October was dominated by the news from late September that Southeastern plan to remove the Cannon Street services on the Hayes Line from December. Along with my fellow Councillors, and Bob Stewart MP, I have been running a petition calling for the plans to be abandoned.
Councillor Michael Tickner and I (Beckenham Town & Copers Cope Ward) challenged Southeastern directly on this at the Public Transport Liaison Group during the month. I have sent over some questions to Southeastern on the impact of the changes which I will share the answers online as soon as I have them.
Councillor Michael and I also met with the Council’s Executive Member for Transport, Highways and Road Safety, Nicholas Bennett, to take our colleague for a tour of the ward and show him the areas of concerns on local roads. Councillor Bennett has been touring wards across the borough since his appointment in May.
The main areas we showed Councillor Bennett were:
- Bourne Vale, Pickhurst Lane and Baston Road: We have received a number of complaints about speeding and dangerous driving on these roads, both via e-mail at my surgeries. I have also written to the local Police team to ask for speed watch sessions to be organised to catch drivers who driver dangerously down these roads.
- Heathfield Road: There are concerns about both parking pressures at peak times and speeding on the road at other times. We met with the owner of the Heathfield Café who talked us through the issue. Councillor Bennett will be speaking with the Council Officers to bring forward some proposals to tackle this.
- Commonside: For many years now parking at the top of Commonside in Keston has been a huge concern with the parking reducing visibility for those heading into Keston from the common. We are looking at solutions such as the introduction of double yellow lines.
In mid-October I also visited the Hayes Community Foodbank to meet with the volunteers providing such vital work they do.
I also attended various committee meetings at the Civic Centre.
Sadly in October former Hayes Councillor, Dennis Barkway passed away. Dennis represented the former Hayes & Keston Ward between 1968-1978 and its successor Ward, Hayes, until 1998. He served twice as Leader of Bromley Council for a combined nineteen years – making him the longest serving Leader of Bromley Council. You can read the full tribute to Dennis on the Beckenham Conservatives website: https://www.beckenhamconservatives.com/news/tribute-dennis-barkway.
