16 July - Full Council meeting : Public Questions
With so many new Council faces with which to become familiar I am forsaking
webcasts for a while in favour of the real thing and augmenting my photo
collection. Friendly faces encountered on the way in to yesterday’s meeting were Stefano Borella, as
always, Sally Hinkley and newly Independent Dave Curtois who seemed to be a thoroughly nice fellow; no wonder the Tories threw him out.
As usual Mr. Shvorob was there with one of his questions. Was the Council
going to build on Burr Farm after promising to protect green spaces during the last
election campaign and the Leader was as usual dismissive of it.
He began by ridiculing Mr. Shvorob's
failure to be elected at the recent election and then said that as Burr Farm was the subject of a current
planning application he couldn't talk about it, as if it was a legal case and he
might prejudice a trial. Or as he put it, unduly influence the Planning
Committee. The Council Leader’s Smart Alec approach to politics
gets to be a bit tiresome. He is an entertaining and amusing speaker but on balance it comes
across as schoolboy politics unbecoming of a Council Leader.
A resident of Elstree Gardens
(Belvedere) made a plea for the AW1 Controlled Parking Zone
introduced as an 18 month experimental scheme last September be operational
for two hours instead of the current six because it is making life for residents very difficult.
This is something mentioned on Bonkers several times. Elstree Gardens presents a
totally different situation to other parts of the AW1 Zone which mainly has
off-street parking. Elstree Gardens mainly does not.
The signage there is a mess and is confusing to visitors and
occasionally downright wrong and Bexley Council knows
it. The problems have been discussed at the Transport User’s Sub-Committee and
on one occasion I was allowed to address that Committee and provide a whole list of things wrong with the design of AW1.
Cabinet Member Cameron Smith said a two hour restriction might
not curb the Elizabeth line commuters now that the working day has shifted from
the traditional 9-5 pattern but Council officers are
already looking at the issues.
The resident thought it would help enormously if the road was marked, ‘Residents
Parking Only’ and the restrictive bays and yellow lines were removed. This is
pretty much how the roads to the North of Abbey Road (AW1) are laid out and the fact
that Elstree Gardens to the South (also AW1) is marked differently was brought to the
attention of Cameron Smith when he was Chairman of Transport Users’. One might
assume that no one took any notice. Councillor Smith thought
that the roads to the North being cul-se-sacs and Elstree Gardens being a through
road justified the different approach.
Mr. Shvorob came back with another question; this one being about on-line
Councillor attendance reporting as, according to Mr. Shvorob is the norm at most
London Councils. After listening to the Leader’s response - which unhelpfully suggested a
trawl through past Minutes of Meetings - Mr. Shvorob admitted
he was dealing with a Master Question Evader, which the Leader took to be a compliment.