CLUN ROADS SHAMBLES
Nigel Hartin, Shropshire Councillor for Clun Division, has criticised Shropshire Council for its inept and insensitive handling of road repairs in the Centre of Clun.
In mid-December Shropshire Council re-surfaced the road WITHOUT doing the necessary drainage work beforehand.
Nigel said: “We have had a major problem with this road over recent years. A drainage problem underneath the road has caused large sections of the road surface to become loose leaving the road surface seriously abraded.
“The Town Council and I have tried hard to work with Shropshire Highways on the dreadful state of the road and we thought we had come to a consensus with Shropshire on how the problem should be addressed, Clun Town Council Traffic Group, led by Cllr Brian Angel, had worked particularly hard on this.”
“Common sense tells you that the drainage problem needs sorting first before the road is resurfaced. Unfortunately, that’s not what has happened. A brand sparkling new road surface has been put down without sorting the underlying problems first, and on top of that the yellow and white lining are not as agreed either.”
“It also appears that requests from Clun Traffic Group, for a meeting to discuss the works, has also been ignored despite work on the ground not being done to the spec agreed with Shropshire Council by the Clun Traffic Group . I think the Council taxpayers of the Clun area deserve some answers pretty soon on this debacle.”
REFUSAL TO MEET
Nigel continued “Since then Cllr Dan Morris, Shropshire Council’s portfolio holder on roads, has refused to attend a Highways Area meeting I was setting up for the 4th January at SPARC in Bishops Castle to discuss the state of local roads. This came out of a meeting between Cllrs Ruth Houghton, Heather Kidd, Cllrs Ryan Davies and Josh Dickin, Mayors of Clun and Bishops Castle respectively and myself to discuss a number highways issues being raised by the public. We had agreed to invite Dan Morris and Senior Highways Officers, and were hoping for a good attendance by local parish councils & the public.
“This feels like a dreadful snub coming on top of the mess in Clun and as a result. Clun Mayor Cllr Ryan Davies has written to complain to Council Leader Lezley Picton. It would be really useful if, for once, Shropshire Council can come to listen to our communities about their roads problem.”