Tories forced to admit road repair failures

2.18.33pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 13th Jun 2006

Surrey roads are in an atrocious state

Surrey's Conservative-led County Council were today forced to admit that road repairs in the county were at an unacceptable level. The Liberal Democrat group had proposed a motion calling for urgent action to rectify the appalling state of Surrey's roads.

This was amended by the Tories to list areas where 'further action' was needed, including 'Endorsing the action already taken' and 'Taking appropriate action urgently.' After a lengthy debate, which saw Liberal Democrats suggest that the amendments did not go far enough to solve Surrey's road repair problems, the amended motion was carried.

Commenting on the debate, John Doran (Horsell) who proposed the original Liberal Democrat motion, said "We wanted the Tories to admit what everyone knows, that the roads in Surrey are in an atrocious state and they have done very little about rectifying it."

"It's a subject which residents bring up with us time and again and Surrey County Council is letting them down completely. The subject is a crucial one because the problems relating to the Carillion contract have been openly discussed by at least one local paper and have even been reported as far away as Canada."

"Surrey Tories' incompetence makes even the Home Office look well run!" he concluded.

Summing up in the debate, John Doran called on Tory leader Nick Skellett to give a commitment for the full publication of all the documents relating to the Carillion contract, as well as an investigation of the impact on the recent Business Delivery Review on the transportation service. He said "The BDR has seen almost a 50% reduction in Highways officers - and at the same time the contract is being totally mismanaged. We need to have a firm and clear plan on how Surrey County Council is going to spend the money to improve Surrey's roads."