Reader’s Letter: Change priority to fix the potholes in the roads of Hastings

Both the Conservatives and Labour parties seem to be fighting May’s borough elections on the issue of potholes in our roads. Hands up, yes, the Liberal Democrats do that as well, though in our case it is usually in response to a pot hole that we have reported and ideally got a satisfactory result. Highways are a county, not a borough issue, so my first challenge is ‘haven’t Labour and the Conservatives got anything to say about the borough (or would they rather not)? To the Conservatives, I would remind them that they control the county, and the government which sets the levels of local government spending (not enough). Since Conservatives are in the driving seat when it comes to highways maintenance, isn’t there a whiff of hypocrisy in their pushing this issue?

Labour says they would bring the Highways Minor Repairs budget back to Hastings. They said that a year ago… what have they been doing for the last twelve months? Had Hastings Labour joined us in the attempt to take control of East Sussex away from the Tories last year they might have been in a position to take such decisions.

What are Labour doing to ‘bring back control and responsibility to the people of Hastings’ on other issues? Nothing – in fact the complete opposite, they ignore the local community on issues high and low.

Having been a councillor on a highways authority in the past, I would put another view. Whilst properly funded decentralisation should be part of the solution, ultimately (Tories) it is a matter of prioritising the issue and councillors working with council officers to get on top of the situation.

Perhaps the roads in Eastbourne and Lewes are better because Liberal Democrat councillors there do just that?

Nationally, what ever the rhetoric, governments of either stripe like centralising power in their hands and have not given local authorities, on the ground, who know what their needs are, the funding. Given that situation, why doesn’t county prioritise potholes? Because they are over-whelmed meeting the needs of social care in an aging population, that also has to meet the challenges thrown up by Covid-19.

That said, closer cooperation between councillors and council staff could go a long way towards improving the situation, but they will have to roll their sleeves up.

SEE ALSO: More than a dozen tuberculosis cases a year in east Sussex

Have you read....: Reader’s Letter: Government puts hurdles in the path of refugees from Ukraine

Please send your letters to [email protected]. Letters must be accompanied by a full name and address. Anonymous letters are never printed. We reserve the right to edit letters for any reason.

For the latest breaking news where you live in Sussex, follow us on Twitter @Sussex_World and like us on Facebook @SussexWorldUK