Why did changes take so long?

WHAT planet are our local councillors on? The recent articles about savings as they reduce senior management from seven to four with savings of £300,000pa is heralded as a wonderful achievement.

Well it’s a start, but many of us would cull wide and deep in the corridors of council’s executive pay.

The first question to ask of this move is what took so long? In a commercial business operation, trimming fat is part of a regular review process to ensure competitiveness and efficiency.

Words that many public servants probably don’t recognise. As evidence to my claim I refer to the same edition of Hinckley Times where Bill Cullen, one of the old gang of seven who becomes chief executive of the new gang of four, refers to Hinckley as the place to be!

Well if you like takeaways and cafe/bars he could well be right, but these establishments and types of business should be supplemental to what makes a town a place to be. Interesting, thriving and attractive. Not too far away we have such pleasant examples - Rugby, Leamington, Warwick to name a few.

Elsewhere in the same edition, Councillor Peter Osborne claims to have made a good start in tackling congestion in Hinckley. As I say what planet are they on? The creation of the Hub traffic lights, the spread of traffic lights throughout the town like a plague, all under the control of the aforesaid, who having added to the problems now claim to have made a good start!

Add to that they now plan a further £15.5 million of “improvements”. More traffic lights, more cycle lanes which I rarely see anyone use, more pelican crossings which I often see people use, wait for a break in the traffic and then hop across only for the next vehicle to sit there looking at a red light with not a soul in sight. More speed bumps (portable police cameras are the solution and a money spinner).

We continue to shop in Fosse Park and/or Leicester, it’s quicker to get there and less frustrating than the chaos created down Rugby Road, or through the town with traffic lights every 150m or so.

Letter after letter to the HT points out the problems local residents suffer as a result of such badly thought out schemes.

I understand that pleasing all the people etc, etc, but please don’t claim to be making savings by reducing executives who should have been fired years ago or claim to be introducing improvements to traffic which they have created will only add to the frustration of residents.