The shops and garage at the crossroads have been suffering loss of trade for many weeks, as the Council first closed one road access and then switched to closing another. More people could not get to the shops and gave up on the idea of a detour of several miles to do so. Now they have closed the car park as well! The place is deserted. Trade has collapsed. The food shops see fresh produce go to waste as so few people can get there to buy it.
Why does the Council want to do all this damage? Residents liked their old Crossroads and shopping centre and did not ask for more than £ 5m to be spent undermining it. There has been no compensation for the struggling businesses and no attempt to help residents get to the shops and garage. The Council is silent about the way it is wrecking good businesses and good services the local community liked.
I thought Lib Dems cared about the environment. Instead they are requiring people wanting to get their car fixed or filled, or needing to do a shop that requires a car to take the goods home to do many extra miles in their vehicles. They have bought expensive energy intensive paving and road surfacing products and employed contractors burning plenty of diesel and petrol in their machinery. This was a dreadful call which local people and Conservative Councillors begged them not to make. Why don’t they listen to what we want? Why are they so selective in their concern for the environment?
August 13, 2024
Sir John, perhaps with your connections, you could verify or not the information that the council had to spend the money on the cross roads as linked to the Gorse Ride Estate re-development in some way. And the plans came about in the days of a conservative council. The £5 million could not be spent elsewhere. Spend it or loose it.
As usual, politics and contacts behind the scenes of all these so obvious against common sense actions that local and national government take these days. And for sure not for the benefit of the tax payer.
Reply Conservatives opposed the plan. No need to waste money.Could have designed a useful scheme for another local road.