I just want the road repaired...

I am writing this letter in the hope that there is a solicitor in Wokingham who would sponsor and support an 86-year-old disabled pensioner in the local claims court against the Council for failing to return to put their road repairs right as promised.

They say that the road is not dangerous even though it was when they repaired it originally. The repairs lasted six months.

The fact that an elderly lady fell and broke her leg and schoolchildren are constantly falling and grazing knees appears to be of no concern to the council.

The local ombudsman turned down my complaint as he said that a resident can take the Council to court and that it was the Council’s responsibility, not his.

After two years of correspondence with MP Theresa May who had viewed the road, both local and opposition councillors agreed that it was a two-day job that should be done. But Highways disagreed and said that the road was not dangerous.

Recently the Highways department sent two engineers to view the problem, one of whom authorised the original work and said that it would last for two years and as mentioned earlier, it lasted six months.

He then returned more recently under a different organisation and said that all the roads were like that and left. This is the type of service you get for paying a very high council tax bill.

The Highways department seems to be a total shambles. It seems to be governed by the crazy legislation of a UK management system where each road has a score on the size and depth of a pothole and if a road has a higher score than yours, you don’t stand a chance.

This is an absolute farce and is why our roads are in such bad repair. I heard from Keith Baker that it had taken him five years to get Reading Road in Woodley resurfaced.

On February 18, this year I received a letter from Glen Cross assistant director of Highways stating that my complaint - which has been going on for six years - can be placed in Stage 2 of the Council’s complaint procedure and if that fails I can go to the ombudsman. I have already done that and it failed.

This just shows that the Council has no credibility to put its own work right. No resident should have to put up with all this nonsense.

What chance does anyone have when Highways boast about looking at 100 roads a year on 1st January and they rely on people reporting road defects on line, then nothing happens. Does anyone care? Sadly no.

The resident is of no consequence in the eyes of the council.

We read that Cllr. Jorgensen says that everybody has a right to walk, ride or cycle on a smooth surface, so what has gone wrong?

The trouble is that in Wokingham we are governed by a dictatorship where there is only one opinion.

This is not democracy. We need the opposition to have a voice too.

Make sure when you vote that we have different voices that will be listened to and not a Tory stronghold.

Cedric Lander, Woodley