Conservatives Demand Answers Over Highways Performance
Hertfordshire Conservatives have demanded answers over the County Council’s Highways performance, after the Liberal Democrats cancelled a third meeting of the Highways Cabinet Panel in less than a year.
The Highways Cabinet Panel is the body which would normally look at the Council’s plans and performance on Highways. But despite huge resident concern over potholes in recent months and claims by the Council’s leadership that road repairs are a priority, more than 40% of the Panels have been cancelled since the Liberal Democrats took control of the Council.
Now Councillor Matt Cowley, the Conservative Spokesperson for Highways, has requested that the Council’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee look at the Council’s performance fixing the roads.
Cllr. Matt Cowley said,
“The Liberal Democrats made fixing our roads one of their top priorities. But the average monthly repairs in their first seven months were at around half the monthly average from the preceding four years under the Conservatives. And it shows – the roads look worse than ever.
“With funding for Highways this year set to be lower, due to Lib Dem cuts, the Administration can’t keep hiding its record by cancelling Highways Panels. Residents deserve them to come clean, take accountability for a terrible first year in office, and get to work fixing our roads. We deserve better than empty promises and more excuses.”
One aspect of Councillor Cowley’s request relates to the constant disruption that he says residents have seen from utility companies.
Cllr. Cowley added,
“Utility companies have huge powers to cause disruption on our roads. The Council’s job is to hold them to account when they use those powers. The Lib Dems have talked a good game on this, but good intentions don’t matter to people sat in gridlock because of utility companies. We must do more to reduce disruption.”