27 October - Roads, Questions and BexleyCo
Commitments in Bromley take up ever more time so it is fortunate that there is nothing of great importance going on in Bexley.
Yesterday I knew I had to avoid Bramption Road because it was closed for
resurfacing work but I wasn’t prepared for the four-way lights at the Penhill
Road/Hurst Road roundabout. A mere 17 minutes of delay.
Then there was a long queue for a hole in the road at Chislehurst’s War
Memorial. You have to sympathise with SL3 bus drivers who not only have to
contend with all three but also the Thames Water disruptions in Sidcup.
Then Bexley Council complains to TfL that buses always run late.
Anxious to bypass as many road closures as possible I varied the return route
and encountered SGN works in North Cray Road and had to dodge the remedial flood
work in Erith Road by using the A2 from Bexley to Danson. Unfortunately SGN had
obstructed the slip road from Bourne Road, They had gone away by late afternoon.
(I had to make the journey twice,)
The Brampton Road diversion along King Harold’s Way was partially blocked by SGN
too. Bexley’s highways are managed by clowns.
The PHP problems are not all solved yet but let’s move to the more political stuff.
Full Council questions
Mr.
Shvorob is continuing his campaign against Bexley Council’s
clamp down on public questions. He has written to all three Bexley party Leaders
seeking their opinion and the Conservatives and Labour replied fairly promptly. (Reform was an
afterthought and Mr. S. will have to give them more time.
Council Leader David Leaf sends Dimitri polite and patient letters but on
this occasion still managed to tell him he was taking “nonsense”.
In Bexley facts are nonsense. Nothing new there than.
I am a little envious of Dimitri’s ability to extract comment from David
Leaf, it is more than I have ever achieved. I know very little about Councillor
Leaf; we once exchanged pleasantries in a pub and I know a lady who was in
the same class as him at school but I will not be lured into Nigel Farage/Dulwich College territory.
Labour Leader Stefano Borella replied promptly and said he didn’t think Bexley’s
question regime was any different from those found elsewhere. The new rules were
“informed by external advice and benchmarking against practices adopted by other
Councils”. Dimitri is currently engaged in trying to persuade Stefano that he is wrong.
The correspondence reveals that Councillors will be given more time for their questions.
BexleyCo
There has been a long tradition of appointing not very good people to manage the
money pit which is BexleyCo. It has been reported that Gary Jones,
the Director of Place imported from failed Basildon Council, has taken a
Directorship at BexleyCo where two others have jumped ship in the past week.