Not quite there yet....

Following a recent rather foolish attempt to negotiate Ashey Road in poor light, a friend is now embroiled in a £1,000+ claim against the Council for damage caused to his car by the appalling state of the road. How gratifying then to see how quickly the patching teams were out putting things right, and the impressive quality of the road now that some of the pot-holes have been filled in.

I suppose we should learn to expect this sort of quick response from a Council that is, according to the completely impartial watchdog District Auditor, improving well year after year (or did he say "Improving? Well.....")

Reflecting on how this impressive rate of progress must soon move from reactive to proactive, with roads improved before accidents happen rather than after, I thought I'd revisit the progress of Pugh's much trumpeted £5m road improvement initiative. This was announced at the end of last year, when spending on road improvements under the previous administration running at a consistent £6m to £7m every year had fallen to only £123,000 in 2008-09.

Everything obviously got of to a great start this year, with a budget set of £4.8m, but unfortunately only £818,000 will actually be spent, presumably due to procurement problems, the Undercliff Drive enquiry, the Credit Crunch, global warming etc. etc. (in fact all the unavoidable slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that give Robert Mugabe a bad press so unfairly).

There are two serious concerns about this disappointing performance, apart from the ever increasing threat to life, limb and property as the road system disintegrates further:

1. The Government has been handing over large wodges of cash each year expecting it to be spent on roads. When they find that it's been poured into toilets instead, or not spent at all, they may get very upset and stop sending any in future.
2. Faced with the real Credit Crunch and its horrendous impact on the public finances, how likely is the Government to hand over £300m to a council which doesn't appear to be able to deliver a programme of even 0.3% of that amount?

And what do you think plan B is?