It has been said here before but to my mind the only reason to keep Bonkers
going is to give a bit of publicity to what goes on at Council meetings and once
again I have to report there will not be one for another three weeks. Do they
have fewer than used to be the case?
An email this morning said that Bonkers is “a goldmine of valuable information”
and maybe it is in historical terms, When I look back at it it is almost beyond
belief that Bexley Conservatives, supported by corrupt officialdom and bent
policemen, could be as
dishonest as they clearly were. It was one scandal after another; but not any
more leaving Bonkers struggling and some might say floundering
It
is rather disappointing that Council meeting reports, which can easily take half
a day to write, rarely produce a response
from any readers there might be. Rants about parking, the Sidcup blockades and
yellow box junctions appear to be much more popular.
It would be easy to rant about Keir Starmer’s woeful government and maybe now that Non-Crime
Hate Crimes are no longer the police’s premier occupation there is more scope to do so.
Is he really so deluded that he really believes he is improving the state of the
country for anyone who goes to work every morning? My tax bill is going up by
£594 next year not including the VAT on massively increased prices.
The population is clearly nuts; while Starmer has
an approval rating of -54% the tit whispering Green leader David Paulden
(a.k.a. Zack Polanski) tops the league table at only -6%. His policies are nothing short of 100% lunacy.
Ed Davey, a man who keeps failing to drown himself in wet publicity stunts is at
-9%. Kemi Badenoch, undermined by innumerable wets, is in third place at -32%. Ditch the wets Kemi.
Despite not holding back on criticism of Labour nationally and generally going
against local Labour MPs, all my Christmas greetings from political sources were from Labour people.
As much as I despise Starmer and his cronies, and this morning’s Christmas
message was vomit inducing, all the Labour Councillors in Bexley appear to be decent human
beings. I am not so sure about some of the Tories.
It looks like my forecast that
Kier Starmer would only last 18 months will be wrong. A calamity for the
country except that, impossible though it might seem, the party has no one better.
22 December (Part 2) - Who tells porkies?
As I have said many times before, Council finances are not my strong point so
Councillor Leaf’s long explanation of how Bexley is being hard done by by
Government again was not quite good enough for me. However I do have an
occasional correspondent who used to work in a Council Finance Department. Who better to ask?
Apparently the new source of funding replaces the old which is why you have
to look further than the Labour Government’s headline grant. It is as I suspected all
tied up with an assumed maximum Council Tax increase and my financial
correspondent sums it up by saying “there is no new money tree and Leaf [as
usual] is on the ball. The Labour story is simply absurd.”
That will do for me.
22 December (Part 1) - Sidcup shut again
My Monday trip to Bromley saw me in Sidcup High Street at ten to seven this
morning. The
only hold up had been the dust cart in Foots Cray Lane but traffic was light and
therefore the delay was minimal. Then I got to Elm Road and with no prior warning
found it completely closed. So straight over at the lights and down some back streets.
Five
minutes wait behind yet another dust cart and then High Street and The Green. I
can only just squeeze through the totally unnecessary width restrictor so it is
not my usual route.
Once again, pity the poor bus drivers. How many routes would be on diversion? I
saw a 321 using The Green a week ago. If The Green is wide enough for a double
deck bus in one direction why the width restriction going the other way? Bexley
Council and the traffic department in particular truly are Bonkers.
21 December - Is the grant up or down. What is the truth of it?
The Labour MP for Bexleyheath
claimed on X that the Labour Government is
going to increase its grant to Bexley Council by £43·8 million. David Leaf the
Conservative Leader in Bexley put out
a long X thread explaining why the extra
money was smoke and mirrors. As anyone who has seen Keir Starmer’s lips move
will know, the default position of the Labour party is to lie and lie and lie
again. However Bexley’s Conservatives are not exactly known for their
truthfulness although to be fair, Councillor Leaf has never been accused of
lying on Bonkers and probably that is not about to change.
Nevertheless, despite David’s long explanation I have been unable to work out exactly
how Bexley’s grant has been reduced. I think it may be something to do with the
estimate of Council Tax receipts but I am not sure. Core Spending Power being up is not the same as an increased Government grant.
You will have to expand the right hand image to have any chance of reading it,
19 December - Bexley Council. Incompetent or malicious?
Why
is Sidcup so uniquely punished by road works? It is more than 20 years since I
took my son there to look at the traffic chaos. He was at the time employed by
the Transport Research Laboratory and now advises on safety issues worldwide;
China last month, the EU this and the USA in January. He said whoever designed and
approved Elm Road was either incompetent or malicious.
My recollection is that Elm Road was one traffic light after another and they
were taken away once the incompetence was proven beyond doubt.
The High Street was
revamped in 2014
with fancy pale blocks which soon looked grubby and collapsed under the weight
of traffic. Designed by clowns and someone eventually has
to fix them.
The High Street was resurfaced
fewer than two months ago and immediately afterwards its junction with
Station Road/Elm Road was dug up again. It was being dug up again this morning causing
tail backs to the hospital.
Next month,
as first noted in October, Thames Water is going to bring Sidcup to a halt again for 16 months.
This morning I spotted yet another sign at the end of The Green announcing
another High Street closure on or from (I was driving and didn’t get to read it all) 5th January.
P.S. And at 6 a.m. 20th December the radio has just
announced that Elm Road is closed completely.
According to a notice posted by Sidcup BID the High Street will be closed from
Monday 5th to January 17th from 21:00 to 04:00. So not too bad.
16 December (Part 2) - How to fix Bexley’s traffic problems
Fifteen years ago, as noted yesterday, Bexley Council paid the
transport consultants Parsons Brinkerhoff four million pounds to fix the borough’s road traffic
problems. Obviously it was money down a blocked drain.
Having been engaged with my new regime of four return trips to Bromley each week for
two whole months I feel I must be well qualified to offer my transport advice for free. Not
four million pounds, not even twenty grand a month
to keep their cinema alive
after the owner went bust. Free.
There is of course an element of tongue in cheekedness about what follows but traffic delays are
a serious problem which affects us all and the economy of the borough.
My journeys are all at peak hours and at this time of the year that means in
darkness. Bromley is always busy in the same place every single day. There is
always congestion where Bexley meets Bromley at the Queen Mary Hospital
roundabout but it is short lived. Once the road drops down from two to one lane
progress may be slow but it is steady.
Bexley on the other hand has random gridlock and the
problem is multi-faceted. We have a Highways Department which is headed by a man prepared to lie to cover the tomfoolery of his political
masters. I don’t need to repeat the Transport Research Laboratory story that
resulted in the creation of Bonkers do I? More recently the same team came up
with the crazy AW1 controlled Parking Zone, some of which makes no sense
whatsoever. And the Cabinet Member didn’t notice because he lives in Bexley Village.
Penhill Road we know was designed with
traffic aggravation in mind. Everyone will have
forgotten but during the time of the Labour administration the big roundabout
just south of the A2 underpass near Danson Park was improved to benefit traffic
flow but in 2007 under the Conservatives the exit from Penhill Road was reduced
from two to one lane for little benefit to pedestrians and by so doing causes
regular massive tail backs and making the SL3 Express bus route something of a joke.
It’s not just my view; one of the Highways people emailed me at the weekend describing them as ‘clowns’.
Some of the congestion one sees is created by idiot drivers some of whom I
assume passed their driving test in Mogadishu. I like to be courteous on the road
especially towards bus drivers who are attacked daily by Bexley Council and
deserve better. A few days ago I stopped at the top of the steep straight part
of New Road to allow a bus a clear run up the hill while his side was obstructed
by parked cars. Someone overtook me and headed straight into the path of the bus
which was forced into a small gap in the line of parked cars. WTF as they say.
Mogadishu or Calcutta presumably?
Speaking of New Road, the ‘clowns’ redesigned the junction with Abbey Road a few
years ago such that most double deckers mount the kerb when heading towards
Bexleyheath. There is plenty of pavement space; why doesn’t Bexley Council fix it?
The image above is of one of Bexleyְ’s perpetual holes. New Road again. This one has been opened up three times over just a few weeks.
As noted before, too many drivers don’t indicate at roundabouts or anywhere
else, and far too many have faulty lights or even none at all. At least they
probably don’t park on the wrong side of the road with headlights on. Car
crushing seems reasonable to me. Second offence, driver included.
Pedestrians in black clothing cross the road within yards of a proper
crossing. A mother and two children in Brampton Road only yesterday. Immediate
Social Services investigation please.
Monday morning journeys are particularly
bad because the Country Style truck goes up and down Footscray Lane stopping
alongside as many pedestrian refuges as it can. The homeward queue can extend
all the way back to Rectory Lane in Sidcup. There is no one at Bexley Council
with the brains to keep the trucks on minor roads until 9:30. They would rather
wreck the borough’s economy.
Parking should be severely restricted on all A roads.
Delays are very often due to idiots who park legally in silly places. Absolutely no parking except in
off peak hours on straight roads which have a minimum of two carriageways in each
direction. The same should apply to designated B roads which are also bus routes. It would
be just another way of reducing car ownership which every politician appears to favour. So why not?
I actually got slightly lost on my journey home from Bromley recently. There was
a diversion so I decided on Avenue Road rather than Brampton Road. It was close
to midnight and with no traffic and a faded yellow box to mark the turning I
missed it. To get back on course I found two width restrictors over a weak
railway bridge in just one direction. WTF again. Do we really need a restriction
to protect a bridge from people driving in the wrong direction of what is in
effect a one way street?
Oh, I forgot. Mogadishu again. I don’t think he reads Bonkers but I have a
friend who is a driving instructor. He has boat people on his books. I didn’t dare ask who is paying.
If/when Reform UK takes over in Bexley in only six months time there will be plenty of work for them to do.
16 December (Part 1) - Sainsbury’s is useless again
I
have not been having much luck with shopping. I picked up twenty quid’s worth of
gluten free stuff in Morrisons and the exorbitantly priced biscuits came up as
Mince Pies for another ninety pence. No one available to fix it so I walked out.
Yesterday in Sainsbury’s Bexleyheath I only needed milk and tea but the machine
said the milk I scanned and put on the tray was the wrong item. I made a move
to walk out but the assistant came and pressed some buttons. The machine then
asked for £5·10 and I put the exact money, six coins, into the slot and it all came tumbling
out. Tried again; same thing. So took the money and walked out empty handed.
Went to Sainsbury’s Abbey Wood for the milk this morning and picked up four
Nectar reduced items while there. Milk scanned OK and I noted it came up as
£2·55, 15 pence more expensive than Lidl.
Gluten Free bread complained I had not put it in tray. Eventually got some
attention and assistant said I had not scanned the milk. I asked her how I knew it was
£2·55 if the machine had not recognised it. No answer.
Nectar discount was not applied to two items so had to fetch same assistant. She
said she could not apply the discount and went to speak to someone else. I was
then marched down to look at the price ticket. Assistant then dealt with two
other enquiries before pressing many buttons on my self-service scanner and the reduced price was
eventually applied to my bill.
The machine then said the milk had not been scanned. I gave up and walked out.
No problem in Lidl and I saved 15 pence.
There is a big banner in Sainsbury’s about products being price matched to Aldi.
Is that an invitation to go there? Unfortunately none within walking distance of home.
15 December - Sidcup has a Castle
The ill-fated Sidcup cinema reopened on Friday and someone who went to see Wicked: For Good reported
that his was one of three family groups who had together
swollen Sidcup High
Street’s footfall by 33%.
In an attempt to offer support and to check if the Castle Group presented films any
better than the Really Local Group - like matting the screen to the appropriate
aspect ratio for example - I asked a friend if she fancied a rare trip to the
cinema but after being given the go ahead I found that there are no films listed
after this Wednesday. I suppose you must learn to walk before you run.
Castle Group has a track record of running successful small cinemas so probably a better bet than the last operator.
A pity that Bexley Council didn’t find
them four years ago.
@tonyofsidcup has been trying to find out what Cabinet Member Munir meant when he said that
the failed Really Useful Grouo had been subjected to vigorous due diligence but
relevant documentary information is difficult to come by.
Presumably you put out a tender to contract and any instructions and guidance
that might entail, Examine the (only?) response and see if it meets the usual
green and woke agenda that all Councils follow and hope that real demand meets
the operator’s optimism.
What due diligence is never likely to reveal is whether or not the operator is a
fantasist. Presumably the Cabinet Member who pushed it through was determined to
do so and exercised the same degree of care and poor judgment as he did when
awarding Parsons Brinckerhoff a four million pound contract to fix the borough’s
roads - whatever became of that? - and aiming obscenities at residents which
resulted in his arrest.
The £4m. contract was
said not to exist but
the Press Release
proved otherwise.
13 December - Widespread waste
I
have been banging on about this for more than four years, before Country Style took over from Serco anyway.
The big paper bin across the road from me has always had a damaged hinge such
that the lid cannot be locked. It may not have been delivered in that
condition but it was certainly like it from within a few weeks of installation.
It is quite useful for getting rid of large cartons
(32 Amazon parcels to my address in November!) but unfortunately it is
abused by residents who either cannot read English or do not understand Civic
responsibility - or both. Last month someone deposited a demolished bathroom on top of a
valuable load of Amazon boxes etc. (Photo 1, 17th November) It was
mentioned
here on 17th November.
The bathroom was soon buried by more cardboard (Photo 2, 10th December) because Country Style cannot be
bothered to empty the bin often enough but yesterday a large Transit style van
turned up at six in the morning and as far as I could see in the dark, the crew
was
sorting through the contents of the bin and took the old bathroom away.
The bin was left uncontaminated and half full of paper and cardboard. (Photo 3,
13th December.)
Excellent apart from the fact that they left a single Christmas card envelope
lying on the ground. One with my name on it!
Can that dawn raid be proof that someone at Country Style reads Bonkers? How
else would they know that broken tiles lay under the Cornflakes box?
I have a vague recollection of reading somewhere that a contaminated bin or fly
tip costs, on average, around £300 to sort out. How much do replacement large bins cost? No idea, but it
cannot be more than the constant need to attend to a bin with a broken hinge
several times a year.
It may not seem much, but waste on this scale repeated across the borough will
be
costing taxpayers a fortune. All it needs is a handyman with a few tools to fix the
thing. And a manager with a brain.
A few older bin blogs
26th April 2021
9th August 2021
30th November 2021
19th January 2022
21st January 2022
16th February 2022
27th February 2022
27th May 2022
11 December - In a flap over flag waving
Someone who claims Council connections and who clearly doesn’t like overt displays
of patriotism wrote to me claiming that there has been a bit of a bust up among Bexley
Conservatives under their new Leader David Leaf. The dispute was over the flags
that adorn many of Bexley’s streets.
It is said, rightly or wrongly, I do not know for sure, that Councillor Leader Leaf
wanted to have the flags removed but his colleagues, Councillors Davey and Brooks in particular, were having none of it.
I am inclined to think my informant is an extreme lefty because she claims the flags
were put up by Tommy Robinson and he and his supporters are “cretins”.
Personally I am somewhere in the middle on this. I cannot see how the display of
national symbols can be intrinsically wrong. let alone cretinous, and felt that
the Labour Group’s
Press Release was a concerted attempt at electoral suicide in Bexley but at the
same time, after two or three months of flag waving, there is no denying that
they are looking tired and tatty and their time must have passed.
That is why I removed the St. George’s Cross from the Bonkers Banner about ten days ago.
Now I would be happy enough to see the street flags gone, i.e. I am just a
little inclined towards David Leaf
but regard money spent on their removal as a very big waste, which arguably edges me towards the Labour camp
10 December - Bexley Council wants DLR to go to Belvedere but once voted against it!
On Murky Depths there is a new feature on the planned DLR extension to Thamesmead
linked to Bexley Council’s most recent
plea for a DLR extension to Belvedere. It is probably fair
to say that the author regards the Thamesmead plan as less than ideal and maybe not a
sensible expenditure at all; but even sillier would be the further extension to
Belvedere that Bexley Council advocates.
It is not a new idea and first
reported here nearly 13 years ago when
then Cabinet Member Councillor Peter Craske said “it would be
great if the DLR could be extended to Bexley”.
In 2015, before the benefits of the Elizabeth Line became apparent,
Peabody surveyed its residents and found that they were keen on getting the
DLR into Thamesmead. Probably everyone offered a new transport facility will say
yes please impulsively. The same month brought a report that
Greenwich Council was pushing for the DLR to be extended to Thamesmead.
A year later Labour Councillor Stefano Borella
welcomed a DLR extension but former Bexley Cabinet Member Alex Sawyer said that extending the DLR was
not nearly as important as securing a river crossing. Bexley Council was
not formally told of the extension.
Another year went by and Bexley Council produced its Growth Strategy. It wanted
the DLR to go all the way to Bexleyheath. Peabody said that an extension to Thamesmead would
fundamentally change the town centre.
Five years ago Bexley Council forgot all about its campaign to ensure that Bexley
would have no river crossings (Don’t let the bridge back in) and instead
put forward a Motion
calling for them. The Labour Group wanted it to be amended to include the DLR to Belvedere.
In an act of political stupidity the Conservatives voted it down. They didn’t
want to vote in favour of extending the DLR even though their Growth Strategy required it.
Almost needless to say, Bexley Conservatives
put out a Tweet claiming that Labour was against improved transport links
even though they were in favour of more than the Tories were!
Last year, when the Council Leader pleaded for a DLR extension
“to Belvedere or even further” she was
backed by the Labour Group.
Index to DLR related blogs.
9 December - No Transport for London Bexleyheath
Three weeks ago
a correspondent raised the issue of the 301 bus terminating in Arnsberg Way,
Bexleyheath and not Market Place (see map below) as advertised by TfL in
timetables and on board the buses themselves. The following postbag suggested
that local bus services are not felt to be reliable in terms of wait time intervals.
The termination excuses offered by TfL were ill-informed but they do seem to have solved the
issue of a bus timetabled to terminate at Market Place most often finishing on
Arnsberg Way. They have named the Arnsberg Way stop Market Place contrary to
what every map proclaims. TfL calls the stops in Market Place, Clock Tower which
is fair enough but that doesn’t transfer Market Place to Arnsberg Way.
Today
I was on a 301 which got to Bexleyheath at 10:15. The Arnsberg Way waiting area was already occupied and the 301 could
not exit Chapel Road because there were too many buses squeezed into the Geddes
Place waiting area (Photo 3 below) over-spilling into Geddes Place itself and blocking it. Arnsberg Way was gridlocked
in a westerly direction by buses that could not get to Clock Tower and some car drivers were doing what Bexley drivers too often do.
Bypass the queue by Ignoring the Keep Left signs.
The driver of the B11 in front of ‘my’ 301 while it was stuck in Geddes Place got
out of his cab and guided his passengers to safety from the middle of the road
because his bus was unable to go anywhere else. The 422 driver (Photo 1 below) did much the same thing
Eventually my 301 found a stopping place where normally the only bus would be
the 96 to Bluewater. The problem then became clear. The Clock Tower stops were
full of buses (Photo 2 below timed at 10:21) with hazard lights flashing because a 96 headed for Woolwich had
broken down (Photo above) right on the corner with Friswell Road thereby blocking it
and the entire bus terminal totally.
Broken
down buses are fast becoming the norm.
It was still chaos when I returned to the Clock Tower half an hour later.
(Note time and the same B12 still stuck in Photo 5 below.) Thank
goodness for the SL3 to Thamesmead which doesn’t go anywhere near the Clock Tower.
A lady observing the situation opined that she had always thought that whoever designed Bexleyheath’s bus
terminals must have been absolutely mad and it was never going to work
efficiently. Maybe that was TfL and not one of the incompetents in Watling Street.
Note five bus icons within a short distance of each other. The 301 normally terminates at the Arnsberg Way icon in top right corner of map.
Defiance
Hadley
Road is barely a stone’s throw from the site of Ye Olde Leather Bottle, once
Bexley’s oldest pub and now Bexley Council’s longest standing monument to friends in high places.
While in Hadley Road yesterday I checked to see if there were any
developments following the expiry of
the Community Protection Notice in September which
ordered the site owner to, among other things, remove the rubbish and restore
the public footpath. Bexley Council has already refused to say what it has done
about what looks like an act of defiance and observations suggest they have continued to do nothing
about enforcement.
Diligence
When Labour Leader Stefano Borella
suggested at November’s Cabinet meeting
that the due diligence process on the StoryTeller cinema might have been done
better it didn’t seem to be a contentious statement at all. Going bust within
two years must surely indicate that something could have been done better but the
Cabinet Member said that such thoughts were an insult to his staff.
Never one to leave an opportunity for probing the depths of Council failures, @tonyofsidcup
enquired as to exactly what the StoryTeller’s “very strict and vigorous due
diligence” entailed. Early indications are that nothing exists in written form. Not all that vigorous then.
Stef’s suspicions may well be fully justified.
Divergence
This is pure trivia but maybe worth recording.
Since personal circumstances changed and compelled me to drive to Bromley and
back four times a week, today was the first time there were no diversions in
either direction since the first trip on 17th October. How long will that last?
Whilst
I and everyone I know, is pleased with Bexley Council’s AW1 CPZ introduced last September, the fact remains that it was designed by a madman.
Residents of the Priory Gardens estate (a long strip squeezed between
Abbey Road, Belvedere and the railway line) are the happiest because every
single one of them has their own off street parking space and a Residents’
Parking Permit becomes an entirely voluntary payment. They also benefit from
their roads no longer being blocked by Liz line commuters and the silence
brought about by drivers no longer cruising up and down the roads all day
looking for a parking space.
That doesn’t change the fact that the CPZ was designed by a madman. The 1984
planning permission for 319 dwellings allowed only three entry points from Abbey Road into Priory
Gardens which resulted in a plethora of cul-de-sacs. About 14 of them according
to Google maps and
every single one of them is yellow lined differently. Some
fully restricted, some not at all and many being partially restricted. In some
cases one might imagine a reason such as sight lines on a corner or dropped kerbs
but basically the whole thing is a mess.
Another oddity is that if one drives from Abbey Wood towards Erith, all the
roads on the left have signs to indicate that those side roads are part of a CPZ
whilst those on the right, principally Elstree Gardens and Kingswood Avenue, do
not although individual parking bays are suitably marked.
One has to feel sorry for the residents of Elstree Gardens because their houses
were not built with car parking in mind. Some car owners are driven to acts of
desperation and risk getting a fine for pavement parking. (Photo left.)
A resident living close by has drawn my attention to Hadley Road which I confess
in all my 39 years of passing it I had never noticed. It is a cul-de-sac off
Kingswood Avenue. For some wondrous reason it has a CPZ warning notice at the
entry point (Photo 1 below) and a complementary one on the reverse (Photo 2) to indicate you are leaving
the Residents’ Parking Zone. Except of course you are not.
Right opposite Hadley Road (Photo 3 below) is a sign saying that you are still
within a Residents’ Parking Permit area. The sign may be hard to see in
Photo 3, hence Photo 4. Note the post box and Land Rover to prove that they are one and the same.
Maybe there is some subtle difference in law between a CPZ as it applies to
Priory Gardens and Hadley Road but not the Parking Permit Zone which apples to
Elstree Gardens and Hadley Road AND Priory Gardens. If so it must be designed to confuse drivers and me.
Or it may just be that Bexley Council’s Highways Department is staffed by
madmen. I imagine that most of Bexley’s pot hole dodgers will be inclined to think that it is the latter.
One might also ask why commuters may not park in the free bays alongside Lesnes
Abbey any more. It is not a residential area and the only imaginable advantage
is that two buses can now pass each other which previously they did not dare to
do but Bexley Council can
hardly claim credit for that when it was them that narrowed Abbey Road back in
2009 in order to create as much danger as possible. And in the process created
Bexley-is-Bonkers.
Insanity is the way of life in Bexley's Highways department.
4 December - Massive investment in Bexley’s roads
At
a time when the road disruption in Bexley has become absolutely horrendous and
due to get worse in the New Year, (Station Road, Sidcup to be closed for a whole
year) it is perhaps not too trivial to query what the Conservatives meant by
their 2022 Manifesto
promise to “invest in services and adopt new and innovative modes of working on
road repairs”. See insert for the unedited version.
Have they bought one of JCB’s innovative
pot hole detecting and instant
repairing machines?
Unfortunately not; the new investment in technology was in dash cams
and a couple of mobile phones.
The bill hasn’t quite reached three thousand pounds since 2022. Probably less than the cost
of following up mischievous FixMyStreet reports from an
under-occupied MP.
With thanks to @tonyofsidcup and his relentless FOIs. No wonder Bexley Council wanted him
to be declared vexatious.
3 December - Every day sees a new traffic calamity in Bexley, South East London’s centre for road idiocy
Bexleyְ’s
cretinous Head of Highways has authorised Thames Water to close Brampton Road at
a point just south of the King Harold’s Way/Okehampton Crescent roundabout.
It is in exactly the same place that Thames Water
caused chaos for a week in April last year. Obviously yet another case of
Thames Water doing a bad repair job in the first place.
Bexley Council must have known that Greenwich Council had closed the road north
of that junction and it wasn’t due to reopen until next Friday. Everyone who
drives around the borough must know that Bexley Council is run by lunatics with no shame. Most
of all I pity the bus drivers who have had to learn yet another diversionary route. (†)
Fortunately Greenwich finished
resurfacing their section of the road a
couple of days early. I was optimistic that I might just once have a diversion
free journey to Bromley on Friday - but I had forgotten that Sidcup High Street has been dug up too.
On Monday I considered a big diversion via Bexley Village
to avoid the 25 minute hold up that occurs around Cleeve Park School, that well
known academy for legless children. Maybe it is as well that I didn’t head off to Bexley because the
village was closed by gas works. Again.
† A friend told me this morning that he was on a diverted bus that took the wrong
turning after which the driver simply didn’t know where to go. A passenger had to stand
at the front and guide him towards his destination.
2 December - Bexley Council is the biggest Story Teller of all
Bonkers
has been saying for some time now that the amount of money the Council has been
lavishing on its ambition to reopen its cinema disaster The Day After Tomorrow indicates
that there cannot be any refurbishment because even a sum in
excess of £100,000 is not nearly enough to re-equip three
screens. My dream of IMAX laser projection and Dolby Atmos is dashed.
@tonyofsidcup queried the refurbishment claim and received an immediate reply.
“With regard to the renovations, I’m not sure where that narrative has come
from. I understand there were some works required, but these were very minor.”
This from the man in charge of the project!
The refurbishment story came from the notice plastered over the cinema’s front
door and the Council’s Press Releases to the News Shopper (see enlarged images above) and others.
Maybe I misheard the Cabinet Member when he said he was a cinema buff, bluff may have been his claim.
1 December - How to dodge most of Rachel Reeves property taxes
If
you live in a band F or higher house and await being impoverished by our crooked Chancellor you might consider these social houses being flogged off by housing
associations in Bexley.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/169421585#/?channel=RES_BUY - Dale Road, Crayford
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/169708481#/?channel=RES_BUY -
Ellenborough Road, Sidcup
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/169708478#/?channel=RES_BUY -
Ellenborough Road, Sidcup
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/169421624#/?channel=RES_BUY -
Ladbrooke Crescent, Sidcup
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/169383524#/?channel=RES_BUY -
Maiden Lane, Crayford
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/169708520#/?channel=RES_BUY -
Pembury Crescent, Sidcup
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/169708526#/?channel=RES_BUY -
Pembury Crescent, Sidcup
Note: Following the discovery of link errors within the cumulative list of addresses that appears on all
recent reports of
Housing Association sales and auctions it has been subjected to extensive revision.
Instead of individual reports carrying their own unique list of cumulative addresses there is now a single easier to
maintain list which is automatically repeated at the foot of every such report. This means that old reports will include the latest data.
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