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Work to widen the A206 Thames Road is well underway. The project is still on target for the road to be completed in the summer of 2007, but some changes have been made to the construction sequence and programme of activities.
The demolition and reconstruction of the Crayford Mill Railway Bridge has been rescheduled for a year’s time, over Christmas 2006. A longer five-day railway closure period will be available (instead of the four days which was previoulsy agreed with Network Rail for Easter 2006). Thames Road will also be closed to traffic at this location for up to ten days.
The Council’s contractor, Mowlem, has been working on site since June. So far, the site has been cleared of existing features such as fencing and hard surfacing and below-ground services are being diverted.
Road construction is underway at the Perry Street Roundabout. Construction activities will include earthworks, drainage, kerb laying and surfacing.
CAPITA WIN TENDER FOR TAX COLLECTION
Following a rigorous tendering exercise for the Council’s tax collection and housing benefit service, the current contractor, Capita, has been appointed as preferred bidder.
Bexley’s Cabinet Member for Corporate Resources, Cllr John Browning, says: “We have seen significant improvements in the service in recent years. A home visiting service has been introduced with great success and provides 7,000 visits annually to the elderly, those with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. Independent surveys undertaken for the Council show a high degree of satisfaction with the office service provided. Benefit processing times have improved significantly.
A spokesman for Capita said: “We are very pleased to have the opportunity of working again in partnership with Bexley. Continuity is very important for us and no doubt for Bexley. This will bring benefits for Bexley and our staff, who will appreciate the security of the new partnership arrangement. Most of our staff are local residents and are looking forward to providing Bexley’s service from the Council’s office at Erith Town Hall.”
ASBO SECURED AGAINST TEENAGER
Bexley Community Safety Partnership, working closely with the Crown Prosecution Service, sought and secured an Anti-Social Behaviour Order on conviction against a 13-year-old on the 26 October.
The boy, who had been known to the Partnership for some time, had continued to be involved in serious anti-social behaviour despite being offered a number of interventions aimed at trying to divert him away from such activities. The ASBO prohibits the boy from entering certain parts of Erith.
INNOVATION CENTRE
Work is about to start on the construction of the new East Thamesmead Innovation Centre, Cllr Margaret O’Neill, the Council’s Cabinet member for Town Centres, Industry and Regeneration, performed the official ceremony on 9 November at the site on the East Thamesmead Business Park.
The Innovation Centre will provide space for people wishing to start a small enterprise, along with support with business planning, financing and technology transfer.
Bexley Council has secured grants to meet 90% of the construction costs of the centre and the guests at the ceremony will include representatives from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the London Development Agency and Gateway to London.
The Innovation Centre will be part of the first phase of a 40-acre development. The scheme received planning consent in January
THE PAINTING IS ON THE WALL
Parents, carers and children took part in a colourful community art project on the 27 and 28 October, when they created a jungle mural along a corridor in the Lifelong Learning Unit at the Howbury Centre in Slade Green.
The artists consisted of thirteen families, 13 adults and 27 children, who came along to take part in the free project funded by Family Learning in Bexley.
The original mural that decorated the corridor was damaged in last year’s fire. The half-term project gave the local community the chance to brighten up an otherwise dull area of the building with the wild jungle scenes.
Children aged from four to 14 took part in the event learning a variety of painting techniques along the way.
A MILLION BULBS TO BRIGHTEN BEXLEY
A quarter of a million spring bulbs will be planted across the borough this autumn, funded from the sponsorship of advertising space on Bexley’s highway verges and roundabouts.
Since April 2004, Bexley Council has been allowing the sponsorship of advertising space on 31 highway roundabouts and verges across the borough. The Council generated an additional income of around £40,000 last year, and anticipates a similar income in future years, by facilitating the sponsorship of these unique highway advertising opportunities. The money will be used to fund a variety of landscape improvements on the borough’s roundabouts, verges and open spaces.
Last year, the revenue supplemented the Council’s street tree planting programme. Future projects include: increasing the bulb planting programme up to a million bulbs over the coming years; planting a copse of trees in each of the borough’s five Green Flag award open spaces to celebrate the Council’s 40th anniversary; and new landscape schemes to improve the attractiveness of some of the borough’s larger roundabouts.
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