Threat to Free School Transport

Essex County Council have plans to end free school transport. This will hit the poorest hardest. Let us not forget Essex County have the highest Councillor expenses in East Anglia and cabinet members have chauffer driven cars. However it is not too late! For information visit www.essexinsight.org.uk/consultations. To have your say, email school.transportconsultation@essex.gov.uk

Roding Lane Bridge Update

When at the end of 2012 lights were put either side of Roding Lane Bridge inbetween Buckhurst Hill and Chigwell, there was outcry as traffic, at peak times, went all the way back to the top of Palmerston Road. When we were told this would be there for over a year many local residents and I asked for it to be brought forward, spending the necessary money to get the bridge fixed and safe again. We were delighted when we were told it would be completed by the summer. Well summer has gone and we are told Essex County Council went ahead without getting up all the consents needed from the Environment Agency and utility companies, or drawing up all the plans needed for successful completion. As a result we are told that it will be the end of the year at least until the project is complete. In the meantime local residents have to contend with long queues. Was the decision to proceed due to political pressure, or did the relevant officers in the Highways department make the decision alone? Either way this is maladministration and incompetence, and wasting of ratepayers’ money and we in the Green Party want to know who made these decisions and how they are going to be held to account?