Petition starts calling on Essex Council to fix county's highways
Essex Labour is urging the council to use money going spare on potholes and footways
Essex Labour is calling on the County Council to spend money going spare on maintaining our highways.
The party say:
"Essex County Council currently has a £986,000 under spend on highways maintenance.
"Yet our roads and footways are littered with dangerous potholes and defects."
They want the council to "deliver on their duty" and spend the money on maintaining the highways and footpaths.
More than 150 people have signed the petition, which you can find here.
Statement from Essex County Council
Cllr Kevin Bentley, Deputy Leader of Essex County Council and Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, said:
“Essex Highways crews are working as hard as possible to repair potholes, grit main roads and repair streetlights, in unprecedented circumstances. Last year we fixed 11,516 potholes across Essex.
“Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, our crews are carrying out their usual work while maintaining appropriate precautions such as social distancing among themselves and avoiding close contact with local residents. Another issue crews faced is many more cars parked on the roads as people stay at home, which makes arranging clear roads for surfacing difficult for everyone.”
“The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has meant that we had to postpone some town centre and estate road resurfacing – but this money is not going spare and we will come back to these roads this year to improve them and our workers will continue their hugely-valued work.”
“Highways crews are keyworkers, and like all keyworkers, we owe them a great deal. They have kept the county moving this past year and have kept up with a demanding highways maintenance schedule. When the restrictions are over and our county is once more vibrant and dynamic, people will be travelling on improved priority routes thanks to the great efforts of these keyworkers.”