7 February (Part 1) - Another dangerous Frizoni Folly. Probably?
I have a friend who for more than twenty years has driven from Bromley to
Belvedere every weekday. From her I get frequent updates about the state of the
boroughs’ roads. Bromley’s have gradually improved with bottlenecks eased and
awkward junctions expertly redesigned, realigned and widened where necessary. I
don’t do the journey often myself but I can think of five such improvements
over the past five years or so.
In Bexley the reverse is true. All roads have been progressively narrowed and
junctions which once had two lanes are reduced to one. On the route from
Belvedere to the borough border at Sidcup I can instantly think of eleven
degradations and just one improvement. The man to blame for this is Mike Frizoni. He hates motorists.
The
latest wheeze brought to my attention is in Welling. It is rather like the
accident blackspot introduced to Oakhampton Crescent where little protrusions
jut out into the road to catch the unwary. But at least there the protrusions are
marked by illuminated bollards. Not so in Welling High Street which being a
major A road is probably influenced by the dead hand of TfL too.
Whichever bunch of chumps was responsible for introducing another bottleneck
to Welling High Street presumably lacks any qualification for the job. With no
warnings and no illumination it puts pedestrians, cyclists and motorists at
additional risk. At night the latest of their deathtraps becomes invisible.
One car driver has already reported clipping the kerb and writing off both
nearside tyres. By the look of the third photograph he is not the first to do
so. The sharp edged kerb stone bears the scars.
Bexley council, in its characteristically uncaring manner, has ensured that the
kerb is given a very sharp edge
as it has elsewhere.
Here a softer edge might have been more considerate, but when has Bexley council been anything other than spiteful?