At the County Council meeting last week (22 Jul 08) the Lib Dems proposed a motion which would enable the Council to use previously unidentified financial resources to make immediate improvements in the County’s roads, pavements and footpaths. The Tory administration voted against the motion.

The money was identified by the Lib Dems who confirmed that it was available and that using it in the way which they had proposed would not be irresponsible. They proposed to use it for roads etc as highlighted above, a fund to support threatened post offices, supporting young people and climate change projects at schools.

The money for roads etc would go some way to arresting the continuing deterioration of the County’s pavements. In its latest performance indicators the one which relates to pavements (BV187) has taken a significant turn for the worse and the level of defects has doubled since last year.

This is bad news but hardly surprising. Residents of Cottenham have repeatedly complained about the state of the village’s footpaths. In many cases they are unsafe and motorised wheelchair users use them at their peril. County Councillor David Jenkins has raised this with officers but always gets the same response ‘we don’t have any money’.

Cllr Jenkins said: ‘the County’s infrastructure is slowly deteriorating. As it does it becomes dangerous and the cost of repairs goes up. We are in a viscous circle about which the Tory administration doesn’t seems to worry.’