Page 118 - Archive in reverse date order

topic of concern in the rest of the borough, ie there were many areas of concern that affected
Bexley's residents but no-one other than the NCRA mentions Enforcement- certainly not those in
the north of the borough. Well of course they wouldn't, David said, because the vast majority of
residents had never heard of Enforcement Officers – adding that he had lived in Bexley since
1969 but that until he became involved with the Association in connection with the Weatherley
Fencing/Asprey Homes issue in 2007 he had never heard of the term Enforcement, or at least it
had never registered. However, if he had been asked “If your neighbour built an extension
without required Planning permission that seriously affected your property would you expect the
Council to take action?”. He would have replied “Yes, of course” - not realising that what he
was asking for was Enforcement action!

David then reported that in April 2007 Susan Clark had announced that her Enforcement team
was now fully manned with six staff. He assumed, therefore, that as there had been no change to
the size of the borough, or a dramatic drop in population, or any major technical advance that had
eclipsed the need for me (or women) on the ground six is the number is that is needed – or at
least more than two! The fact is, in North Cray, where we have lots of open land and related
commercial activity, we need effective Enforcement because of the ever present threat of
inappropriate, anti-social and – sometimes- illegal development. Without effective Enforcement
we are often wasting our time. So to us it is very important. What is the point in Bexley having
in its Core Strategy grand policies to protect our environment if it has no means of enforcing
them? Moreover, as our Green Belt and open spaces become increasingly under threat the need
for effective Enforcement becomes even greater and, as such, Bexley's austerity measure are, to
the Association, short sighted.

6.3 David then invited thoughts and questions from the floor:-

(a) Andrew Sayers of Ruxley Close advised the Association to be careful of the funds it has
because it would need these if we had to seek a legal challenge. David replied that the
Committee was proposing minimal outlay with say a social evening, but if we had to face
escalating lawyers' fees we would have to come back to members.

(b) Kelly Perez of Orchard View Farm (see 4.3 above) explained that the three houses that she
had applied for were a replacement of existing commercial buildings. She had not yet decided
whether or not to appeal against the refusal of planning permission.

7 ANY OTHER BUSINESS: David reported that as none had been submitted, he proposed to
invite Cllr Massey, the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Affairs, and our MP, James
Brokenshire, who had now arrived, to address the meeting.

7.1 Don Massey: Don expressed his pleasure at seeing that the NCRA was thriving! He had to
stress, however, that Bexley needed to balance its Budget and explained that, in the past, 75% of
the funds it needed had come from the Government Grant. Bexley had had to start making
savings in 2007 – if it had not, our Council Tax would have doubled! He stressed that Bexley
had an aging population and children needed safeguarding in the light of recent events elsewhere.
These were statutory requirements, which meant that Bexley had to look elsewhere to make
savings so that services could keep operating.

Regarding Open Spaces, the list put forward had been to aim at trying to preserve the Grounds
Maintenance Budget, and sites had been chosen that were capable of being developed and where
people had other open space nearby. Of the 27 sites, three were substantial – eg fallow land
running beside the railway line. He stressed that if Planning applications did come forward,

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