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2 JULY 2015 ISSUE 50
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CHELTENHAM’S BIGGEST WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
POTHOLE VICTORY AT LAST, POTHOLES TO BE FIXED CHELTENHAM’S new MP Alex Chalk notched up a victory over Shire Hall bosses after his pothole summit led to them finally agreeing to fix the Cheltenham’s worst 10 pothole zones. In a heated public debate, over a hundred people turned up at the summit organised by Mr Chalk which saw the county council’s highways chief face up to the fact that the state of Gloucestershire’s roads is not good enough. Councillor Vernon Smith, Shire Hall’s cabinet member for highways, described the county’s roads as “very poor” and owned up to the fact that more could be done. Last Friday evening the Municipal Offices allowed members of the public to interrogate Mr Smith and the county council’s top
The pothole summit
roads officer, Scott Tompkins. The public debate started off with Mr Smith and Mr Tomkins outlining the problems that they faced in dealing with our roads. It also allowed Mr Smith and Mr Tompkins the chance to explain the size of the highways problems facing the GCC team. While accepting the county has a problem with its roads Mr Smith
MP Alex Chalk
did hit back at the fixation with potholes. He said: “For far too long we have been obsessed with potholes.” Mr Smith also added: “The real issue is the lack of proactive maintenance.” He said they had changed their
approach to focus more on that proactive maintenance and as a result things are improving. Mr Smith said the county council’s £86m backlog is like a “titanic ship– it’s turning, it’s moving.” And he also said it was TURN TO PAGE TWO >
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