Monday, April 12, 2010

The Conservative Crosshall Road Roundabout campaign?


In an article "Head backs fight on 'danger' road", the Head of the Crosshall Infants School backs Mark Jones campaign for a crossing at the Mill Hill Road/Duloe Road roundabout. What I don't understand is much of this should be under the Safer Routes to Schools programme.

If the school wants the crossing then the school should pay for the crossing. This seems to me to be budget protection by the Infants school and a raid on other departments spending. With spending cuts on the horizon this is going to feature more and more.

A petition was presented to the Joint Highways Committee way back in early 2009 on this subject. A report was prepared to the Committee and the decision was made not to proceed. Minutes of the Meeting + Report to the Meeting.

What I don't understand is the County Council spokesman. He told the paper "It had suggested it could be funded by St Neots Town Council, but not yet heard from the Town Council". Funny that. I can't find that in the minutes or report to the Highways Committee.

So the school who supports this programme doesn't want to pay for it. The Highways Dept. in charge of the roads doesn't want to pay. So who is to pay for all this? The St Neots Council Taxpayer, yet again!

And what of the St Neots Conservative Councillors campaign on this subject. This can be seen here. After the initial flourish the campaign has gone nowhere. The problem is the Conservatives are trying to be popularist by supporting campaigns. Someone in the St Neots Conservative Councillors Group needs to get a grip and only support campaigns likely to happen. Otherwise the St Neots Conservatives will look useless. Which they do!

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