Potholes get deeper

Despite the spending of millions of pounds on road maintenance, less than half of local residents are satisfied with the speed at which potholes are fixed or with the quality of the repairs. These are the findings of a review of the council's highways maintenance initiative from the Conservative-led administration.

Commenting on the report, Cllr Peter Wilcock, Uttlesford Liberal Democrats' leader, said: "These findings make dismal enough reading on their own, but really they are shocking considering the extra tens of millions of pounds that have been ploughed into road maintenance. Liberal Democrats have repeatedly pointed out the flaws in the Conservatives' handling of road repairs and this report justifies our concerns.

Cllr Alan Dean, Member for Stansted added, "The report also shows that many people are unhappy with the state of pavements. For the past several years, Liberal Democrats have asked the Conservatives to organise basic maintenance better. Only last weekend I received a stream of complaints about surfaces in Stansted. We need local people to look after local roads and pavements, not people in Chelmsford and Harlow. Why the Tories ignore this is unfathomable.

Alan continued, "Pavements and rural roads are the two top areas that people say they are concerned with according to the council's own survey. It seems absolutely clear that the Conservative policy of throwing money at highways maintenance and praying that the public will be hoodwinked into believing that large spend equals good roads, is not working. Effective, local management is the missing link."