Sidcup Town Centre Partnership
Some years ago the Government insisted that local Councils set up council consultative groups from local organisations. The Sidcup Town Centre Partnership was one of them. Such groups consisted of local traders, existing local residents’ organisations and various other organisations and include some of the local Ward Councillors. Over the years the local traders have withdrawn from the Sidcup Town Centre Partnership, citing various excuses. If local traders came to the Sidcup Partnership meetings they could outvote the local residents’ associations. It has come to the point where the active committee members primarily consist of representatives of local residents’ organisations and the Sidcup Community Group who all work in their own time - unpaid - not just on planning but licensing too. Nonetheless the Partnership has retained commencing its meetings at a start time suitable for local traders - but not for others. Having found the local council consultative groups can be very critical of the Council, earlier this year Bexley suddenly withdrew the funding provided for arranging the meetings, printing and postage, citing that consultations with local people would be arranged by the Council. The Council left it open to local forums and partnerships to continue by bidding for funds against other local charitable organisations from a limited general fund. At the same time the libraries were reduced to one late night opening per week to save Council money. The Council has continually failed to operate its own consultative operations efficiently. For example, the proposed traffic schemes for Sidcup High Street missed out all the residents living over the high street area and one complete residential cul-de-sac off Sidcup High Street itself!
Each year the local traders are asked by the Council to contribute towards the lights at Christmas. It is well known that it is very difficult to get any sums from many of the high street businesses. Therefore other local organisations are asked to give money as well. Indeed this year the Sidcup Town Centre Partnership was again asked by the Council to contribute the sum of £1690 out of its remaining funds.
Sidcup High Street area is narrow with a series of bends taking parts of the high street out of sight. The siting of lampposts is irregular. This means generally that at no time are approximately more than three irregularly placed lampposts visible at any one point. Sometimes there is only one. Unlike Blackpool, or Bexleyheath, or Welling, which are wide and generally straight, lending itself to a series of lamppost lights, Sidcup High Street area is not. I point out that a series of garland lights hung from each irregularly placed lamppost connecting to the next is impossible due to the road bends. Such garland lights would be hit by high vehicles like buses.
Over the past few years the Sidcup Town Centre Partnership has contributed towards the Council lamppost lights provided at Christmas. Last year I was again tasked by the Town Centres Manager to check the lights throuågh the high street area and report defective ones. This I did. I confirm to Chronicle Readers that at no time throughout the Christmas period was every light working - despite my reports.
This year the Sidcup Town Centre Partnership was asked again to pay all or part of the £1690 (23% contribution of the full costs) towards the lamppost lights. I strongly recommended that the Partnership should not. I was heeded. The reason for this recommendation is partly due to the fact that I consider that the Council lamppost lighting is completely unsuitable for the layout of Sidcup High Street area and is therefore money wasted.
Chronicle Readers must decide for themselves. I have worked out the full cost for each column/lamppost. It amounts to £131.00 for each light device plus another £131 for installing it, supplying electricity, removing and storing it (oh, and repairing too). A total of £262 per post! There are 26 lamppost lights at an actual overall cost this year of £6,826. This excludes the pretty blue pea lights (£540) on some of the small Elm Parade trees, which are there all year round. I say it is not value for money. I would rather that local high street businesses decorate their own premises for Christmas. You can buy some nice Christmas decorations from the high street itself cheaper - and bear in mind that it is Christmas - not some artificial non-denominational occasion. Look at the Council installed devices Readers and tell me that this celebrates the Christmas festival in a joyful manner!
Jean Gee (Mrs)
24 Elm Road, Sidcup DA14 6AD
Sidcup Town Centre Partnership Shame
The Sidcup Town Centre Partnership should hang it’s head in shame to deny residents the opportunity of festive lights in Sidcup high street. Many traders they criticise have attended their meetings in the past and found them to be a waste of time. Their needs are fairly simple. They want space for cars to be parked. They want the experimental one way roads that were closed to through traffic opened and more one hour free bays opened. Sorry Mrs Gee, the traders have been to your meetings and thought they were hitting their heads against a brick wall. Not all the traders are as mean as the Partnership as you will see from those who have donated listed elsewhere in this issue to make the town brighter this Christmas. The traders and friends of the high street have also contributed to make sure Father Christmas is there for the children and for residents to enjoy a genuine French market on December 11 when they will also enjoy seeing a spectacular exhibition of exotic dance and the Merton Court school choir and a superb Christmas concert in St. John’s church on December 13. Look out also for the Demelza Trust hospice team.We expect our councillors would agree Bexley Council isn’t perfect but they do the best they can with what they’ve got and we commend them for keeping the Christmas spirit alive in the town centres.
Bob Griffiths/Mike Lowe,
Sidcup Town Centre Promotions Group.
Crayfordians welcome new book
As a former resident of Crayford I have been enjoying reading the review copy of ‘Crayford, A History’ by EO Thomas. It is one of those books that you keep picking up and dipping into. My husband was born in Crayford in the 1940s and I lived there during the 1960s. Each time I show him something in the book I lose it for half an hour, and he keeps saying ‘I remember that’ and then off we go into what we remember and how things have changed.
I have now started to read from the beginning and am really surprised how important Crayford has been through the years. It’s lovely to see all the pictures but this book is a really good read as well.
I would love to share it with my mother who lived there in the 1930s but unfortunately her eyesight is not up to it. It would be wonderful if it could be issued as a talking book on DVD so that those with failing sight could enjoy it and the whole family could sit round the television and share comments on the pictures instead of fighting for the book.
Priced at just £9.50 it would make an excellent Christmas present for a friend.
Jenny Streatfield
Bendy Buses
In the last Chronicle, the Editor wrote that he had ridden “Bendy Buses” on an overseas holiday and could not complain about them. The situation is different here in the Metropolis, where real estate is expensive and traffic congestion is rife. If for example, the Editor was to travel to London Bridge station and change for a route 17 bus to St Pancras International, he might wonder why he would have to wait for this bus in the pouring rain, whereas other buses loaded under the station canopy. The answer is the 17 used to load under the canopy, but when bendy buses were introduced on some other routes, there was no longer any room under the canopy for all the routes starting here. Hence the 17 service was moved to make room for bendy buses to park whilst waiting their tour of duty. If, instead of the 17, the Editor was to catch a route 149 bendy-bus to Tottenham and then peruse the local papers, he would probably see letters from Tottenham residents complaining about bendy buses being parked in the streets, because the bus garages in this town have neither the space nor the manoeuvring room to accommodate bendy buses. If the Editor was then to catch a route 73 bendy-bus back to Islington, he would observe that the streets around the Angel are choked with traffic, and that the congestion is exacerbated by the bendy-buses taking up a lot of road space whilst they load at the stops. The highway at this location was and still is wide enough to accommodate three tram tracks plus separate lanes for other traffic, yet it is no longer able to accommodate bendy-buses, without causing congestion.
For various reasons, including the cost of real estate for turning circles for vehicles with trailers, Britain differed from the Continent by passing Parliamentary Acts to keep sufficient height under most bridges for high vehicles such as double-decker buses. Conversely tramway and other public transport operators on the Continent elected to use vehicles with trailers even though such vehicles needed real-estate purchase to turn or shunt such vehicles. Hence that is why double-deck buses are the norm in Britain and bendy buses or tramcars with trailers are norm on the Continent. Double decker buses, especially the Routemaster, offer the same capacity of passengers for half the road footprint and thus achieve efficient use of London’s highways, much of which dates back to Roman or Medieval times.
Ron Gee,
Sidcup
• The bendy buses we used daily were in Malaga, a Spanish city teeming with people and traffic complete with road works etc. Perhaps the mistake someone made when they introduced these buses in London was not paying attention to the infrastructure because the buses themselves transport more people, more efficiently from A to B. Ed
War veterans
The Mayor of London is right to have introduced free London transport for war veterans. Too often our veterans’ heroic sacrifices are taken for granted. Although there is certainly a lot more that the Government could and should be doing to help them, I am delighted that he has led the way by introducing a measure that is so clearly right.
James Cleverly
London Assembly member for
Bexley
Parking Appeal
If you park in Bexleyheath watch out! We parked in the Albion Car Park last January at around 19.30 to visit a local cinema.The car park was virtually empty and it was after charging hours. We returned at 21.45 to find a penalty notice on our car. Why? Our left hand rear wheel had transgressed the bay line. There was no other vehicle in sight. We went to appeal and now 10 months later we have been advised that our appeal had been rejected. As law abiding citizens we have paid up. We wonder whether paying a traffic warden to patrol an empty car park after hours can be justified as value for local rate payers. We also wonder whether the cost of pursuing a penalty notice of this kind is a justified expense on behalf of local rate payers.I estimate the cost to Bexley Council will have been between £500 to £1000.
Yours dismayed,
Herbert Edmonds
Bexleyheath
• It is antics like the one you describe that give the council a bad name. Why they have such an attitude toward car owners I don’t know. Had you gone ‘swimming’ in the car park they would probably have subsidised your visit! Ed
Dear residents
Can I take this opportunity to inform you of a service that is available to you if you are ever away from home for a weekend, short break, holiday etc.
You can inform the police by simply going into Sidcup Police Station and complete a Form 971. On this form you supply your details, the dates that you are away from home and, if applicable, the contact details of the person who has the keys to your house. If during this period there is any reason that access is required to your premises, this person can be contacted.
Alternatively, if it is difficult for you to get to the station, please just reply to this email with your details and the form will be completed for you.
Not all the residents on the Blackfen & Lamorbey Ward have access to the email system so please tell all your family, friends and neighbours about this service
Peter Burt
Blackfen & Lamorbey SNT - 07970 544523