Dear Editor,

I HAVE had experiences of Essex County Council (ECC) staff being ultra slow in dealing with problems.   

In two cases the problems have not been resolved over years rather than months!

One case relates to two lit ‘road narrows’ signs on the A414 into Harlow from Epping just after the Hamburger roundabout and before the speed camera.     

Although I have contacted ECC three times over perhaps the same number of years, these signs still remain misleading to drivers who do not know the area who may therefore want to change lanes unnecessarily in heavy traffic.

The second case is on the way out of Church Langley Way towards the A414 at the approach to the Tesco roundabout where a complete road sign was demolished in 2021 and still remains on the ground more than a year later. 

My other problems have not been as bad and have generally been resolved but with considerable delays.   

In most cases the basic problems existed before Covid & ‘home working’ so the problems have merely deteriorated further over a prolonged period.

In January this year I contacted ECC Cllr. Lee Scott, regarding the Tesco roundabout sign and soon after he  was informed “inspected & declared safe”, yet ten months later it remains laying on the ground.

My opinion is that (probably senior) ECC staff are only dealing with what they might call priority jobs.    Yet, for most people, if a sign was needed at all then it needs replacing in a much shorter time space.   

The problem appears to be a lack of ANY time frames in contracts – which benefit contractors but not the public.

In April I did contact our four Harlow ECC Councillors  (who are also Harlow Councillors) with a plea to take action but that failed and although I asked to be informed and updated they failed to do so.

When an ECC response does occur it appears to be what I call ‘staff speak’.   In other words staff draft a letter (from a staff point of view) and it is merely signed or forwarded without checking the facts.   

This is an example of poor democracy!   

Peter Scally CM17