Coun Alyson Barnes

Leader of the council

THIS is my first column since the local elections at the start of May and I’m pleased to still be speaking to you as Labour Leader of the council – a council that we have once again maintained overall control of and have strengthened our position winning a further three additional council seats.

I’d like to thank each and every one of our residents that came out and voted.

It’s your democratic right and it’s important that you exercise that right so you can have your say and decide who represents you to fight for the best possible outcomes for Rossendale and our residents.

I am proud to serve as Council Leader, but it is also hard and incredibly frustrating when we have to make extremely tough decisions.

It’s no secret that many councils, like most households and businesses, are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis, huge spikes in energy bills and recruitment and wage demands, all impacting on the spending decisions we have to make.

All of this comes on the back of a long 13 years of Tory austerity and funding cuts to local government which have decimated council services and council reserves.

We have got to provide so much more support in our front-line services to our residents, with so much less.

Rossendale residents deserve more and I want to be in a position to help them. But more often than not we are having to make extremely hard decisions and prioritise or make cuts to services we don’t want to make just to ensure that we remain viable as a council.

I want to assure residents that we are always working to the best of our abilities with the limited resources we have, and we often make these difficult decisions as a last resort and with a heavy heart.

I’m going to finish where I left off in March unfortunately and have a bit of a rant about the state of the roads in Rossendale.

As a resident as well as Leader of the council I am still frustrated and annoyed by the continuing saga of the roads and it seems that as soon as one issue is solved another appears. I want to assure residents that this remains one of my top priorities and I am in almost constant contact with Highways at LCC, highlighting problems and pushing for them to be resolved as soon as possible.

I know there was a specific problem last week in Rawtenstall which caused chaos and absolute gridlock.

The traffic flow should have been managed manually with Stop and Go signs but instead site management used automated lights.

Highways have said they will ensure that contract requirements are enforced in full in future, but this remains to be seen.

I, along with my Labour county council colleagues, will continue to put pressure on county to do better and make sure improvements to the current system are implemented.

The amount that the Conservative controlled County Council take in council tax towards highways should ensure a far better service than the one we currently receive.

As ever I am always available if you would like to speak to me or raise an issue, please get in touch by emailing me on alysonbarnes@ rossendalebc.gov.uk or ring me on 217 819 / 07817 414 248.