Pledge No. 2 – Residents To Be Given Power To Ditch Road Humps

Pledge No. 2 – Residents To Be Given Power To Ditch Road Humps

by | Jan 22, 2010 | News | 0 comments

Regular readers will know that I am not a fan of road humps. It is likely that speed tables (brick raised areas on junctions) will be put on the junctions of Ruskin Road/Rotherfield Road, Ruskin Road/ Seymour Road and Talbot Road/ Rotherfield Road after residents voted in favour, both in the official council consultation and extra door-knocking by me and Eric. Nonetheless, as a whole Conservatives believe that they should not be the lazy default option to show that the local authority is doing something about a problem that is not necessarily there. In the first guest post of my blog, Cllr Graham Whitham, Conservative Spokesman on Environment & Transport shares the thoughts of our group and our pledge to residents for the forthcoming local elections:

“Tackling the impact of traffic and speeding vehicles is one of the most controversial jobs in Sutton Council.

Over the last 24 years, the ruling Liberal Democrats have placed many road humps in our roads. Many of the Borough’s road humps have little proven benefits and do no more than annoy motorists. Crude anti-car policies do not help anyone.

In some areas road cushions are necessary for traffic calming and road safety. A Conservative-run Council will only introduce traffic calming measures if residents want them and proven benefits outweigh negatives.

We will be straight with people, offering choice with the various options available. When a road is resurfaced we will confirm with local residents whether they want to keep road humps or not – existing traffic calming schemes can be removed.

We believe in really listening. It’s as simple as that.”

Our Commitment: We will ballot residents about removing unpopular road humps as roads are resurfaced.

Pledge No. 1 – More Grit Bins

by | Jan 14, 2010 | News | 12 comments

There will be plenty of information over the next four months about our manifesto, detailing the pledges that we are making to Sutton residents to make the Borough a better place to live and work. The snow has brought forward our first:

We will substantially increase the number of grit bins to ensure that residents have reasonable access to help themselves.

Stonecot resident Adrian Short has done a great service in mapping the bins across the borough. Thanks to Adrian, as well as making it easier for us to get the grit we need for our own roads, we are able to see the gaps in provision. Hackbridge, the planned sustainable jewel in Sutton’s crown, has absolutely no grit bins. Worcester Park and North Cheam have been largely forgotten. This is nothing new with some of the roads in Nonsuch ward being the worst maintained in Sutton.

Grit bins cost £90 each and the grit to fill each bin costs £9. Sutton has been in the same difficult position as all councils in London, stretched to capacity to cope with the conditions. The gritting teams, the customer service department and other areas of service who have needed to help the most vulnerable, have worked hard and managed well. However, more direction from the political leadership and a little more investment not less, would help residents help themselves.