Don't forget our atrocious pavements

When I was out campaigning the other day, a pensioner I called on reminded me that it's not just our potholed roads that blight Putney, Roehampton and Southfields, but also dreadfully dangerous pavements.

She's absolutely right. Anywhere you go in our constituency you'll probably find examples of damaged or unsafe pavements - stones lifted by tree roots; kerbstones overturned by cars cutting corners; bollards or street signs having been knocked and dislodging the pavement around them or simple neglect by the Tory council.

Here's a classic example of that last problem: this is Victoria Drive alongside Winterfold Close - the stretch between Albert Drive and Wimbledon Park Road.







Here the Conservatives are evidently content to allow subsidence to simply shift the paving stones down the verge that separates pedestrians from the road. This is probably the worst example I've come across of such a sustained length of unsafe, uneven paving, but there are hundreds - maybe even thousands - from one side of the constituency to the other.

The Conservatives keep promising that they've learnt their lesson and are fixing their potholes. But in most cases they have not, and in the remainder they're resorting to simply patching up potholes which last only a few weeks before the holes open up again. If you want well-maintained pavements and roads in Putney, you need to vote for change in the local elections, because the Conservatives have shown beyond reasonable doubt that they can't cope with this most basic of responsibilities.

Patching rather than fixing: typical Tories

I've long since given up highlighting the disgusting state of Putney's potholed roads - made that way not because of the winter weather but simply through years of the Tories starving the highways budget of cash.

Their policy is simple: never resurface a road if they think they can get away with patching it - and never patch a road they think they can get away with neglecting entirely.

Well, this is Tildesley Road, which runs from Putney Heath through the Ashburton Estate. It exemplifies the absurdity of the Tory patching policy: just count the patches they've put down here - all to no avail.

Patching, as I've written before, is a false economy - one instance of patching will obviously not cost as much as properly, professionally resurfacing a road; but the problem with patching is that - outside Wandsworth - it's never intended as a permanent fix: it's just a stop-gap before more serious attention can be given to the road.

The consequence is that patches are shortlived - as you can see with Tildesley Road. They rapidly erode, and they erode quickly the more intensively the road is used. So the council has to return again, and again, and again to make right the erosion as well as fill in new potholes that emerge in the same areas. And that costs you - it doesn't cost the council: you're paying through it via your council tax - far more in the long run than the Tories properly funding and managing their road maintenance programme.

This isn't rocket science - it's basic housekeeping. The Conservatives, for all their talk of being value for money, show with their dereliction of duty to the basic services we should all be able to expect from our council, that they simply have no idea how to manage a budget.

Reward this Tory incompetence at the council elections in May. A vote for any party other than Labour helps the Tories win again. And you'll get more of the same if they win again.

More action: Durford Crescent

There are hundreds of potholes still unattended in Roehampton: my team counted almost 50 in Holybourne Avenue alone yesterday, but one of the most neglected roads in the area was Durford Crescent, which runs between Bessborough Road and Wanborough Drive.

I asked for this area to be given top priority and it has been. And we were there on Sunday to check that the holes had all been filled-in.

--------------------------
From: Jolley, Steve
Sent: 25 February 2010 10:30
Cc: Bhatia, Mena
Subject: DTS559344 - State of Durford Crescent
?
I refer to your e-mail dated 11th of February concerning the above, which has been passed to me for reply.

The reported areas were subsequently inspected, and all of the potholes that met the criteria for urgent repair were programmed accordingly.

Orders were then raised for the potholes to be repaired, and I am advised that the repairs have now been completed.

Yours sincerely

Steve Jolley
Assistant On Street Services Manager
London Borough of Wandsworth

Tories can't even keep their own streets pothole free

This is Weimar Street, just behind Putney High Street, and the road in which one of the area's Tory councillors - a cabinet member no less - lives.

It's not the most serious pothole I've come across (though it's getting bigger by the day) but it nonetheless needs fixing.

Surely the councillor's noticed it: it's right in front of the block of flats he lives in! So either he has reported it and the council's ignored him - in which case there's no point voting Conservative because they're ineffective; or he hasn't even bothered to report it - in which case there's no point voting Conservative because they're ineffective!

The potholes of Westleigh Avenue

Westleigh Avenue has featured in my "pothole of the week" competition before and look: it's back again!

This is the junction with Carslake Road, near Elliott School:



A close-up of the state of the Carslake Road junction:



In front of Haverstock House on the corner of Carslake Road:



And now on the steep slope from Carslake Road down to Solna Avenue:



Another:



And a third:



At the junction of Solna Avenue:



And another - this one's about 7 inches deep and will do serious damage to car suspensions, not to mention seriously injure any cyclist thrown off their bike because of it:



I find it absolutely astonishing that the Conservatives can find the money to resurface from end to end Hazlewell Road...



...but allow Westleigh Avenue - about 30 metres away from it - to deteriorate to the shocking and dangerous extent that it is in now. Bad judgement, wrong priorities, no leadership. As usual.

I've just reported dozens of potholes throughout the Alton etstate to the council for urgent repair - the worst being Durford Crescent - which runs between Bessborough Road and Wanborough Drive; Swanwick Close, Ibsley Gardens and Danebury Avenue, which can be added to the Harbridge Avenue potholes I reported a few days ago.

The Conservatives are in meltdown over their neglect of Putney's streets. They simply cannot cope with this most basic of competences that I'd expect any council asking to be re-elected in elections in twelve weeks' time to be able to manage.

But remember, the only way to punish the Tories in Putney is to vote Labour: only the Conservatives and Labour have any councillors in Wandsworth and we're the only ones that can beat them in any of the council races in our area.

Wandsworth - 2nd in London's Pothole League of Shame

It's official: as well as being the most flytipped borough in London, Wandsworth has, after Croydon, the most potholes in the capital.

Figures provided in last night's Evening Standard show that fewer than 1 in 3 of those reported - and remember that reported potholes grossly undercount the actual number of potholes in the area - are repaired by the Conservative council.

And it's little wonder when this straightforward fact is exposed - admitted by the Conservatives at a council meeting last week.

In 2000/1 Wandsworth council spent £3.5 million on road resurfacing.

In 2006/7 they'd slashed that to £2.1 million.

That's a 40% cut in the budget.

So next time the Tories blame the weather for the pitiful state of roads in Putney, Roehampton and Southfields, put the blame straight back where it belongs: on the penny-pinching Conservatives who can't even keep our streets repaired.

Remember: keeping our pavements and roads in good condition is the fundamental competence we should measure every single council against.

Then, and now

I reported this pothole in Gwalior Road back in May 2008 - hardly the worst example of a pothole ever, and one that could easily have been put right at the time. But the Conservative Council couldn't be bothered to repair it.



Now look at it - this photo taken on Sunday - the pothole's bigger, and the problem's spreading along the road. This is called a false economy: penny-pinching two years ago by the Conservatives is now going to now cost us a lot more to put it right.

I call this poor value for money.

Is it the weather, or is it Conservative neglect?

We all know that freezing weather damages road surfaces. And we've had quite a bit of freezing weather these past few weeks. But already decayed roads are far more susceptible to damage than cared for, well-maintained roads. And so, yet again, Putney has a massive pothole problem.

Although the Conservatives eventually reinstated the one-third cut in the highways budget they made two years ago, its grossly inadequate to cope with the problems this winter's weather has wrought. But it's the roads that were already falling apart - and which I've raised before - that are now far worse.

Take Felsham Road, Darfur Street, Bangalore Street and Dryad Street - all in the ward of the Tory leader of the council - as one example.





Felsham Road - from Erpingham Road right along to Redgrave Road and beyond: pothole after pothole.



Bangalore Street



Darfur Street and Dryad Street

Put these down to the weather if you wish. But they've been in bad condition for years. And the weather is not the reason why, in the Bangalore Street examples above, the road has sunk below the level of the manhole, is it?

Elections are about choices. And council elections are about choices about basic services like maintaining our roads to a competent standard. The Conservatives have cut council tax to such a degree that they can't even repair our roads and surface our streets. That's both negligent and incompetent.

Your choice is whether to go on putting up with this; be it the state of our streets, the embarrassing neglect of Putney Bridge, the pollution of Putney High Street, the high-rise overdevelopment and the disgusting state our council estates are left in.

Stay tuned for more examples...

A trip (literally) across Putney Bridge

Members of my campaign team have again taken their lives in their hands to document the damage to Putney Bridge. Following on from yesterday's post on the potholes on the St Mary's Church side of the bridge, let's just take a walk on the Putney Embankment side - from Bishops Park to Lower Richmond Road...

...First up an example just past the bus stop on the Fulham side of why cycling across the bridge is so hazardous - the bridge is pockmarked with these craters: not huge, but enough to unseat a cyclist. And just look at the crevice running off the pothole: it's these that erode so quickly creating even more dangers and allowing far more surface water to get into the bridge's fabric.



Here's another example of the deep fissures that are opening up right across the bridge: again, dangerous for cyclists and accelerating the erosion of the bridge by allowing rain water to penetrate more quickly and deeply:



You'll see several examples of how the Conservatives' botched patching is so inadequate: the sheer volume and weight of traffic over the bridge quickly break up the temporary fixes. But that's the problem: the Conservatives are using temporary fixes instead of having a serious programme to maintain and resurface the bridge:


This is at the apex of the bridge. Two things to note here: not only has another temporary fix around the manhole eroded, creating a pretty large crater right in the middle of the carriageway; but look also at how the entire section around the manhole is sinking into the bridge:



I mentioned in yesterday's post on the bridge the deep ruts that have opened up right along the "join" between lanes on the other (Putney-bound) side of the bridge. Here's a clearer, closer example of what I'm talking about. How on earth can a cyclist navigate this sort of damage safely?



Another of the increasingly alarming fissures opening up across the bridge -I highlighted this one a few weeks ago on the blog - it's got worse since then:



Not the worst example of the Conservatives' neglect of the bridge, but this photo - just before the bus stop on the Putney side of the bridge - shows how the road surface is being stripped away:



...And this photo, looking back towards Fulham, shows just how pockmarked and cratered the entire bridge surface is:



This is right by the bus stop on the Putney side of the Bridge - another of the Tories' short term botches falling apart:



Another of the craters that make crossing the bridge a nightmare for cyclists - this one's just by the bus stop for buses terminating at Putney Bridge Station:



And another collapsing manhole - this one just past the junction with Lower Richmond Road:



Another major pothole by the junction of Lower Richmond Road:



And last but not least:

Putney Bridge deja vu

When oh when are the Conservatives going to meet their responsibilities in respect of Putney Bridge and repair this damaged and neglected structure?

They cannot blame the cold weather for the state it's in right now: the erosion is happening all year round and anyone who's a regular reader of this blog will know I've beeing trying to persuade the Tories of the importance of repairing the bridge properly for months and months.

These are just photos of potholes on one side of one half of the bridge. The biggest problem with the bridge is not these huge potholes that keep opening up or collapsing into themselves every few weeks - serious though those are - because at least the Conservatives make some effort to patch them up. No, the real problem are the long "ruts" that run along the length of the bridge usually where lanes meet - which is of course where cyclists tend to be. These ruts are usually ignored by the Conservatives and they're getting deeper and deeper.

Sooner or later, a cyclist will be thrown off their bike because of this Conservative negligence, and on one of London's busiest bridges that is a frightening prospect.

My five point plan for Putney Bridge is straightforward and will sort it out:

1) Force the council and Thames Water to sit down until they've hammered out a joint agreement to repair the bridge between them

2) Fix the leaking pipes that run through the bridge that are the principal cause of the erosion

3) Resurface the entire bridge properly: laying the northbound cycle lane while this is being done
4) Repair the floodlights illuminating the bridge - if necessary replacing the existing floodlights the council has trouble getting to with those it's much easier to reach

5) Take out the traffic lights that stop traffic in the middle of the bridge - or alternatively fix them so they only do what they were set up to do: stop traffic only when a 22 or 265 bus is seeking to get from the bus lane across to the lane turning into Lower Richmond Road.

We'll only get this plan if you vote for change at the elections later this year. The Tory neglect of Putney Bridge is a disgrace. And it's happening despite the leader of the Council himself being one of the area's local representatives. If he is incapable of taking sufficient pride in Putney Bridge to keep it in an acceptable state, you need to elect representatives who are.

Janet Grimshaw, Chris Locke and Bibi Qureshi as your local Labour councillors will do just that.

More casework from the Alton

Sadly, the disgusting state of Harbridge Avenue yesterday wasn't the only problem I'm having to raise with the Conservative council today.

Similar problems of overflowing bin chambers and flytips at Portswood Place:



And a cleaning contractor that thinks just sweeping rubbish into a great heap and leaving it passes as acceptable cleanliness - also at Portswood Place (with the Methodist Church in the background):



A flytip on the corner of Minstead Gardens and Portswood Place:



And here several of the wooden bollards at the bottom end of Minstead Gardens have been damaged but heck, despite Minstead Gardens comprising sheltered housing for the elderly, why on earth fix the dangerous holes and loose paving the damage has caused - just stick a cone nearby and hope no-one injures themselves:



Another flytip in Minstead Gardens - at the top by Richmond Park. The Conservative jobsworths will say this isn't on their land. I guess it's ok to just leave this festering eyesore then?



And I'm not sure how long it's been since the council's out-of-town couldn't-care-less cleaning contractor cleared up the Sherfield Gardens verge along Danebury Avenue but aside from being littered from one end to the other, it also has been flytipped with a sofabed and a pinball machine:



Finally, to add to the Conservatives' collection of potholes, this one in Swanwick Close is about seven inches deep and a real hazard to anyone coming down the slope from Minstead Gardens or Chadwick Close - just one of several potholes in the vicinity, including at the bus stop by the bull sculpture:



The two posts from the Alton I've published today can be summarised in four simple words:

Conservatives: couldn't care less.