Richard Baum

I have just been out leafleting and once again had the distinct misfortune to find myself on Knowle Drive, the great forgotten road in my ward, the surface of which is not at all dis-similar to the surface of the Moon.

Numerous residents of this little street have complained to me and to colleagues about the state of the road before. And another one collared me today. I agree with their views entirely. Having been asked to stump up ever-increasing amounts of tax, they are within their rights to expect to drive from one end of their road to the other without feeling like they’re in a giant tumble dryer.

The annoying part for me is that there’s very little I can say beyond “I agree 100% with what you’re saying.” I must have asked the Council half a dozen times or more for their assistance with this road. But as I have mentioned on here before, the entire budget for minor road repairs for Prestwich in 2008-9 is £108,000, and the single neediest road costs one and a half times this amount. Without something radical, the people of Knowle Drive have got about as much chance of seeing their road satisfactorily repaired as I do of winning Wimbeldon.

Which, for local people, is hugely annoying and begs the oft-repeated question “where does all the money go?” I know that the answer to this is fantastically complicated, and that the oft-repeated “answer” that it is all wasted on asylum seekers and managers is entirely false. But for me, the lack of understanding and the huge amount of frustration that the ongoing inaction fosters amongst local people highlights a bigger worry - a complete lack of communication from the Council about why priorities are the way they are.

I try to explain local residents about the increasing cost of social care, say, and the investment in Children’s Services. But I can’t do it half as well as the Council could, by showing people that the reason their road hasn’t been done this year is because we’ve recruited a dozen new care co-ordinators instead, and as a result 100 more elderly people are being cared for at home. They mightn’t be happy about the road, but at least they’d understand why. At the moment there isn’t even that, and there’s resentment growing.

I read Council communications, and they don’t do the job. They tell half a tale, stressing the positives without ever talking about the sacrifices. They treat Council Tax payers as children, with a patronising dis-regard which never comes near to discussion of a real issue. It has to change. When I write St Mary’s Focus I try and put both sides of the story, because it’s rare that there’s an issue simple enough to be dealt with in a line or two. But the Council, and the national government as well, brush argument and difficulty under the carpet with sham “consultations” and phony words which are designed to win people round but in reality do the reverse. Why are they so scared of telling the whole story?

For the time being all I have for Knowle Drive is a shrug of agreement and the will to somehow pester the Council enough to have them pay for the repairs to shut me up. It’s not really all I should have up my sleeve.

Rick