Let councillors make roads decisions

Published 14 Jul 2011 09:30 1 Comment

I believe that no matter which political party we vote into power, the same council officers just carry on deciding what they want to do without any recourse to the lead councillor of the section they work under, or for the rest of us for that matter.

I cannot believe that it was a councillor who dreamt up the barmy one way IDR. The same goes for the Shinfield Road catastrophe, and now the central Reading road and parking changes.

Which councillor was involved in the barmy road signs at the end of Minster Street for instance?

I don't think they even knew about the road signs. Why was traffic banned from town centre roads which it had been using for decades? Yet the councillors and their spokesperson Mr Oscar Mortali are forced to come out and defend things which they know full well are wrong.

Time and time again the Reading Borough Council has come out and suppressed genuine criticism by well informed residents. All so called Council Consultations should be completely transparent and published with no hiding behind the Data Protection Act as a reason for not fully publishing all submissions.

For too long we only hear about percentages and we all know how figures can be manipulated. Give a submission an identity number when published and we could soon see if our submissions had been counted. If the Shinfield Road area residents had been taken notice of there would have been a very different outcome. Until our councillors take back the power from the council officers nothing will change. For everyone's sake it's time they did.

Alan Johnstone

Blandford Road, Reading

H This letter wins the writer £10 of flowers from Vendela Rose.

Please allow 14 days for delivery.

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This letter appeared in Reading Chronicle 15 Jul 11

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• 

  George Tee
  Unregistered User
  Jul 16, 09:44
  Report comment

  Name the guilty party: Pat Baxter is responsible for more bad decisions and wasted money in Reading than all of the Councillors combined. Why we, tax payers, are still coughing up for her salary - and doubtless her pension when she finally goes - beggars belief. Just for the one-way IDR alone she should have been sacked a long time ago.
  
  Recommend?   Yes 7     No 0

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