Harlow Councillor slams Essex County Council for state of Little Parndon and Hare Street’s roads
News / Fri 20th May 2022 at 02:38pm
A HARLOW Councillor has been speaking to residents across his ward over recent months and the issue of the state of the roads in the area has been the number one issue.
Little Parndon and Hare Street Councillor and leader of the Opposition on Harlow District Council, Chris Vince said: ‘Having spoken to a number of residents of my ward over recent months, it is clear that the state of the roads in our community are getting worse not better.
“You only have to look at the state of the roads in estates such as The Hornbeams and Morley Grove to know that Harlow is being badly let down by Essex County Council over this vital issue.’
Gary Shaw, a resident of Morley Grove (pictured with Councillor Vince) added ‘the state of the roads in Morley Grove is a disgrace. I have emailed the County Council a number of times about this issue but got no response.
“In fact I only received anything back from the County Councillor in charge of highways when Cllr Jean Clark kindly contacted them on my behalf. I have lived in Morley Grove for 12 years now and the road has never been resurfaced, they don’t even do minor repairs anymore.’
When asked about the online reporting system that Essex County Council use to track pot hole repairs and other issues Cllr Vince added ‘this system is not fit for purpose. You can only report an issue once and there is no indication on there as to when it was reported. If an issue gets worse, which when it comes to road repairs they will, you can’t report it again.
Roads aren’t the only issue. It also relates to faulty street lights. I know from a resident in Bowhill Way who has been waiting over eight months for a potentially dangerous broken light to be repaired.
“The County Council have raised Council tax by 5% but reduced services. Asking you to pay more for less.’
Mr Grumpy
2022-05-20 15:10:46
It's not just Little Parndon and Hare Street, potholes are appearing all over the town. They are even starting to re-appear on Southern Way. Just goes to show that paying peanuts for repairs is a false economy in the long run.
J
2022-05-20 15:45:25
Check out momples road more like sink holes, and yes pay peanuts you get monkeys.
Jerry
2022-05-20 16:35:27
But spare a thought for the bosses at County Hall on well over £100k a year with their private health insurance, subsidised luxury cars so with their snouts in the trough there not much money left for such trivial things like crumbling roads and other urgent works.
David
2022-05-20 16:54:21
Check out the road from Hatfield Heath to Chelmsford, all the potholes have been filled, flat as a Pancake. Could it be that the London bike ride will be using that stretch of road. Call me cynical but I bet they would not have been done otherwise.
Michael Beere
2022-05-20 16:57:40
But we like it so. Keep voting Tory.
MikeO
2022-05-20 17:23:26
The state of the roads in Harlow, and in the surrounding area, are in as worse a state as I can remember, and we haven't even had a bad winter. Basically Essex County Council and the Councillors respsonsible don't care about it. If they did, they would have done something bearing in minds all the complaints and negative comments about the condition of the roads over the last few years.
Nicholas Taylor
2022-05-20 19:09:17
If the Tories are ever to get close to "Making Harlow the best town in Britain, Harlow Town Centre the best town centre in Essex (only Essex!) and have the best cycle track system in the world" then they will have to rely on the Tories at County Hall to help achieve this and there is no evidence of this in the last 40 years. Pot holes, damaged roundabouts, broken railings and street lights not working for months all suggest how little priority ECC give to this town. Added to this, HDC houses have not seen a lick of paint for many years, so it is no wonder that so many people no longer take pride in where they live or Harlow in general. More than 12 months on since coming to power and all we have seen from the Tories is a few shrub boxes in Broadwalk and Market Square has still not been finished.
Annie
2022-05-20 21:03:00
Don't forget the pavements, not everyone is a car driver!!!
James Leppard
2022-05-21 00:42:45
Nicholas Taylor, you seem to be advocating a change in local government structure to eliminate the current division of responsibilities with the two tier County and District levels. Two examples are Berkshire, which abolished County are created several Unitary Councils (similar to Southend and Thurrock in Essex. Buckinghamshire went the other way and abolished the various District councils and created a single countywide authority. Be interested to hear your views. I suspect a larger unitary is the direction of travel.
Matthew
2022-05-21 12:20:01
I emailed my local County Councillor about the appalling state of Momples Road. His response was: "I have been chasing this up for probably 12 mths. It has been inspected but deemed not urgent. The pothole as you call them are delamination and although not nice are not considered deep enough to be deemed dangerous. The kerbs will be fixed I am told." It's simply not good enough.
Kevin
2022-05-21 16:23:31
ECC don't give a monkeys about Harlow, complaints have been aimed at them for over 3 years now. What's more frustrating is that we are paying for this work and it's going to fat cats, piss poor
Michael Hardware
2022-05-22 15:31:00
The problem is not just in Harlow, or just in Essex, it is across the country. We have not been investing enough in road maintenance for decades and we are paying the price now. This is not helped by ever increasing volumes of traffic. All four county councillors have been working to ensure we get as many rectified as possible. This weekend there has been road resurfacing happening on the A414 up near Harlow Mill station and the road going to Sawbridgeworth. There is no quick solution to this. ECC has huge calls on its budgets with over 60% going on social care for adults and children. ECC did announce a further £2milion for this year's highways maintenance budget specifically for potholes. As to Essex not caring about Harlow, that is plainly wrong: the town is one of biggest recipients of investment from ECC in recent years, and will continue to be in future.
Brian Wilson
2022-05-22 22:42:13
Pot holes are all over Harlow I was told that theses pot holes are going to be filled in soon, I've filled in 23 pot holes at £8.50 per bag a tar mix I've had damage to my Kuga, tyre are not cheap £290 ×3 =£870 I've had to sell my Kuga I can't afford to keep paying out because of Harlow Council.
Nicholas Taylor
2022-05-23 22:57:00
In answer to your question James, I am no fan of unitary authorities but I do believe changes should be made. At the moment, what HDC and ECC do or not do are a mystery to most residents. I think there is a clear case that things like road and street lighting should be the responsibility of District Councils, whilst things like social care should remain with ECC. In response to your point Michael, I would have to say the roads in Essex are in a far worse state than when compared to many counties I have travelled in. The fact is here in Harlow, even most of the main roads are in poor condition. I visited Westfield today and saw what can only be described as shoddy workmanship of pot holes being filled in but less than 100 yards away there is a huge hole which vehicles cannot avoid. The point I made is that we will never be the best town in Britain whilst the roads are in such a poor state.
Rasp
2022-07-09 08:14:03
Shoddy! The roads through the Pinnacles have recently been resurfaced, my got its like driving along a dirt track, in fact a dirt track is much smoother.
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