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Kent's Filthiest Caterers
If you are sick and tired of the continuing filth from KFC, email kevin.o'brian-wheeler@bexley.gov.uk and jon.fox@bexley.gov.uk

Sidcup woman’s fights for justice

Theresa Holland of Chester Road has launched a petition to gain justice for 38-year old Robert Holland of Bexley who was killed by former bouncer Liam Rockley, 21. Rockley was sentenced to three and a half years which means that he will probably be free in little over two years whilst the Holland family have just begun a life sentence. Rockley knew exactly what he was doing and we think such a sentence is obscene.
Visit www.petition.co.uk and go to “sentence increase for one punch manslaughter".

Sidcup Police Station closed on 14th March 2012

Sidcup Police Counter, Marlow House, 109 Station Road, Sidcup DA15 7ES Opening hours: Mon-Fri 12:00-16:00 and Sat 10:00-14:00 Tel:101
<< Click Here >> for scheduled public meetings in Sidcup

Two questions for all Sidcup residents

We are not devoted to campaigning against Bexley Council. That is for others. However, residents should be asking themselves two questions right now. Firstly, if we are “all in this together”, why is Bexley Council’s Chief Executive being paid one quarter of a Million Pounds (the sixth highest of 426 local authorities in the country) and at least seven other Council employees paid more than £100,000?
Secondly, if these astronomical salaries are being paid to attract and retain the best, why is it that Sidcup is in the mess it is?

Waitrose Petition
The decision by Waitrose to pull out of their plans to open a store in Sidcup and the fact that extensive prominence was given to the Waitrose name in order to secure support for the Travelodge development has caused consternation in Bexley Council. The leader of the Council will be meeting with Waitrose to establish the reasons for their decision and their future plans for the site.
This concern is shared by ward Councillor June Slaughter who has played an active and not always popular role in conveying the feelings of our members and other residents to the Council. Many of our members have suggested a petition and following discussions June has now arranged this.
If you wish to take part, click above to download and collect signatures from friends and neighbours. Please return it to June Slaughter at the address on the form. You may also sign the petition in Sidcup library and many shops in the High street.

Hopes of moving Sidcup High Street up-market receive another blow.

The former Sommerfield/Co-Op store will open as a Discount Store in the summer. Value for money is promised and this is at least a better option than some of the possibilities which include another illegal change of use to a coffee lounge, night club or an empty building which continues to deteriorate. I think we have to accept that it is only this type of retailer which can compete with the existing supermarket which continues to receive preferential treatment by Bexley’s planners. Wilkinsons was intending to open on the site but apparently had misgiving about storage provision on the first floor.

Met Commissioner confirms reduction in both crime and detection
Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe was at Christ the King St Mary’s Sixth Form College in Sidcup on Friday for a question and answer session with residents on Bexley and Bromley.
Crime was down as a whole across Bexley last year but so too were detections, with 18% fewer (642). He said the figures were “similar across the met” but conceded it was a figure he was “not happy” with.
He told the meeting “Community Support Officers will not be moved for the Olympics. They will still be around.” Other officers will be seconded to cover the Olympics, the boroughs will be asked to rearrange shift patterns, he said, so officers work longer and different hours. Of 12,000 officers on duty for the Olympics, only 4,000 will be Met officers, the remainder coming from forces around the country.

More housing
Land at Kingswood House, 47-51 Sidcup Hill, Sidcup is being subject to a planning application for development to include retirement housing.

Utmost kindness
As reported in Newsshopper, a terminally-ill man’s last wish to fly was realised with the help of a nurse at his care home in Hatherley Road. Motor Neurone disease sufferer Richard Gately, 73, was taken for a flight in a two-seater Bulldog plane on Wednesday. He said he had wanted to go flying since his family bought him a hot air balloon ride 15 or 20 years ago and his wish was granted after mentioning it by chance to the home’s nurse training co-ordinator Yvonne Dyer. Yvonne supports a charity called Aerobility that trains people with disabilities to become pilots. Volunteers from the Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice drove Richard, his son, granddaughter and care home staff to Blackbushe Airfield in Camberley, Hampshire.
Yvonne said: “Sometimes we get wishes from residents. If people have a wish, we try to fulfil it. Richard is raising money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association and Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice, both of which have helped him, and would welcome donations to those causes.

Hollies residents clear-up after fly-tippers
Around 50 people, from The Hollies, collected more than 60 bags of rubbish including car tyres, furniture and building materials.
Bexley Council removed the piles of rubbish collected by residents.
Congratulations to the residents for taking direct action. We are asking Bexley’s enviro-crime department what progress they have achieved in tracing the culprits.

Master of Understatement - Extract from The Guardian – April 27th
Look on a map for Chislehurst and you'll find it suspended amid woodlands, lanes and commons in the great morass of south London, valiantly fending off Bromley one way and Sidcup the other in its one-town battle against the ghastliness of the modern world.

Preparing for the Olympics
Public briefing by Bexley Community Policing Engagement Group – Monday 28th May 2012, 7 – 9 pm, Council Chambers, Bexley Civic Centre, Bexleyheath DA6 7LB.
www.bexleycpeg.org.uk

Travelodge opening delayed
According to their web site, Travelodge Sidcup will now be opening on 14th September. The inability to open in time for the Olympics is doubtless due in part to complications which resulted in the premature demolition of one of Sidcup’s few remaining historic buildings, sanctioned by our naive and incompetent Council.
We wish Travelodge success. It is in all our interests but mindful of the possible contributing causes, we can’t admit to shedding too many tears over the delay in opening.

Morrisons applies to open and sell alcohol until Midnight
Morrisons have just posted a notice applying to sell alcohol from 6 am to Midnight, seven days a week. This appears to include opening on Christmas Day and Good Friday. (They do open Good Friday anyway.)
Licence Application Ref 12/00448/LI
To permit the sale by retail of alcohol from 0600 hours to 2400 Monday to Sunday inclusive. To permit the premises to open from 0600 to 2400 Monday to Sunday inclusive. To remove certain conditions including the restriction on the sale of alcohol on Christmas Day and Good Friday.
Representations should be made to: Licensing Team, 2a Hadlow Road, Sidcup, Kent DA14 4AF.
Telephone: 020 3045 5672
Email: licensing.office@bexley.gov.uk

Waitrose NOT opening in Sidcup
Since we released the news, we have been inundated with comments from members. Unlike some of our members, we do not subscribe to a conspiracy theory. John Lewis organisation has better things to do with their time and money. Clearly, the demographics of Sidcup no longer guarantee the footfall that an upmarket store such as Waitrose requires. However, we are mindful of similar rumours which were planted at the time of the controversial town centre supermarket planning application. Bexley Council and some councillors were very anxious to wave the Waitrose name around at the time of the Travelodge planning application and clearly the tactic worked.
Bexley's Chief Executive was one of the highest paid in local government last year and his salary is being paid by our members and other residents. According to a Bexley spokesman: “The salaries paid to senior staff, including that of the Chief Executive, reflect the significant scale and responsibility of the roles and the competitive market for candidates of the calibre required to lead a successful Council.” Seven Bexley Council employees earned more than £100,000 in 2010 to 2011.
In the light of this news, we think it is reasonable to expect a little more competence and a little less naivety from Bexley Council.

More gaps appearing in the High Street
Andrews Letting and Management, 12 St. John’s Parade is pulling out of Sidcup and transferring their business to their Orpington Branch.
Sidcup Pet Centre is closing after many years.

The shine’s going off Bling Palace
As promised, the shine is going off Bling palace. The gold tiles are weathering although a close look reveals it to look like dirt and pollution. The colour is only part of the problem however. After weathering the building will still look like a pile of biscuit tins, it towers over and totally dominates adjacent properties and is totally unsympathetic to the street scape. There is hope however. Marlow House was originally covered in cladding which started to fall off and had to be removed!

Bexley Council’s Chief Executive third highest paid in London
The SCG are members of the Tax Payers Alliance which has recently revealed that Bexley Council chief executive Will Tuckley was one of the highest paid people in local government last year. Tuckley was paid £258,782 in the financial year 2010 to 2011, making him the sixth highest earner across the country’s 426 local authorities and third in London.In 2011, Mr Tuckley did not receive a bonus but spare your tears as his total was still more than 3% higher than the £250,627 he received in 2009/10.
The TPA list also revealed seven Bexley Council employees earned more than £100,000 in 2010 to 2011.

Waitrose NOT opening in Sidcup
We can confirm that Waitrose will NOT be opening a store in the Travelodge development. This is contrary to undertakings given to the SCG and the ward Councillor June Slaughter by Bexley Council just last week. The Council simply stated that Waitrose holds a 15-year lease on the retail unit in response to our question about them opening in Sidcup. Does this matter? Well, yes actually. At the time of the application of the Travelodge development, residents were generally positive but concerned about the loss of the locally listed Black Horse pub and issues such as traffic management. Many who may have been moved to object to the development were swayed by the promise that the façade of the Black Horse would be saved and the fact that a “high quality” retailer – Waitrose would be moving onto the site and hopefully would lead a revitalisation of the High Street. We warned at the time that the presence of Waitrose was not guaranteed. History appears to have repeated itself. Coincidentally (?), at the time of the controversial planning application for a town centre supermarket, rumours were spread that an upmarket retailer would be operating the store. In the event, Safeway opened. It will be noted that emails from members in Farwell Road, Priestlands Park Avenue and Craybrooke Road in 2011 throw doubts on Waitrose opening. As far back as September 2011, the Group was advised that Tesco had been sniffing around the “Waitrose” site even though both the developers and the Council made great play of the word Waitrose during the planning application! << More >>

Boosting your Business in Bexley
FREE business advice event on Tuesday 22nd May: with speakers, stalls, a panel debate, prize draw and more! Visit www.bexley.gov.uk/22may for more information.

The Black Horse R.I.P  <<Details>>
The developers responsible for the destruction of one of Sidcup's few remaining historic buildings have submitted planning application for the pastiche replacement. 

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