Curb Those Thoughts On Kerb Repairs

I've recently been out campaigning visiting residents around the Sweyne Park and Grange Ward and I've had several complaints about the condition of our footpaths and kerbs. Today was a stark reminder that these problems extend much wider than just my ward, whilst walking through the High St I witnessed an elderly gentleman taking a photo of a raised paving slab. As the responsibility for footpaths & kerbs is with Essex County Council (as it is for roads), I contacted our Essex County Councillors for Rayleigh, Cllr Lumley & Cllr Maddocks to try and establish why ECC only carries out temporary repairs.

I have been contacted by numerous residents about the state of the repairs that have been made to kerbs around Rayleigh. They are shocked at the poor quality of repairs and the seemingly ‘bodged’ repairs by removing dislodged kerbstones and using tarmac to ‘shore up’ the edges. I’m sure you know what I mean as they can be seen around our town. Could you please provide an explanation as to why repairs are not being carried out to reinstate the kerb stones properly? Cllr James Newport, Sweyne Park & Grange

I'm pleased to inform you that I received two replies to my question, one very helpful and one errrr..... not so helpful! Indeed Cllr June Lumley, Essex County Councillor for Rayleigh South has replied with the following

....Rochford District currently has 1017 footways which have been prioritised for repair, with a total value of £38.6m. Our engineers have explained that they currently have a budget allocation of £8m to address footways across all of Essex annually, which is divided fairly based on condition and footway length for each of the 12 districts in Essex. Rochford will be receiving £1.1m to address the highest ranked footways.... (Information correct as of December 2017)

In a nutshell, not nearly enough money to go around!