and those coming from the east would use the east side footpath.

Removing the west side footpath would allow Florence Road to be wider than it was when it was a two-way street so it would be more than good enough for two lanes (eastbound and westbound) to exit on to Abbey Road and relieve Fendyke Road residents of the high speed rat run.

Such a scheme would however require intelligent thought and there of course lies the major impediment to such a scheme. Maybe John Davey could sponsor it, he had the foresight to predict the problem 15 years ago? Bonkers he said then, absolutely bonkers now.

 

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