31 August - What does your Councillor do for his £10K per year?
It is a long time since Bonkers stole something from @tonyofsidcup; to be honest I felt he was getting rather too aggressive towards Councillors and I did not want BiB
to be associate with that. By and large I am not blocked by Councillors on X, just Philip Read and the paranoid Teresa O’Neill who has been known to report criticsi to the police. @tony is blocked by most. However it is the last day of the month and I need to
have something left over for the 1st of the month when the software complains if there is nothing posted on Day 1.
So here we are with the latest bee extracted from @tony‘s bonnet.
The theme is that one measure of Councillor's worth is to count the number of times they ask questions the majority of which one may assume are prompted by residents’ enquiries. Below is the raw data and a possible explanation.
As @tony acknowledges, the Places Directorate attracts
the most questions, roads and dustbins basically so understandably of most
interest to most residents. It may explain why Councillor Diment gets such a low
ranking; as Cabinet Member for Places he should know all the answers already.
Peter Reader at 23 enquiries over two years is far from being bottom of the
list. Nick O’Hare scores only 15 and Patrick Adams only eight. Not that he is the worst
performer. Chris Taylor, Peter Craske, Cheryl Bacon and Felix di Netimah are all jostling for the Net Zero position.
The only Independent earning his keep is James Hunt.
There is a whole load of data on X at
https://x.com/tonyofsidcup/status/1961850870175297719 for those who may wish
to see how busy their Councillor has been. My new one Jeremy Fosten has one of
the higher scores. Impressive for someone who has not yet completed his first
year in office. Maybe he has more to learn than his collegaues one of whom makes a decent stab at
plumbing the depths at nine enquiries in two years, but perhaps Jeremy is just an Eager Beaver. I would like to think so. If I need to
contact a Councillor In Belvedere, he would be my ‘Go To’ contact.
30 August - Davey John’s look out
According to a new planning proposal, there are 13 Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMO) in Bexley’s part of SE2, which is quite a small area, most of SE2 being in Greenwich.
The latest is for a big one close to the junction of Brampton Road and West Heath Road, just South of the Knee Hill traffic lights. (25/01581/FUL.) It is at No. 48 West
Heath Road despite Google Earth numbering the house as 44. (There are several other numbering oddities in West Heath Road according to Google.)
48 West Heath Road. (Top right on Google Earth.)
The plan is for a six bedroom three storey building to accommodate 24 persons. Twelve
bedrooms each with an en-suite bathroom so clearly not the sort of dilapidated
HMO which appears to be much more common - like one not far from me in Abbey Road.
The rear garden would be shared by all 24 (maximum) occupants which may allow
for noisy summer barbecues to upset the neighbours - speaking of which one is
Councillor John Davey whose own garden shares a boundary with No. 48.
As well as campaigning for the SL3 bus to run non-stop
from Bexleyheath station to the Library, John Davey has been campaigning for a
bus stop to be installed at or near to the West Heath Road, Brampton Road
junction. (Extreme left bottom of the map shown here.) At present
buses (not the SL3) operate on a ‘hail and ride’ basis.
With another 24 neighbours a new bus stop might be a reasonable idea. The garden BBQs may prove to be popular.
Six or seven bedrooms.
12 double bedrooms and three shared kitchens. Communal garden.
29 August - No democracy at Reform UK
I have been hearing that the Bexleyheath and Crayford Branch of Reform UK has been told it must combine with the Old Bexley and Sidcup
Branch and operate as a Parliamentary constituency wide organisation rather
than on a Council ward basis. Or maybe it was vice-versa.
As there was no prior consultation, some members are not happy and that includes the Chairman, the
one who is so very keen to rewrite history. To be fair I think being annoyed at a forced
amalgamation is more than justified.
Has Reform HQ forgotten that Bexley is a three constituency borough, well two
and a half anyway? Erith and Thamesmead stretches well into the Royal Borough.
If operation on a borough wide basis is a good idea why has no other party gone
down that route in Bexley’s 60 years of operation?
Will one Branch mean just one Chairman displacing one or two others from their
position? Presumably it will and division and grievances will be instantly created.
Reform UK far too often shows that it is a long way from being a mature
organisation and is occasionally little short of stupid.
By the way, this is not based on rumour and hearsay, documentary evidence is available that clearly shows something is afoot.
The News Shopper used to be one of at least three Bexley newspapers, the
Chronicle and the Times being the others. For anyone interested in what was
going on locally they were essential reading. When Bonkers began in 2009 they
were scoured for local news stories and once in a while they stole one of BiB’s.
I was on good terms with several of the Shopper’s reporters including the one
who was demoted for revealing rather too much of the Council leader’s brush with
the law and their reporters stood by me when a former Bexley Councillor submitted a totally
untrue statement to Kent Police which resulted in me being charged with
Harassment. The CPS dropped the case when they realized that the central plank
of the complaint was a 180° reversal of the truth.
Unfortunately things went downhill for the Shopper when its base moved from Petts Wood
to Sutton and more recently to somewhere in Essex.
The paper became very much detached from Bexley and Brent and Haringey became
local news. Nevertheless I looked at the paper most days via their early morning
news headlines sent to my email account newshopper@. It was mainly not very
interesting fluff pieces but occasionally not.
On several recent occasions no news has been available without registration. I thought I was registered;
how else was I on their mailing list?
For the past week every news item was behind their registration notice and I
really couldn’t be bothered with it. Today the email address newshopper@ has
been deactivated. No more News Shopper.
27 August - Beware of scammers
It seems to be the season for scams. Yesterday I received
another email supposedly from a
Bonkers reader who has never phoned me saying he is unable to call at the moment
so would I email him instead. Hang on a mo’. Someone who has just started an
email conversation is asking me to start an email conversation.
I am continuing to assume it is a scam and that the reader’s email address has been compromised.
Some scammers use text as their form of communication. How do they get the phone
numbers? From a compromised commercial website presumably but at least mobiles allow for easy blocking. (So does my landline.)
Yesterday I received two identical text messages within
a minute of each other. They said I had incurred a parking fine and I must pay
immediately or have my driving license revoked. Log on to a ridiculously named website to pay the fine.
For the record I have rarely used my car over the past couple of months and only parked on friends’ front drives,
at Kwik Fit to have a nail taken out of a tyre, at a Hyundai garage to book the next
service and MOT, and a couple of times for a few minutes in Lidl which allows 90 minutes
free. I have given up on Sainsbury’s. Rip off merchants.
It is many years since I parked on a public road or in a Council car park; I avoid them
totally and I’m probably a major cause of the decline of the High Street. Blame Councils not me.
I have seriously considered selling my car but reluctant to allow Labour
politicians to do away with my Freedom of Movement within the UK. I will not succumb to their Commie ambitions.
If you click on the scammer’s web link a mobile produces a passable immitation of
the Government’s website. Does gov.uk really provide a link to all Councils’ PCN payment pages?
On a PC the web page is more obviously fake. For me it didn’t expand to fill my screen and has a black border instead.
So my lesson of the day is beware of scams. I would hope that the PCN impersonator would raise
suspicions with most people but I have known intelligent people who have very nearly fallen for something similar.
Use the Council’s postcode? They haven’t even told me which Council is supposed to have issued the PCN.
26 August - Bexley. The do nothing Council
It’s
fewer than three weeks since the last report
on Ye Olde Leather Bottle; the Bexley Council approved eyesore and vermin
nest in Belvedere. The latest complaint comes with nine new photographs - always
a nice touch when emails are illustrated.
This correspondent is concerned about the loss of part of the Green Chain Walk.
So am I. When I was there earlier this month the footpath sign had gone.
Bexley Council has form when it comes to illegally removing footpaths to please
their friends.
Bridleway 250 was closed in 2013. They persuaded their friends in the
police - back then our crooked Council frequently worked hand in glove with Bexleyheath Police to
pervert the law - to say that it was a crime hotspot as part of their
justification for partial closure but an FOI to the police revealed there had been none.
No one denies that the developer of the Leather Bottle site is a good friend of Bexley Conservatives. (Photo 3.)
Photo 2 attempts to show what remains of the footpath.
A formal complaint has been sent to Bexley Council…
Formal complaint.
It remains to be seen if Bexley Council will once again prefer to look after its friends or its residents. I know which one my money is on.
Index to Bottle related blogs.
23 August - Something to hide?
Someone
pointed out that BexleyCo publishes annual accounts, most BiB stuff comes from such tip offs, and I did my best to
understand them. We know that the boss is Graham Ward who I first encountered 15
years ago when he was Deputy Director of Customer Relations.
I found him to be helpful.
Six years later it was his name that
signed off new Traffic Orders for £112 grand a year as Deputy Director of Regeneration.
Another two years found him elevated via Deputy Director of Services and Programmes
to become Deputy Director of Infrastructure Delivery and an email from an employee described him as “obnoxious”. Another employee
wrote that Ward’s methods stink and that he was “loathsome”.
On LinkedIn Mr.
Ward promoted himself and eventually so did Bexley Council. After the Leader
said his work was “fantastic”
he
was moved on to the fantasy land which is BexleyCo. Two years later (2021) I was
still being sent criticism by employees but as I said, he was more than once OK with me.
At BexleyCo Graham Ward was paid £162,347 (including pension contribution) in 2023/24 and
probably more last year but that figure is redacted. Surely he couldn’t have
earned another raise because it plunged to another quarter of a
million-ish loss last year. (See below.)
Figures are £. Column 1: 2025. Column 2: 2024. Parenthesis indicate a negative.
An overall deficit of £130,040 is recorded which after eight years of operation is a far cry from the the late Cabinet Member Bailey’s
view
through rose tinted spectacles of BexleyCo. “It will be nice to see some
money coming back into the coffers of the Council”.
You would think that BexleyCo being a millstone around the taxpayer’s neck it would
be subject to the heaviest of Scrutiny; but no. It used to be under the watchful
eyes of the eight Cabinet Members but even they must be shielded from the truth.
Only the Leader, David Leaf and Cafer Munur are currently given full access to the truth.
22 August - A message to RS
During 2025 I have so far received three scam emails all of which have the same format. A lame excuse under the Subject line
of ‘Catch up’ for not being able to phone me and could I respond by email
instead. About what? The first one came from a cousin and I fell for it and rewarded with
a begging letter. As a retired Headteacher my cousin is not hard up for a few
bob so I investigated further. Her email address had been manipulated and my first reply
went to the scammer. My follow-up email said FO!
Two similar ones came later supposedly from friends, the last of them a couple
of months ago. The give away is that they address me in a manner not usually
adopted by the sender and today there was one from a BiB reader. It has the same
Subject line as all the others, basically the same message and once again is
addressed to me in a way the sender does not usually adopt.
It may just be a coincidence, the identical Subject line etc. but BiB readers do
not try to phone me let alone make excuses for not doing so. Perhaps I am
paranoid but I have not replied to today’s email. If it is genuine the man from
Welling is going to have to send the message again.
21 August (Part 3) - BexleyCoining it in
Not much of a record is it? BexleyCo has provided an
average of ten new homes a year and swallowed up £8 million in the last financial year. What did they spend
it on? Not completing houses, that’s for sure. But it is not all bad news, not for its employees anyway.
The salary bill for £2024/25 was £565,505. Office staff salary costs average out at £30,228
per house/flat built.
21 August (Part 2) - Too late now
I’m not sure what to make of this but I am going to assume it is sincere and say
thank you, however in my opinion Bonkers is well past its best as informers die
off, literally, and I get increasingly old and lazy. On the more positive side
there has been an increase in the number of informants in recent months. Reform
UK wannabe Councillors have been digging deep.
It was probably in 1981 that it was first suggested I should stand for
Parliament, presumably I was as opinionated then as I am now, and in bragging
mode, probably was quite good at sorting out big problems. Arguably while at BT
I improved the measured efficiency of seven different units I managed to the
extent I was interviewed by the Chairman to see what could be learned, but I was
not a great one for following the established rules and that was not widely appreciated
With an 82nd birthday just a few weeks away there is no way I could do any sort
of work any more; I would be the one caught snoozing on a green bench. Having
said that I would have the illegal immigration problem sorted out in a matter of
weeks. Rwanda on steroids. Job done.
I too have marvelled at how the MP for Crayford and Bexleyheath acts as if he is
still a Councillor. Pot holes are not his business and he should be more
concerned about the Black Holes created by his government.
And no one who votes for the killing of viable nine month foetuses deserves
anyone’s respect; ever.
Not sure where West Heath fits into the picture.
21 August (Part 1) - If at first you don’t succeed…
Do you remember the concrete bunker built in 2018 to the rear of 238 Woolwich
Road? It encroached on Lesnes Abbey wood according to Bexley Council but was eventually
granted retrospective planning permission by the Committee after a site visit.
A succession of planning applications have followed, most recently in February
this year when an extension to the bungalow facing Woolwich Road was refused. Now there is another
submission, 25/01690/FUL. A two storey
side and rear extension and dormer extension to roof.
Before and after.
20 August - A housing net loss
While BexleyCo has managed to build
21 affordable homes in eight years
(Old Farm Park), the
Council’s social housing providers have sold 52 in just two years. Err… Make that 56.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/165693614#/?channel=RES_BUY
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/165706892#/?channel=RES_BUY
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/165817583#/?channel=RES_BUY
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/165769205#/?channel=RES_BUY
List of auctioned Housing Association addresses with links to original blogs. Hover over address for date. (Revised 1st December 2025.)
Bexley
30 Bourne Mead - £165,000
2 Eynsford Crescent - £190,000
15 Marden Crescent - £300,000
Pengarth Road - £160+,000
34 Pengarth Road - £300,000
53 Pengarth Road - £310,000
Rye Close - £320,000
44 Stansted Crescent - £170,000
44 Stanstead Crescent - £140,000
Bexleyheath
Grove Road - £145,000
94 Halcot Avenue - £195,000
121 Halcot Avenue - £210,000
33 Oakhouse Road - £360,000
Parkside Avenue - £260,000
80 Pelham Road - £260,000
Crayford
Crayford Road - £270,000
Dale End - £139,000
1 Dale Road - £295,000
38 Dale Road - £270,000
65 Dale Road - £295,000
60 Heath Road - £249,000
83 Heath Road - £260,000
22B Iron Mill Lane - £275,000
179 Iron Mill Lane - 155,000
187 Iron Mill Lane - £135,000
235 Iron Mill Lane - £320,000
176 Maiden Lane - £255,000
191 Maiden Lane - £160,000
191 Maiden Lane - £160,000 (2nd auction)
206 Maiden Lane - £250,000
230 Maiden Lame - £250,000
234 Maiden Lane - £250,000
234 Maiden Lane - £175,000
4 Medway Road - £210,000
4 Medway Road - £270,000
4 Medway Road - £225,000
Russell Close - £155,000
44 Stansted Crescent - £170,000
20 Stour Road - £205,000
Erith
21 Athol Road - £220,000
Hilden Drive - £285,000
52 Jennington Road - £250,000
Springhead Road - £255,000
Sidcup
Burnham Road - £190,000
11 Diana Close - £275,000
Ellenborogh Road - £149,000
Ellenborogh Road - £155,000
Ellenborough Road - £269,000
5 Ellenborough Road - £210,000
63 Foots Cray Road - £325,000
2-48 Heron Crescent - Not priced
Ladbrooke Crescent - £220,000
Maddocks Close - £255,000
50 Mallard Walk, £180,000
Maylands Drive - £320,000
56 Maylands Drive - £200,000
56 Maylands Drive - £180,000
17 Partridge Road - £300,000
Pembury Crescent - £129,000
Pembury Crescent - £135,000
30 St. Andrew’s Road - £240,000
Welling
29 Beal Close - £250,000
19 Berwick Road - £275,000
39 Burnell Avenue - £300,000
18 Burnell Avenue - £280,000
79 Darenth Road - £275,000
47 Denton Road - £145,000
17 Ridley Road - £235,000
77 Tyrell Road - £290,000
2 Wycliffe Close - £310,000
19 August - For and against the CPZ
Abbey Wood’s new CPZ
has spurred residents to post on the dormant Priory Gardens Facebook page for
the first time in more than two years. Every comment is favourable apart from
the complaint that the ‘buy a permit’ web page doesn’t work.
People are happy to pay £135 to pop down the shops and be able to park near home when they return.
Others are concerned that their allocated spaces will become even more occupied by tresspassers. That is more than likely.
(Centro is the name of the landlord.)
The
Facebook posters appear to be from the eastern end of the 40 year old
housing development but nearer to the station trespassers are present every day.
Bexley Council may have merely driven the commuter parking problem on to private land.
Not far away in Elstree Gardens the residents have started a petition against
the CPZ, primarily its six hour timing which has been universally welcomed hereabouts.
BTW, can anyone explain to me why the new CPZ is called Abbey Wood 1 (AW1) when no part of it is in Abbey Wood?
Is this confirmation that
Bexley Council did
not get out of the office when planning the scheme?
Uninvited guests daily.
18 August (Part 3) - BexleyCo : The borough’s biggest failure
BexleyCo has been
going for eight years and so far managed to provide 88 new houses on a
total of only two sites. It was originally promised £120 million by Bexley
Council over three financial years. £30,703,000 in 2017/2018 followed by
£69,020,000 and £19,900,000. It never happened but they took about £8 million
last year and £3 million so far this year.
Despite the unfulfilled promise dating back to the beginning of BexleyCo, Bexley
Council is aiming higher for the next four years. £35,391,000 in loans for 2025/26
and then £45,883,000, £47,056,000 and £30,000,000.That’s £358 million. This year’s
Council Tax will raise about £150,000,000. You might think these are fantasy figues but they come from a Bexley Council
Freedom of Information response.
I have a feeling that BexleyCo will not survive a Reform UK takeover.
18 August (Part 2) - Bexley Council : Worst in London
Intrigued
by the amount of money that people are asking for
a day’s parking on their
drive, £14 very close to Abbey Wood station, I researched parking charges more
closely. I discovered that seven London Councils offer free residents’ parking
permits for electric vehicles and most offer discounts. Some exceed 90% (Brent, Camden, Haringey and Islington). In Camden that amounts to £470
a year. It probably makes owning an EV there a ‘no brainer’.
Nine London Councils offer discounts on car park and street parking charges but only
four offer EV drivers nothing at all.
Almost unnecessary to say which Council that would be,
the highest taxing Tory
borough in London apart from Croydon which Labour bankrupted.
The BexleyCo money pit has to be filled somehow.
Referring back Bexley’s inconsistently applied AW1 CPZ, I came across a commuter
who was not aware of the upcoming restrictions and a flat dweller who believed
she must buy a parking permit to use her landlord allocated space behind her flat. I hope no one else is making that mistake.
18 August (Part 1) - Thames Water : Worst utility in UK
I have heard nothing at all from Thames Water since I told them they were idiots
for refusing to talk to me about fitting a stop-cock
in the footpath outside. “We have already carried out a full and final review
into your case in line with our complaints procedure. I need to let you know
we’re unable to discuss the matter further as detailed in our previous response dated 11 April 2025.”
I paid them in 21 random installments ranging from 47 pence to 87 pounds
because I know from previous correspondence that that pees them off big time.
But I am not alone in battling with Thames Water.
A friend told me he is paying more than £100 a month for a household of three
that does its best to use very little water. He is getting nowhere with the TW cretins.
I reminded him that three or four years ago he told me the same thing and I
found water gurgling out of the meter; didn’t Thames Water come out and fix it?
“No, they said they would but as far as I know they did nothing.”
I went outside and took a look. The meter hole was completely full of water.
Where it is going to is anyone’s guess and Thames Water doesn’t care, and why
should they when they are broke and it is earning them £100 a month.
17 August - Out and about in Belvedere
On Friday evening while preparing the
photos for yesterday’s blog the door bell rang
and I feared it was a beggar from some charity or other flogging a monthly subscription but I was wrong; it was my
favourite Labour politician Stefano Borella with some of his colleagues at other nearby doors.
Stefano is the friendliest of fellows and we briefly discussed
the events of 16th July
when Bexley Conservatives brought dispute upon their Council by
denying the opposition the opportunity to mount an Amendment to a Motion introduced without notice.
What I really wanted to ask Stef as he towered over me by seven or eight inches
is what he thought of the worst Prime Minister of all time but obviously I could
not be that direct and only vaguely alluded to the current political
situation. Stefano is not so daft that he would provide a straight answer anyway
knowing it might appear here but I got the impression, no more than that, that
he was not totally enamoured of everything that has happened in the past 13
months. That bravado is reserved for arguments in the Council chamber.
He hopes to continue to lead his party after the tsunami that will likely hit Bexley next May. And so do I.
I was introduced to my relatively new Councillor Jeremy Fosten for the first
time too. (With the rosette in the photograph by the badly spelled Carrill Way sign.)
Stefano left the card reproduced below. The uppermost QR code leads to
bexleylabour.org.uk.
16 August - The inconstencies of Bexley Council’s new Crazy Painting Zone (CPZ AW1)
The consensus so far on the new CPZ in my area is that it is popular with some disappointment that it does not go far enough.
There may be very different views in roads further away like Elstree Gardens. I
think one must concede that roads very different in character probably need
different solutions and that we have not got.
My own observation is that there are massive inconsistencies in the CPZ’s
application which are hard to explain but which one might guess are typical of
people who did no more than pore over a map in an ivory tower.
My end of cul-de-sac turning circle has partial lining (Photo 1, top) while
others have either complete yellow lining or none ar all. (Photos 1, 2 and 3 below.) Photo
7 shows another half lined turning area.
I thought my own drive was alone in being lined but at the other end of the
estate there are more (Photos 5 and 6) Photo 5 being a dual drive with only half of it lined.
Across the road is an unlined drive. (Photo 8.) Photos 5 and 6 are on a bend so maybe not comparable with my own.
My theory was that drives which have been registered with the Council as No
Parking, owners included, have been lined but the regular Traffic Warden told me
that my drive is the only one registered and showed me on her hand held computer.
If that is still true the two shown might be only because of the bend in the road.
Photo 4 is strange. There is no bend and it is lined as if it is registered No
Parking like my own, however Bexley Council’s rules do not allow shared drives to be registered for No Parking.
There are lines at the end of the footpath between Halifield and Coptefield Drives
where parking would be illegal anyway. (Photo 9.)
Photo 10 shows a dropped kerb which is there for no obvious reason across which parking is allowed. {I have been advised that a garage was converted to living space many years ago.]
Photo 11 shows new lines placed around a bend in the road which may be a safety issue rather than CPZ related. Photos 12, 13 and 14 show unused poles outside communal parking areas and Photo 15
a communal parking area without a pole. Photo 16 is an exit fully equipped with sign and yellow lines. I still do not
understand why people emerging from flats must be reminded of the CPZ while those leaving houses do not.
Photos 17 and 18 are unfinished lines caused by the presence of cars when the man with the brush visited.
The final photograph shows commuter parking in the private bays which offer the
shortest walk to Abbey Wood Station. Some are listed on Find a Parking spot Apps
at £7 and more a day. I suspect the leaseholder Centro would have something to
say about that. (This info from a reader’s tip off.)
End of cul-de-sacs lined partially lined and not lined. Shared drive lined.
End of house drives half lined, lined and not lined.
Footpath lined. Redundant dropped kerb not lined, (a garage was converted to living space). New lines on bend. No sign on exit.
Three communal parking areas lined two with not yet occupied poles and one lined with sign.
Two unfinished lines (due no current parking restrictions) and one completed. Commuters in private parking bay.
The Photo sequence was changed after the blog was first posted. If you looked before that occured the text may not match them. Clear cache will fix it
15 August - Food was in short supply but we had a party
Today we celebrate 80 years since Victory over Japan was declared.
Me and Mum. Housed in tin huts after copping a Doodle Bug in Leyton.
14 August - Bexley Council says flat dwellers are dim
It
is more than likely that the new Abbey Wood CPZ (AW1) will drive some Liz line
commuters to ever more desperate and selfish measures. The white car in Photo 1 is parked in
the designated parking bay of one of my flat dwelling neighbours.
Every morning this week BU70 HVC has been driven in
and the young woman in Photo 2 gets out remarkably quickly and runs off towards
the station. She returns at about 6 p.m.
How many more will think it is OK to park on private property when the CPZ is in
force from 8th September? I have had around half a dozen
abuse my own drive in the past couple of months.
Away from home for most of the day I missed some of the CPZ activities but I was around to see the Conway man
chop down the pole
to a more reasonable height and stick a CPZ sign on it.
I asked him what was the point of a sign at the end of a cul-de-sac and he said that it was to inform the residents emerging from
their own private parking area that they were entering a CPZ. He installed
another next to a similar parking area (Photo 4) further along the road but not all such
parking areas. Several have been “missed”.
One has to ask why, if flat dwellers need to be reminded that when leaving home
they are entering a CPZ, every house has not been provided with such a reminder
at the end of their drives; or are people who live in flats by
Council definition not as intelligent as those who can afford to live in detached houses.
By the time I got home I was greeted by double yellow lines painted across the
entrance to the flats’ parking areas (Photos 5 and 6). Why do they need it? No
one should be blocking the entrances anyway and once again one might ask why it
is that not everyone’s drive is protected?
But hang on a minute, my own has been. (Photo 5). I have no objection, far from it, but
no one else has been so privileged.
No one will have expected Bexley Council to implement any Highways
related matter in a wholly intelligent fashion but surely a degree of
consistency would not be too difficult to achieve?
Nothing has been done to deter the most pressing issue in Coptefield Drive, nose
to kerb parking which forces large vehicles attempting to pass on to the footpath. One must hope
that the reduced pressure on parking space will encourage more orthodox parking.
Two Bonkers readers have reported that despite opening a Bexley parking account
it is not yet possible to buy a Parking Permit or Visitor’s Permits.
13 August - The last word on 16 New Road
When
16 New Road was mentioned here two days ago I remarked that planning issues are something I
generally avoid and maybe in future I should make that a Golden Rule. Even a
simple case like the demolition of a bungalow turns out to be more complicated than I knew.
Until the second
reader's email showed up I was not very aware of the original application
and its rejection. I thought I had better check up on it.
Short of time as usual I decided to take up the long-standing offer from the
Chairman of the Planning Committee to give him a call if ever the need arose. So I spoke to him for 25 minutes.
I learned that not only did Bexley Council reject
the first application because
of the accommodation planned for the rear garden but when it went to the
Inspector, that was the only reason for him rejecting it.
With that part of the proposal abandoned there was absolutely no way that an
appeal would not be successful so there was no point whatsoever in Bexley
objecting to the second application. It would only cost Bexley Taxpayers several thousand pounds for nothing.
The original blogs are amended because the hypercritical tone was unjustified.
The tall buildings in the background of the photo are on the far side of Abbey
Wood station and Sadiq wants to see more. It seems to me that anyone with a
decent sized plot living close to Abbey Wood station who would like to make a quick buck can
demolish their house and blight the area with a tower block. I’m thinking about it…
Note: Like the owner of the bungalow, I was once a planning whore. When living in Hampshire I bought a plot of
land close to home which was too narrow for a house to satisfy the Planning
Committee. It cost me £300 because without planning permission it was valueless.
I used it as an allotment for a couple of years.
Then the gamble paid off because the planners relaxed their rules and I was able to sell it for £27,000.
It provided the funds for a cheap flat in Plumstead. I was so ashamed of
how circumstances had forced me into desecrating a nice road with a squeezed in house that I
have never been back to look at it or taken a peek at Street View.
12 August (Part 4) - Running late
Maybe
it is too hot for the white goo to set but the unfortunate
man in the sweaty orange suit didn’t
manage to reach Coptefield Drive today.
Lovely spelling of Tunstock Way but at least they got two Rs and two Ls in Carrill Way.
12 August (Part 3) - Neglect and vandalism
I
walk by quite often but it requires a short deviation from the main path to view
the Lesnes Abbey park pond viewing platform, hence requiring a tip off that
it has been vandalised again. To the best of my knowledge it
was last vandalised eight years ago and that length of time must be something of
a record in this neck of the woods. Such vandals deserve to be put down.
The last time I really looked at the platform it was centred on an elongated pond which was
home to herons and frogs.
Not any more; the pond has entirely disappeared presumably because of Bexley
Council’s neglect. With the pond totally overgrown I begin to understand why
the
fire brigade had to rescue a dog from it last month.
The pond had an overflow point which could be traced across Abbey Road
until it disappeared under the railway line. Some said it went all the way to the Thames.
12 August (Part 2) - From West Heath to West Street; everything is going west
I was asked if I knew which Councillors are planning to hand in their badge next May and the answer is probably in the public domain if you look hard enough.
However as far as I know we will definitely lose Cheryl Bacon who announced her intention at a Council meeting.
Then James Hunt, Sue Gower, Ahmet Dourmoush and Philip Read have all told me
personally by phone, text message or face to face that they are standing down, on top of which we have John
Davey and Peter Reader whose names have reached me via more than one Councillor.
That’s the whole of West Heath ward ripe for a Reform take over.
A recent rumour says that Richard Diment is looking for an exit. It wouldn’t
surprise me. He is probably too good for Bexley Council and has been given the
poisoned chalice of Potholes, Parking and Dust Bins. All of them regularly
putting him in the firing line, from me too. I’d like to think that a lot of
what he has to do is done reluctantly.
He is among the small number of thoughtful Councillors who are probably unhappy
to have to work under the Bullying Baroness. (I was told she was standing down
too but I suspect mischief making.) If Richard goes, along with Sue Gower
the average IQ of Tory Councillors will take a dive. The only ones I have any
confidence in are the relative youngsters from the borough’s deep South.
Does
that include Frazer Brooks, currently of Falconwood but nominated for Blackfen and Lamorbey?
Frazer voted against the Bursted Woods development a couple of weeks ago when
BexleyCo was given permission to build on the derelict former NHS site.
So did the Labour Group Councillors who were ready to defy the national
leadership who want to build everywhere, let alone brown field sites like Burstead Woods.
He says it might end his political career and generally speaking those who rock Teresa’s
boat are not selected for the next election. However Frazer already has been.
The name Frazer Brooks has not been mentioned frequently on Bonkers but he may
be assured by the fact that it has been more often than former Labour Councillor
Oppong-Asare. When she was elected as MP in 2019 she
was put on the opposition front bench four months later having achieved nothing of any note in Bexley.
Frazer may not be as active as some but he remains the only Conservative Councillor who has ever
knocked on my door in electioneering mode - others have
called for other reasons - and I haven’t forgotten how
he went out of his way to
find me a meeting Agenda when there were none available to the public.
Maybe he shouldn’t have stuck his neck out for Bursted Woods, will BexleyCo
ever get around to building there anyway?
BexleyCo has been going for eight years now; how many houses do you think they have built so far?
On their own admission just 88. 58 at Old Farm (12 affordable rents and nine shared ownership) and 30 in
Erith, West Street. None affordable.
That must be a failure by any measure. Bexley Council, again on their own
figures, says it will hand BexleyCo another £35 million in the current financial year.
it appears to be a money pit without any benefit to the homeless.
12 August (Part 1) - Lining the roads and lining Council pockets
I have still not found any evidence that parts of Abbey Road and Abbotswood Close were lined for
the CPZ yesterday but as scheduled a man was out
applying hot tar in Elstree Gardens early this morning.
He had chalked out the lines himself and
already wilting in the heat while trying not to splash the
parked cars. How he will cope in Coptefield Drive later today where people do
not parallel park remains to be seen.
11 August (Part 2) - Abbey Wood CPZ - No action so far
When
Conway were putting up parking restriction signs last Friday a couple of their
operatives were happy to talk and be photographed. They said they expected to be
back on Monday (today) to stick an End of CPZ sign on the 16 feet pole which now
blights my little cul-de-sac. Who would have thought that my front garden which completely blocks the
end of the cul-de-sac is not the end of the CPZ?
Saturday’s letter from Bexley Council said that road marking would begin today
in Abbey Road and Abbotswood Close but it seemed more than a little strange that no
parking restrictions had been put in place to allow the job to be done.
Nevertheless I went out at 8 a.m. and
1 p.m. to see what work was being done.
Absolutely nothing, so it looks like Bexley Council has cocked up again.
The only Conway activity was a couple of men cleaning street lamps. They really
didn’t like being photographed and were still moaning about it when I retraced my steps five minutes later.
Someone at Conway should advise their staff about the law and photography in public places. How come
Conway got their contract back from Riney anway?
11 August (Part 1) - 16 New Road - “Wholly out of keeping”
It
is not often that Bonkers covers planning issues; if you want that sort of thing
then it would be best to nip across to
From The Murky Depths;
so why is the relatively small development in New Road featured here?
It began in the middle of June when I was sitting with friends in the Wrong ’Un
(Wetherspoons) having taken a bus to the Lion Road stop which Councillor Davey,
for no sensible reason whatsoever, thinks would
benefit from being bypassed by
the SL3. A lady approached me, checked who I was and asked if I went to Planning meetings.
Her question was simple; can the public go, can they speak etc. and she went on
to tell me where she lived and why she was interested. It is from her that
everything written here so far about 16 New Road has come.
But she is not the only objector;
very few will be supporting Bexley Council on
this one. Below is a message from another neighbour who has watched developments closely…
The original application included a bungalow to the rear, replacing the
existing garage. This followed the refusal and some
bullying of adjacent neighbours to give up some of their land for car parking.
(Ref. No: 23/01192/FUL - Received: Thursday 25 May 2023.)
This was rejected by Bexley Council mainly because the large block would be wholly
out of keeping with the existing pattern of development along New Road
and out of character in relation to the existing buildings in New Road.
The proposed detached bungalow to the rear would be visually intrusive to
all surrounding properties in view of the development and would fail to complement the locality.
The proposed development to the rear, by virtue of its siting and proximity
to Metropolitan Open Land, would negatively impact its amenity value and
openness and therefore would be contrary to Policy SP8 of Bexley’s Local Plan (2023).
An appeal was made by the owner but it was rejected. A further
appeal was made to the Planning Directorate in Bristol. This was also rejected.
The second application removed the provision of the bungalow, but retained
the garage. The new scheme actually increased the accommodation space.
This application is materially no different to the first, but it was passed by the Planning Committee.
I suspect that in the future, when the block is built, an application will be made to convert the the garage into a habitable space.
Residents have been let down but only three storeys in an area which Sadiq Khan
and his obedient servants in Greenwich wants to fill with skyscrapers is
probably the best deal available.
Note: There are two buses in the picture. An SL3 waiting to exit into Abbey Road and a 301 climbing the hill. The tower blocks in the background are in the
borough of Greenwich.
10 August - That CPZ! Lining to be completed next week
Thanks to yesterday’s letter, everyone who lives in the new CPZ area which extends from Coptefield Drive and Abbey Road (up to the existing AW CPZ) in
the West to St. Augustine’s Road in the East will know that line painting begins tomorrow. It starts with
Abbotswood Close and Abbey Road where adjacent to the Abbey, the bloody minded decision has been taken
to drive commuters away from an area which is not adjacent to houses and hence had none of the parking problem which the new CPZ is intended to solve.
By the end of the week the entire area will be painted.
The letter includes a barely readable map and a totally illegible Key
because Bexley Council’s cuts extend to printer ink, is reproduced below.
The letter is clear and well written and corrects the various spelling mistakes and
typographical errors within the Traffic Order. It tries to convince readers that
paying £135 a year to park their car in the road and £27 for ten visitor permits
is a “benefit”. To the Council presumably.
We are still no clearer to knowing whether parking bays will be marked by paint as well as signs and
whether road blocking end-on parking will be outlawed. Maybe the hope is that
the CPZ will drive those parkers away and the problem will go with them.
The restrictions will come into force on 8th September.
Next month the operation will be repeated in West Heath ward.
Abbey Road commuters will be livid and maybe driven into the arms of Reform UK
to hopefully escape the vindictive mindset that plagues Bexley Council. There is
absolutely no need to drive commuters away from the 27 (approximately) parking bays
in Abbey Road and push them to areas where they will be unwelcome. 
AW1 CPZ area.
9 August (Part 2) - Bexley Council; vindictive as ever
The
strapline of Bonkers used to be Bexley Council; Dishonest, Vindictive, Criminal.
I stole it from The News Shopper in 2009 as it seemed particularly apt at the time.
I occasionally think things have improved but I am probably wrong. Curiosity has got
the better of some motorists who use the nearest unrestricted free bay to Abbey Wood station
and they have ripped off the black plastic (Photo 1) which covers most of them.
As hinted at in the Traffic Order,
commuters won’t be able to use the bay beyond the beginning of September;
another indirect attack on the nation’s economy.
Parking alongside the Abbey grounds does nobody any harm except that it leaves the road too narrow for buses to
safely pass each other, but that was a deliberate decision by the Head of
Highways who spent a lot of money on making Abbey Road narrower than it used to
be - and blatantly lied to me about it, but that is a story you have heard many times before.
Having two different cars parked for four hours each does nothing to improve
traffic flow over one for eight or ten hours. I can only think that Richard
Diment who signed off the order has taken leave of his senses.
Unless the next step is to introduce a charge his changed rules have several
negatives and no obvious positives. There is already a similar long bay for park
visitors. Exactly what was he thinking of?
Photo 2 is of the expected restriction in Carrill Way. That should definitely improve traffic flow.
9 August (Part 1) - Bexley Council; despoiling New Road, Abbey Wood
The lower end of New Road on the Western side is a nice mix of 1930s style houses
and bungalows all of different design. A road of some character and charm. When
the resident of No. 16 died it was passed to her son who at first rented it and
inevitably it began to fall into a state of dilapidation. He sought
permission to turn it into a a block of flats with a pre-existing edifice at the
back end of the garden to become a chalet. On that latter proposal the application was turned down.
A second application was submitted and the chalet became a storage area for
bicycles and the bungalow a three storey block of nine flats. The rear
garden becomes a car park for seven vehicles. Several long established trees
have to go.
It was accepted that vehicles emerging into New Road with its 30+
buses an hour was regarded as a potential hazard but no one really cared.
The plan ran counter to planning guidance in respect of both distances and light
and as one has come to expect of Bexley officers, the planning spokesperson was
particularly unimpressive.
The Councillors present were Mrs. June Slaughter, Peter Reader, Chris Ball,
Frazer Brooks, Kurtis Christoforides, Larry Ferguson, Baljeet Gill, Howard
Jackson, Rags Sandhu, Cameron Smith and Nicola Taylor. June had several
misgivings, about parking in particular, and Nicola Taylor was rightly concerned about the
destruction of 100 years of tasteful development.
Nevertheless, everyone voted to approve the desecration of New Road and destroy
the heritage of 100 years. Why did they risk the wrath of every resident of New
Road? Because there is no way they could have won against a costly appeal. Sadiq
Khan is wrecking London in so many ways.
London needs houses, the population is growing too fast. Khan needs
more voters.
Note: This blog is a repeat. Yesterday’s was written
piecemeal during the day and New Road was relegated to the bottom of the list
while arguably the only subject that warranted a blog.
With nothing significant to report it is trivia time again.
CPZ (Crazy Pole Zone)
I assume it is something to do with
the coming CPZ but yesterday this ridiculous
eyesore of a pole was erected right outside my house. Just why do we need an
ugly 16 foot pole to enforce a CPZ? It is not as though it is a CPZ entry point in need of a large notice.
It is not the only new pole erected nearby but it does appear to be the tallest of them.
I didn’t think I could despise Bexley Council and its Highways Department in
particular more than I did already but I have been proved wrong again.
PS. The Contractor (see image 1 at the foot of this page) said the pole is for an End of Zone
sign. For God’s sake, it is the end of a Cul-de-Sac.
Why do we need a sign to say my drive is not part of the CPZ? There is no
similar pole at the eastern end of Coptefield Drive, also a
Cul-de-Sac, nor at the end of any other Cul-de-Sac on the half of the estate
inspected.
Lesnes Abbey incident
As I walked to the Harrow Manorway flyover at 9:45 yesterday morning there was
an ambulance on the Abbey Road footpath and a police car obstructing the bus stop alongside the Abbey.
From the flyover I could see an ambulance in New Road. Then two more came
from Knee Hill and over
the flyover but U-turned and went to Abbey Road.
Ten minutes later I counted the emergency vehicles from the top of a 301 bus as
it climbed New Road. There were 15 or possibly more. Mainly police. In Long Lane the bus had
to pull over to allow more police cars with blue lights through heading in the direction of the Abbey.
I was away from home all day but periodically checked Facebook and The News
Shopper but drew a blank. I know two New Road residents reasonably well and
called on them around 4 p.m. to ask if they had been able to discover what had
happened earlier but neither did. Same in Abbey Road, that lady did not know either.
Maybe illegal immigrants are involved somehow; that would ensure a police news blackout.
Thames Water
The week long Thames Water nonsense
in Abbey Road overran a further three days to Monday and it was Tuesday
before they took all the diversion signs away.
Both Long Lane and Brampton Road, the only direct routes from the North of the
borough to Bexleyheath are both blocked by temporary lights and access to
Pickford Lane is blocked completely. From the top of a 301 I could see that once
again it was unnecessary because there was only a small excavation on one side of the road only.
Does Bexley Council never inspect what they allow to happen? They must care not
one jot for the inconvenience to residents and the effect on the local economy.
Thames Water is still accusing me of not paying their 50% increased bill but I
have. In fact due to an error on my part I have over paid by twenty two quid,
however if you don’t pay exactly as they demand it screws their accountancy
system and the money gets ‘lost’. Incompetent by every measure.
Mad Milibrain
There is tough competition among Labour Ministers to see who can be the most
stupid and the biggest danger to the economy but to my mind it has to be Ed Miliband.
He has almost single-handedly wrecked the motor industry and he thinks it is
clever to block North Sea oil wells and buy the stuff from Norway who extract it
from a well closer to Britain than Norway.
The idiocy defies belief and makes British energy prices the highest in the
industrialised world. When Britain goes completely broke Miliband will have been
a principal architect of its downfall.
There must be something horribly wrong with the energy market because on Monday
Octopus Energy gave me 24 hours notice of free electricity for an hour the
following afternoon. Free for anything in excess of normal that is. As I
normally use none during the day thanks to the house battery everything I used
was absolutely free, I put the car and the battery on timed charge and set the
immersion heater to come on too. Then I cooked some stuff in the oven. At one
time I was drawing 16 kilowatts from the grid.
Energy use picture below.
There has to be something horribly wrong with the energy market for that to make sense.
If you switch to Octopus yourself and go via this link you will earn yourself
and me £50.
hottps://share.octopus.energy/ebon-eel-467
Computers
The computer I built before I went into
hospital in March was finally brought into use last Monday. With no Photoshop
and Irfanview proving to be inadequate for my image manipulation needs, I am getting by on something which can do
the necessary albeit in a somewhat clumsy way.
The program which monitors new blogs etc. for upload was not very reliable on
Windows 10 and hopeless on 11 so I am using a substitute, the free version for
the time being. It reliably uploads new stuff but appears to be
over-eager and puts up things which aren’t quite ready.
It runs in the background by default which is a pain.
I suppose I will get used to switching that off each time. On the plus side it filters out stuff I do not
want to be uploaded so no accidental reappearance of the litigious one, the old
program ignored filters, but on the downside the new one is
horribly slow. The old program found new stuff within seconds and I was never
sure how it did it. The new program compares my local copy of BiB with the web version
every time it runs which with tens of thousands of files to check can take around ten minutes.
I fear an impact on the life of my SSDs which are only good for a certain number of accesses.
The eight year old computer now runs Windows 11
under its original activation code despite Microsoft saying it is
incompatible, No insurmountable problems. It has dual screens so initially it put
the desktop on the right hand side and the mouse and keyboard input invisibly on the left
so there was no way of installing the graphics driver to correct the displays without a visible mouse.
The second time I installed Windows with just one screen connected but on the wrong disc, but third time lucky.
I suppose a spare PC will come in useful one day.
Too much technology
After 18 years, my Siemens washing machine decided it was fun to blow the house
circuit breakers every time the motor cut in. I bought another and discovered it
can be operated via a phone App. Being a nerd, I installed it. Doing so disabled
the machine’s own buttons apart from the one that disables the Wi-Fi so
operation is via machine or App; not a mixture.
I still have to load the machine, close the door and turn the water supply tap
although it does have a small tank for liquid detergent and will take what it
thinks it needs. The App provides extra programmes but it already has twelve and
I will likely use no more than three of them.
It is all very advanced and clever although I discovered that if you change the
Quick Cycle time from 30 to 15 minutes, the Start button greys out - the machine
buttons allow it - but what is the point in standing next to
the washing machine with a phone in your hand?
Planning Issues. 16 New Road
The lower end of New Road on the Western side is a nice mix of 1930s style houses
and bungalows all of different design. A road of some character and charm. When
the resident of No. 16 died it was passed to her son who at first rented it and
inevitably it began to fall into a state of dilapidation. He sought
permission to turn it into a a block of flats with a pre-existing edifice at the
back end of the garden to become a chalet. On that latter proposal the application was turned down.
A second application was submitted and the chalet became a storage area for
bicycles and the bungalow a three storey block of nine flats. The rear
garden becomes a car park for seven vehicles. Several long established trees
have to go.
It was accepted that vehicles emerging into New Road with its 30+
buses an hour was regarded as a potential hazard but no one really cared.
The plan ran counter to planning guidance in respect of both distances and light
and as one has come to expect of Bexley officers, the planning spokesperson was
particularly unimpressive.
The Councillors present were Mrs. June Slaughter, Peter Reader, Chris Ball,
Frazer Brooks, Kurtis Christoforides, Larry Ferguson, Baljeet Gill, Howard
Jackson, Rags Sandhu, Cameron Smith and Nicola Taylor. June had several
misgivings, about parking in particular, and Nicola Taylor was rightly concerned about the
destruction of 100 years of tasteful development.
Nevertheless, everyone voted to approve the desecration of New Road and destroy
the heritage of 100 years. Why did they risk the wrath of every resident of New
Road? Because there is no way they could have won against a costly appeal. Sadiq
Khan is wrecking London in so many ways.
Illustrations
Covered CPZ restriction sign (left of 1st image) and contractor’s vehicle.
Energy use: Car, water tank, battery, solar panels, grid and house load.
16 New Road, SE2.
7 August - The Abbey Wood (Outer) CPZ
More
than a year after consulting residents, Bexley Council has made its first real
move towards implementing what most residents asked for to combat the Elizabeth
line commuter parking problem. At least one assumes it was
most residents and not only by request of local Councillors as has been suggested.
Notices have been placed on lamp posts to warn commuters what is in store for
them. Without a map it is not very clear what the details might be. Click the image to enlarge
it or read the text below…
Notice is Hereby Given that the Council of the London Borough of Bexley
propose to make the above titled Traffic Orders under Sections 6 45, 46, 49
and 124 of and Part IV of Schedule 9 to the Road Traffic Regulation Act
1984, as amended by Section 8 of and Part 1 of Schedule 5 to the Local
Government Act 1985 and all other enabling powers.
The general effect of the Bexley (Waiting and Loading Restriction)(Abbey
Wood Outer CPZ) Experimental Traffic Order 2025 would be to:
Introduce new ‘At any time’ no waiting restrictions in parts of: Abbey Road,
Abbotswood Close, Beckett Close, Benedict Close, Coptfield Drive [sic], Elstree
Gardens, Halifield Drive, Holcote Close; Kingswood Avenue, Laymarsh Close,
Plympton Close, Sampson Close, Shortlands Close, St. Augustine’s Road and Tunstock Way.
Introduce new Mon to Fri 10 am to
4 pm no waiting restrictions in parts of:
Abbey Road, Elstree Gardens, Kingswood Avenue and St. Augustine’s Road.
The general effect of the Bexley (Abbey Wood Outer) (Parking Places) Experimental Traffic Order 2025 would be to:
Introduce resident permit holder bays operating 10 am to
4 pm Monday to Friday to Abbey Road, Elstree Gardens, Gilbert Road, Kingswood Avenue and St. Augustine’s Road.
Introduce Permit Parking Areas (PPA) operating
10 am to 4 pm Monday to Friday
to: Abbotswood Close; Beckett Close; Benedict Close; Blakemore Way, Bright
Close, Carrill Way, Coptfield Drive [sic], Hadley Road, Halifield Drive, Holcote
Close; Laymarsh Close; Plympton Close, Sampson Close; Shortlands Close; Tunstock Way.
Introduce lengths of limited waiting bays, operating 8 am to 4 pm Monday to
Friday maximum stay of 4 hours, no return in 1 hour to: Abbey Road, Elstree Gardens and St. Augustine’s Road.
Make changes to the existing limited waiting bay in Abbey Road that operates
Mon to Sat 8am to 6.30 pm to operate Mon to Fri 8 am to
4 pm maximum stay of 4 hours, no return in 1 hour.
The general effect of the Bexley (Miscellaneous Parking Places) (Amendment
No. 12) Experimental Traffic Order 2025 would be to:
Revoke the existing limited waiting bay in Abbey Road that operates Mon to
Sat 8 am to 6.30 pm. The bay is to be replaced as described in the above item.
Copies of the Order, the corresponding Parent Order (and the Orders that
have amended that Order); the Council’s Statement of Reasons for making the
Order and plans which indicate the length of roads to which the Order
relates can be inspected during normal office hours on Mondays to Fridays
inclusive, at the Contact Centre, 2 Watling Street, Bexleyheath, Kent DA6 7AT.
Further information may be obtained by telephoning Omar Tingling 020 3045 4058.
The Council will consider in due course whether the provisions of the Order
should be reproduced and continued in force indefinitely by means of an Order
under the provisions of section 6 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act, 1984.
Anyone wishing to object to the making of an Order made under section 6 of the
aforesaid Act for the purpose of such reproduction and continuation in force may
send a statement of their objection and the grounds thereof to the London
Borough of Bexley, Services and Programmes, ;Engineering Services, Civic
Offices, 2 Watling Street, Bexleyheath, Kent DA6 7AT
traffic@bexley.gov.uk within
6 months of the date on which this Order comes into force. Any objection may
be inspected by other persons who may be affected.
Any person desiring to question the validity of the Order or of any
provision contained therein on the grounds that it has not been made within
the relevant powers of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, or that any of
the relevant requirements thereof or of any relevant regulations made there
under have not been complied with in relation to the Order, may make
application for the purpose to the High Court within the first six weeks of
the date on which it came into force.
In pursuance of section 10(2) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, the
Deputy Director Public Protection, Housing and Public Realm), or some person
authorised by him, if it appears to him or her or that other person
essential in the interests of the expeditious, convenient and safe movement
of traffic, for providing suitable parking, or for preserving or improving
the amenities of the area through which the road affected by these Orders
run, may modify or suspend any provision of this Order, save that the effect
of any such modification shall not make an addition to it.
Andrew Bashford
Head of Highways, Traffic and Infrastructure
Dated 6 August 2025
There are no doubt similar situations to be found
elsewhere, but taking my own road and the adjacent Carrill Way which I use every day
as examples, the former will get additional double yellow lines but
not Carrill Way. (There is little scope for increasing those already there.) Both
roads will get 10-4 resident only bays with parking permits.
The accident prone Abbey Road currently has a long free all day parking bay
adjacent to the Abbey much loved by Liz line commuters and a smaller section
restricted to four hours. The latter section appears to being given more relaxed
rules. Mon-Fri instead of Mon-Sat and reduced hours.
There is no clue as to whether the scourge of nose to kerb parking will be
prohibited. It would be a rare day when the Highways Department manages to get everything right.
5 August - Ye Olde Leather Bottle. A brief history
On Saturday
I said that two emails had arrived in recent weeks about the state of what was
once Bexley’s oldest pub, Ye Olde Leather Bottle on Heron Hill and The Maggot Sandwich was going to
cover the present situation on Sunday.
Since then a third email has arrived.
Hugh Neal decided to publish the second email in full but perhaps it is time to remind readers of its history in more depth.
The pub was demolished without permission in 2015 having closed a
year earlier. Demolition paid no regard to public safety and the facade
could have fallen on passers-by at any time (Photos 1
and 2 at the foot of this page). The developer was prosecuted and fined by the
Health & Safety Executive. The footpath (Photo 2 above) which crossed the pub’s
car park is now impassable (Photo 3 above). It has been blocked for at least five years. (Photos 3 and 4 below.)
It is an offence to divert or close a public right of way, even temporarily,
without lawful authority. From the gov.uk website “In England and Wales, the
closure or diversion of a public footpath for longer than six months can only be
authorized by the Secretary of State.”
What has Bexley Council done about that? Nothing presumably.
The developer thinks he is a favoured person. On one occasion when I was
photographing the demolition I was manhandled (Photo 5 at the foot of this page) and informed that
I would be reported to my MP; the much missed Teresa Pearce. Maybe he does have
influence, Photo 7 below shows the wife of the now former Chairman of the Planning
Committee calling at the developer’s front door. They were invited in too.
Further connections earned an award at the Civic Offices too. (Photo 8 at foo of page.)
When I went to the address shown to make sure I had not misidentified it I was
chased away with an accusation of photographing his grandchildren. I made my
escape by car but was pursued by his van and the driver tried to run me off the road
to the extent I called 999 and the police had to come and rescue me.
Meanwhile the residents who have lost the use of the footpath and been forced to
look at a vermin infested mess for the past ten years have been abandoned by
Bexley Council but I was amused to read the third of my emails.
I will take the Maggot Sandwich approach and reproduce it here…
A
log time ago we lived in a house three doors up the hill on the photo.
[A reference to the photo shown on The Maggot Sandwich and reproduced here with the copyright owner’s permission]
It was our first home and we looked straight on to the pub. The grounds sloped down to the path along the rear of
our house. Then the owners re-surfaced the car park and raised the level and
removed the trees and hedgerows. It meant that cars (and people) were
looking directly into our back garden.
I approached the Council to see if anything could be done but they were no help so I applied for a reduction in Council Tax.
This was rejected but I appealed and went to a tribunal. It was
like a courtroom. I stated my case and produced photos. The council
representative stated their’objections and I cross examined him. The verdict? I won and
got a large reduction in Council Tax. I let all my neighbours know but none
of them bothered to do likewise.
To see how it is now makes me so sad.
If you can get a Council Tax reduction for wrecked sightlines there would appear to be plenty of scope for
making a claim now.
4 August - The Reform v MP spat. Who won? Looks like it was Reform
In the early days of Bonkers it got into the habit of reporting local
activists, principally, Mick, Nicholas, two Johns and Elwyn. They specialised in
digging into Bexley Council’s blatant dishonesty, occasional criminality and widespread contempt for democracy. The Council retaliated by running to
their protectors in the police resulting in two reports for harassment, an arrest, a charge
of Malicious Communications based on manufactured evidence and another charge for Harassment: ditto.
All of them went through the justice system and ended in defeat for lying
Councillors who had perjured themselves and made false written statements for
which they should have been prosecuted; but as I said, friends in the police and high places etc.
More lies were necessary when a child and an old lady died of Council inspired neglect.
At the other end of the scale we had a Cabinet Member who lied that white line
painting cost £6 per foot and the Council had not given a £4 million contract to a company
promising to improve the road network. In reality they had been given £2 million
twice and there never was anything to show for it.
All of those alluded to are still active on the political scene locally.
The activists did not take everything lying down. One serving Councillor was
arrested and another along with a Chief Executive no longer in Bexley had a
file on them sent to the Crown Prosecution Service. In both cases corrupt
officialdom ensured that they never did appear in Court.
Long term readers may remember those events and all the detail can still be
found on Bonkers, never challenged.
It
is probably progress that modern day activists are pursuing incompetence and
unjustifiable secrecy and dishonesty and criminality is not as obvious as it used to be.
@tonyofsidcup is probably the best known of the local activists but there are
several from Reform UK Bexleyheath and Crayford Branch beavering away in the background.
We saw yesterday
how @tony has been trying to get a total budget figure out of Bexley
Council to confirm or otherwise the Reform UK claim that 10% of the budget was
going on BexleyCo. Not as easy as one might imagine, however Cabinet Member David
Leaf has belatedly tried to be helpful. I remember when Elwyn Bryant tried to
talk to him during an election campaign and got an outright refusal and told to go away.
Some things are definitely better than they used to be.
David may be just a little too knowledgeable and erudite for his fellow
Councillors and the likes of us. I tried to simplify yesterday’s summary but despite that
@tony mildly reprimanded me for being “too nerdy”.
Certainly I was not quite sure what to make of David Leaf’s latest email and maybe
@tony struggled too. His thank you note to David included the
questioning words “Is your answer £572·518m + £85·790m = around £650m? If yes, then I and Reform folks agree.”
(Reform believed that £64 million went to BexleyCo.)
Which appears to be further proof, if proof were needed, that the Labour MP for Bexleyheath
and Crayford was unwise to have argued with Reform.
Yesterday Labour Group Leader Stefano Borella also wrote to @tony. I like
Stefano and will not repeat his words here but it doesn’t take a genius to guess whose side he has taken.
For those who would like to dig deeper into the budget numbers David Leaf suggests that
https://democracy.bexley.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=149&MId=30188 and
https://democracy.bexley.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=148&MId=30194
might make interesting bedtime reading.
3 August - The Reform v MP spat. Who won?
At the end of June
a row broke out between Reform UK (Bexleyheath and Crayford Branch) and the sitting MP Daniel Francis.
The lads from Reform had attended a Cabinet Committee meeting and came away with
the idea that 10% of Bexley’s budget was gurgling down the BexleyCo drain.
I am not sure why he considered it his job to attempt to ride to the rescue of
Bexley Council but the MP said it was only 5%. Maybe the real motive was to
discredit people who will likely defeat him at the next election.
At the time I was discussing something else with one of the Reform people who
had been at the Cabinet meeting and he asked my opinion of the discrepancy. Council
finances is not something I delve into too deeply because it requires a degree
of expertise which I do not possess; and I guessed that most readers are
similar. I went on to suggest that they did not allow the argument to get out of
hand because few will care now and it will be forgotten by the time the election comes around.
That scourge of Bexley Council, @tonyofsidcup is not so easily deterred. He
thought the MP was wrong and set about proving it. His first act was to ask the
Cabinet Member for Resources, David Leaf, if he could give “a figure for
Bexley’s budget, give or take £50 million”.
He was rewarded with silence and went to the Labour Group Leader instead. Then,
after an interval of more than two weeks @tony received a reply from the Cabinet
Member - along with an apology for the delay.
David suggested that the MP came to his 5% conclusion by referring to the
General Fund which includes Council Tax income. BexleyCo, he said is funded from
the Capital Programme, implying that Reform was more correct with their 10%
figure. He went on to say that although funding is agreed, reviews have led to
rather less being actually handed over.
@tony was not entirely happy and asked again what the ball park budget number
was, alleging that the figure was not included in the Annual Statement of Accounts. @tony put
forward his view that Daniel Francis had failed to understand “basic financial
reporting” and Labour Leader Stefano Borella “was keeping mum”. He asked for a
straight answer “to put Bexley Labour to shame”.
Two weeks later David Leaf had failed to respond. In a cheeky riposte @tony, who
unlike me has some accountancy qualifications, wrote that David is just as big a
failure as the MP and the Labour Group Leader and only Reform UK have any real
understanding of Bexley’s finances and come the election may be a better bet
than the established parties. “Only local Reformists cracked the enigma.”
2 August - Finance Scrutiny Committee report (Asset Management)
As
with ‘Transformation’,
the first Councillor to ask a question was Steven Hall. He asked how the Council
planned to measure the success of the new Asset Management Strategy. Apparently
it is a “robust” strategy and will be subject to “regular updates”.
Councillor Hall said he was happy with the answer but sounded less than
convincing and he was going to read the papers again.
Councillor Borella (Labour Group Leader) had read the Agenda thoroughly and noticed that it referred to both 690 assets (Page 72)
and 750 (Page 76). What was that all about and what sort of condition are they
in? We don’t want
another Parkside Community Centre. (So bad it had to be demolished.)
He was told that the correct number was 690 following a clean up of the old
records. No one answered the condition question and Stefano does not give up as
easily as some Councillors do. He asked again.
Cabinet Member David Leaf said that the condition will not be known for a year
or two after a survey is conducted.
Councillor Larry Ferguson (Labour, Thamesmead East) asked if “any might be sold
to relieve the financial situation”. David Leaf said some are on a For Sale list
published in 2022 but he was not prepared to say which. “They are in the BexleyCo pipeline.”
Councillor Chris Ball was concerned about the amount of time that setting up the
Asset Strategy was taking (two years or more) and was told that the number of
staff employed on the Property Team is being increased in part because not very
specialism is available in-house.
There were no more questions on Asset Management and Cabinet Member for
Resources, David Leaf was asked to give his report to the Finance Committee.
• The Household Support Fund has commenced distribution.
• The Fair Funding Review is under way.
• There is a national Council Tax consultation going on and it is being debated with the Local Government Association.
• The employers’ Rights Bill will create a variety of new impositions on Local
Government including responsibility for pay negotiations of school support staff.
• Similar changes affect Adult Social Care and according to the Government’s
initial economic assessment, Local Government nationally could be hit for a billion pounds.
2 August (Part 1) - Ye Olde Heron Hill dump
Just
a couple of days after my second hospital ‘op’, occasional correspondent David
W. suggested I get myself up to Ye Olde Leather Bottle to read a letter that had
been pinned to what Kulvinder Singh might call a boundary fence.
Unfortunately my recovery was not as quick as I had hoped for and by the time I got
myself there the notice had gone, hence an update on
the Leather Bottle situation was never done.
Just when I thought I should do something about it I discovered in conversation
with Hugh Neal of Maggot Sandwich fame that he is going to bring everyone up to date on The Bottle
tomorrow. So if you are interested in what benefits
a close association with Bexley’s Conservative Councillors can bring,
there may be something of interest to you on Hugh’s blog on Sunday.
The view from Heron Hill.
1 August (Part 2) - Burstead Woods
Bonkers does not usually report on Planning applications unless it is likely that there will be
widespread interest in a particular project. Bursted Woods which used to be an
NHS site near Barnehurst station before being taken over by Bexley Council and
handed to BexleyCo. Last night
their 2024 application was given permission was given to build 121 houses and flats with 18 of them offered
as shared ownership to make them a little more affordable.
A Cabinet meeting had suggested the site would bring a £6·1 million profit but
now we learn it won’t, hence no affordable housing.
As you might guess, the Labour Councillors are not at all happy about it and have rushed out
a Press Release on the subject. (PDF)
121 houses is
fewer than proposed eight years ago,
1 August (Part 1) - Finance Scrutiny Committee report (Transformation)
There was a new Chairman of the Finance & Corporate Services Overview and
Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 22nd July. It was Councillor Andrew Curtois
(Falconwood & Welling) who had been sufficiently loyal to the Leader to pick up
the £9,000 plus a year job and succeed Councillor Ahmet Dourmoush. Whether he
knows any more about finance than Andy remains to be seen. Possibly not. In
Bexley it is not a case of what do you know but who do you know and not upset.
Andy will be out of favour because he is hoping to be elected in Bromley next
year and had no other choice having given up on his business in Erith.
The first major item up for discussion was ‘Transforming Council Services for our
Residents’ on which Bexley Council has already spent a colossal sum on a Director of
Transformation. Presumably they must realise how big a mountain they have to
climb. In January and February last year a survey showed that Bexley Council was
not
particularly well regarded by residents and a similar survey of staff
revealed that Bexley Council’s management was
truly appalling in several respects. There has been a significant clear out since then.
Councillor Hall (East Wickham) asked if there were any communications protocols in place to
improve relations with both residents and staff. At least three new members of
staff had been appointed and 800 staff took part in a briefing. Workshops and
Focus Groups are to follow. There had been another residents’ survey and a plan is being put together.
Councillor Ball (Labour, Erith) said he was not very impressed and asked why the
project is led by the Leader but without the Cabinet. He was not convinced that
every department and services were “not joined up”. He saw “red flags” in the
process and there is a “lot to do”. The Council officer appeared to be aware of
the problems that lie ahead and it is expected to take three years.
Labour Leader Stefano Borella complained about Reform UK members in the audience
who he said could be heard chatting among themselves. They were not audible on the webcast.
It was revealed that Working from Home has improved recruitment
levels as staff are only
asked to attend the office two or three times a week. Councillor Slaughter
(Sidcup) said that WFH deprived junior members of staff from learning from more
senior colleagues. She understood that things need to be done digitally whenever
possible but we must not forget residents in danger of “being left behind”. She said it can be
quite difficult to get through to Customer Services.
Councillor O’Hare knew of a resident whose pinnacle of technological advancement is a landline telephone.
Maybe that is not so very rare, I know a lady who is proud of being in the same situation.
Cabinet Member David Leaf said “digital by default does not mean digital only”.
Who can remember [the then] Cabinet Member Peter Craske when introducing Ringo -
actually its predecessor - promising that there would always be a cash option at all car parking facilities?
20 minutes after the first warning, the Reform UK people were again
reprimanded for speaking too loudly. It wouldn’t do for their comments to be broadcast to the world would it?
Councillor Larry Ferguson (Labour, Thamesmead East) suggested there might be
a case for performing smaller tasks in-house
instead of out-sourcing everything. Councillor
Leaf said he always looks at the in-sourcing out-sourcing question.
The meeting moved on to Asset Management.
Note: Another webcast technical failure resulted in the loss
of all close ups. It only provided the wide view shown above.