onionbagblog

Residents of Wivenhoe are revolting. And behind every revolting resident there is a rallying call:

POTHOLES.

After left feeling that the town has had something of a rough ride when it comes to fixing potholes, Cllr Robert Needham of Wivenhoe Town Council has called for a protest march to take place in the town on Sunday.

The guided walk around some of the cavernous structures that have been left unrepaired will start up at Woodland Way at 11am on Sunday, concluding down at Anchor Hill - which is coming close to becoming the POTHOLE that ate itself.

Concerned residents have added rubble and bricks to the Anchor Hill opening. This gives you an indication of the depth of the POTHOLE that has been left unattended by Essex County Council.

Speaking about the need for the high profile POTHOLE action, Cllr Needham said:

“Longstanding defects in the surface structure of Wivenhoe roads have reached the end of their shelf life. Road defect reports have been filed with Essex County Council and Job Numbers have been assigned to the reports. However, this is where the action seems to stop.

The situation is so bad that residents in the town have resorted to filling in the most notorious holes with builder’s rubble. As contributors to public services we expect a minimal service. We are not getting even the absolute minimum.

Transport, Utilities, Banking and most of the other familiar services have to perform to standards. I fail to see why Essex County Council isn’t held to account in a similar way. In fact, we are the regulators of failing County services. We have to let them know how they are performing. In Wivenhoe, we plan to do this publicly!”

The responsibility for fixing POTHOLES in the town lies with Essex County Council. The frustration faced by many is an indication as to where Wivenhoe sits in the political food chain.

Residents report the problem to their Colchester Borough councillor, who in turn then has to contact County Hall over in Chelmsford to formally put the POTHOLE plan of action into place.

Speaking at the most recent Wivenhoe Town Council meeting, Cllr Mark Cory, the LibDem representative for the Cross ward at Colchester Borough Council commented:

“The pothole outside The Flag has now been filled in with bricks and rubble – this tells you how deep it has become. I have sent an email today about it. The pothole was marked up for action four months ago. There has been no action.”

To be fair, Essex County Council does have a handy online functionality for reporting POTHOLES. But the front end doesn’t always have any resemblance to the back end, as the pantomime horse once said. You can report your POTHOLE online, but this is no guarantee of action elsewhere.

The money does appear to be there for Essex County Council to fix the POTHOLE problem, but somewhere down the political food chain and the will power appears to be lacking.

Cllr Julie Young, the Wivenhoe and St Andrew representative at county level told the recent Wivenhoe Neighbourhood Action Panel that £11m has just been put aside by ECC to help eradicate all potholes within the county.

This is a significant amount, especially so when you consider that only £1m could be found for the whole of Colchester to deal with ALL Highway improvements.

The POTHOLE rallying call for Sunday may seem drastic, but as Cllr Needham notes, an unexplainable delay is occurring in the repair of potholes in Wivenhoe. The local press / bloggers will lap it up, but POTHOLES are no laughing matter for residents.

Fill yer boots.

Update from Cllr Julie Young, 29th June:

“Despite continuous reporting of potholes some of which have been reported by me, Cllr Steve Ford and the Town Council, they take an absolute age to get done. The one by the entrance to the Co-op car park is a case in point. Another bad one in Park Road as well - both now done but took forever.

I queried whether the standards have changed at the last ECC full council meeting and they confirmed that they haven’t. The fact is that due to huge local Government cuts we are simply not getting the service people expect and I do not blame WTC for taking this action. People pay their Council tax and are simply not getting anything like the service they should get.”