Surrey Liberal Democrats Call For Urgent Highways Action

10.34.39am GMT Tue 21st Nov 2006

There is a backlog in the maintenance of Surrey's roads.

The Liberal Democrat group on Surrey County Council (SCC) has submitted a motion to the next Full Council meeting on the 28 November urging the Council to review the way it delivers highway maintenance and calling for the resignation of the Conservative Executive Member.

The Liberal Democrats have been calling for open debate on this subject since several confidential reports were leaked to Surrey's local press during the summer, but the Conservative administration has so far refused to debate the issue in public. County Councillor John Doran, Liberal Democrat Spokesman for Transport, said: "It is no wonder that they don't want to talk about this; it demonstrates gross incompetence! Surrey has two contracts that we now know have wasted millions of pounds in the last few years and yet the Conservatives decided to cut highways staff by a third in their recent Business Delivery Review. They have now, of course, had to admit they are recruiting new staff to cope with Surrey's horrendous backlog of road repairs."

John Doran added: "I am extremely unhappy with this waste of taxpayers' money. This situation should have been resolved as soon as it was clear that the contracts were not delivering. The Executive Member has failed Surrey's residents and the only honourable thing for her to do is to resign."