Saturday 30 May 2009

‘And We Would Have Got Away With It….’

‘...if it hadn’t been for those pesky kids ratepayers!’:
Residents in a village blighted by potholes have sought to shame their council into improving their roads by publishing a 12-page dossier of every crater in their community.
Excellent!
A copy of 'Parish Potholes' has now been sent to the council's highways department to make officials "sit up and take notice".

It was edited by local resident David Patten, who had the backing of North Curry Parish Council.

Mr Patten said: "The state of the roads in our village is simply not up to standard and it has now reached the point were we are no longer prepared to accept excuses.

"We all pay our council tax and it is not unreasonable to demand that our roads are kept to an acceptable standard for motorists and cyclists – but that has not been the case.

"There are too many roads that have hazards and this document highlights them all – which will hopefully force the council into fixing the problem for good."
No, it isn’t unreasonable.

But until people begin to stand up and do the kind of things that Mr Patten and his fellow residents do, and hold these penpushers’ feet to the fire, they’ll carry on ignoring the wishes of the people who pay their wages.
Somerset County Council confirmed it had received the report, and promised to check the allegations it contained.

A spokesman said: "We have has been in communication with North Curry Parish Council and we've addressed many of the issues raised with us.

"We will be continuing to check and monitor the condition of the network in North Curry as we do with in excess of 300 parishes throughout the county."
Because you know now what happens if you don’t.

Let’s hope we see more of this ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!’ attitude…

5 comments:

cartermagna said...

I come from Chard in Somerset and have been to North Curry a couple of times. Not a set of locals to be trifled with! If I were the council I'd get on that pretty sharpish.

JuliaM said...

"Not a set of locals to be trifled with! "

Heh! That, I like...

Mummy x said...

How about getting every one to chip in, bulk order some tarmac (speak to the local Gypsies, they always seem to have loads). Organise a village day out, get everyone to whizz round and fill in the holes. Hold a massive street party at the end of the day with lot's of food and drink. Next day, hand the council the bill for the whole shit and shebang. Give them 30 days to pay, and if they don't, withhold the amount each person paid from their individual Council Tax bills. Plus charge them for the labour involved too. Pipe dream I know, but fuck me, wouldn't it be cool to see the look on the Council's face.

Mummy x

JuliaM said...

Now, there's a great idea!

Rob said...

"Last month, it was disclosed that Navestock parish council in Essex is seeking to stop speeding motorists by refusing to fill in potholes.

The council claims that leaving gaping holes in the roads will force motorists to slow down and provide "original traffic-calming measures"

So, it is perpetual daylight in Navestock then? You see, their plan relies on motorists seeing the holes in the road. In the dark, though, that's difficult as potholes are...well...dark.

I bet these fuckers are still ripping off the ratepayers with taxes to cover the road repairs they aren't doing.