Plantation Road Pavement Remodelling

When Bexley Council decided to remodel and resurface the pavements in Plantation Road, it appeared to be a good thing. However, they gave absolutely no thought to the residents and the problems faced by residents due to the anomalous width of the pavements and the fact that residents have to park on them. The scheme they introduced was extremely unhelpful and very poorly evaluated. They replaced low level bevelled edge kerbstone with high level blunt edge kerbstone, making it very difficult and sometimes impossible for residents to be able to bump up the kerb to park without damaging their wheels. Nobody on the construction job appeared to be aware of what they were doing or giving any consideration to the situation and the practical problems faced by the residents because they were just following their instructions.

The contractors were 60 metres down one side of the road laying a 6" blunt edge kerbstone, which would be impossible for vehicles to bump up, before residents managed to get a message through to the head of the department responsible for the job. After a frantic explanation, communicating the problem via the job manager, he sanctioned a ripping up of what had already been done and instructed the contractors to relay the kerbstone one inch lower. However, this is still far from ideal. As can be seen from the photographs, the new kerbstones are the wrong shape, still far too high and wholly unfit for purpose. This scheme is actually another backward step and far worse than what we had. Amazingly the onsite manager said if the head hadn't given the go ahead to lower the kerbstone, we would be stuck with the 6" blunt edge kerbstone all the way down the road both sides.

Old and New...

Showing the difference in height and practicality between the old kerbstone and the new
The original 3.5" slightly bevelled kerbstone alongside the less-than-practical 6" square-edge kerbstone Bexley Council replaced it with
A little bit of common sense from the council and perhaps some liassing with the residents would have been useful ingredients and helped to get the best solution for the people that live in Plantation Road. But as usual, the Council knows best!

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