Lesnes Abbey Conservatives poked their latest newssheet through my letterbox today. It doesn’t really say much, full of trite platitudes which steer a careful non-controversial course designed not to upset too many people and try to convince us that they spend our money more wisely than the last administration - which shouldn’t have been too be difficult. Naturally it glosses over the fact that Bexley’s taxes have still been rising faster than elsewhere in London. One bit did catch my eye however and that is that the big-spending Tories have thrown money at the Metropolitan Police so they can go around spying on the populace where no C.C.T.V. operates.
Presumably that explains why a police van was parked outside my house for much of the afternoon of 7th
January. It was marked with the words ‘Police C.C.T.V.’ and that it was working for Bexley
council. Goodness knows what they were expecting to find. It parked at the end of a cul-de-sac where
nothing happens all day long once the postman has come and gone and being a cul-de-sac there are few
homes to be looked at. The only trouble we ever see is the occasional yob who takes a short cut
across a neighbour’s garden, hops the fence and sometimes damages it in the process. It makes
the journey to Abbey Wood station a bit shorter. However my neighbour already has the fence under 24/7
C.C.T.V. recording so if the police were taking an interest it was a bit of a waste of time and money.
And surely there must be higher priorities for the police than parking in a quiet cul-de-sac looking
out for a minor misdemeanour that might happen twice a week or less?
You can see the police snoopercam above the driver’s position. At one time there were two vans,
even just one of them being enough to totally block access to the drives and ‘back of the
houses’ parking space of nine dwellings. But when did the police or Bexley council ever care
about legal niceties?
Still taken from the C.C.T.V. camera recording possible vandalism to a neighbour’s fence