Roads? Where We're Going We Don't Need Roads!

Ok, enough of the frivalous fun stuff... the cow story and my iTunes whinge were the blog equivalent of chocolate. Today is time for the meat and two veg.

This week has been a most frustrating week for me politically. And surprisingly (or unsurprisingly?) my frustration is not with national government! Hubby has recently become politically active. I suspect that this is partly inspired by my Dad, who became a local councillor last year, but mostly inspired by his ongoing crusade to address the shocking condition of Salford's local roads.

To provide a little background, anyone who lives outside of Salford and has cause to regularly travel into our area will be able to identify the border based solely on the condition of the roads. Salford's roads are a mixture of potholes, exposed cobbles and surface defects interspersed by speed bumps. Urban Vision, who are responsible for maintaining Salford's roads claim that they have a regular programme of inspection and repair but our road has been seriously pot-holed since the day we moved in (over two years ago) and the only repairs that they have carried out were the ones that we complained about in July last year. It took 3 months or more of complaining before they were eventually patched - poorly! This week hubby went to a local community committee meeting to see a presentation of 'Salford's Draft Integrated Transport Strategy'. He returned shaking his head.

It appears, from what he has seen, that the purpose of the so called 'strategy' is to make travel a living hell for anyone heading into central Salford and Media:City... unless they are travelling by bicycle! The plan includes the narrowing of Langworthy Road - already a slow moving artery into Salford Quays - by introducing cycle lanes and 'traffic calming'. Langworthy Road is already quite congested in the morning and it seems that the Integrated Transport Strategy will not only direct more traffic down this route, it will also reduce the traffic flow. This is a ludicrous plan tantamount to closing a lane on a motorway in rush hour. There also appears to be little consideration of the local economy in this plan, since the introduction of heavy congestion combined with increasing thru traffic will only harm the businesses on the road.

As if this wasn't insult enough to local residents and road users, we also found out this week that Salford Council intends to increase our Council Tax this year, while reducing Council spending on education and social care. They have already terminated a community policing trial that was universally heralded as a success. So what are they going to spend all this extra income on? If national government is anything to go by - on themselves!

Don't get me wrong, I believe that we should adequately reward people who work in local and national government, but at a local level, I expect and demand a certain service for the money I pay in. I want police on my streets, schools for my kids, my bins emptied every week, and maintenance of public property, including parks, council housing and offices, and our streets. I don't think that is too much to ask. Instead I get a community policing service canned, schools being closed and consolidated with little regard for the problems that might create, houses demolished around me, roads that are in such a poor condition that you find yourself doing a slalom down the street and a crazy 'plan' that will cause traffic chaos.

The most frustrating thing is that in the midst of this I don't have the time to commit to trying to make any of it any better!