Your letters
To the EditorThere is little evidence that the £2m allocated for the repair of roads has reached the borders of The Lee. Six weeks after the last snowfall at Kings Ash we are isolated by potholes the length of Rocky Lane and in the other direction down to Swan Bottom (I dare not mention King’s Lane which is a disgrace and a danger for walkers, as Reina has pointed out, and cyclists, never mind cars).
Whilst some of the potholes have been filled in Rocky Lane the work is shoddy and some holes remain suggesting that the contractors had myopia. My car has sustained a broken rear spring and dented wheel rims, which I am informed are a direct result of potholes, and have cost me £85. This ineptitude by the County Council follows hard on the heels of the snow. On several occasions Rocky Lane was not accessible and the stretch to the Ballinger turn remained ungritted for many days. I rang the relevant Council officer and offered to spread grit on the steep sections of Rocky Lane if a pile of grit was provided where the road widens on the steepest part, so allowing the residents of Kings Ash access to their homes. Despite his assurance it has still not arrived!!! It seems that the Parish Council, through the good offices of Councillor Usborne and Viv Robins, has a much better sense of the needs, although the assurance given by the Council’s Area Technician seems to have landed in the same ‘too difficult’ in-tray as mine. Councillor Birchley’s claim to have visited all the worst areas seems to have had little impact on our local advice to the Council, which is not reassuring.
There are possible two solutions.
- Decisions about the priority of gritting, the sites for grit, the repair of potholes and their quality assurance, need to rest with the Parish Council with a notional devolved budget apportioned by the length of roads. In the event of snow we need a local emergency plan with a budget devolved by the Council to make local decisions, such as paying local people to transport salt and, when pot holes are repaired by contractors, someone needs to inspect the quality.
- The Parish Council makes a formal request to the County Council to establish a scrutiny committee to look into the effectiveness of snow clearance and road repair in The Lee Parish from December 2009 to February this year. Scrutiny committees have the power to call witnesses and by the time next winter comes the decisions made may have rewards much wider than The Lee Parish.
Kings Ash
To the Editor
I would like to thank all those who came to my talk on ‘Notes from The Amazonian Jungle’. With your help we managed to raise £275 for Global Vision International - Ecuador. Many thanks to all of you who came and I hope that you found it interesting.
I would also like to thank John Haynes for putting the photographs and videos onto PowerPoint, for lending me his projector and speakers and for setting it all up. I could not have done it without him.
My thanks also to Tony Lee, the Parish Hall team and to my wife Sally for providing the wine and nibbles. Many thanks to all of you.
Kind regards,
Giles Knowles
Greetings from Colorado!
Editor: We get quite a few emails coming in through The Lee website making enquiries or comments about The Lee. This came in recently and we thought it worth sharing:
To the Editor
Watching Midsomer Mysteries on ‘netflicks’ and was wondering where it was filmed. You’ll be happy to note that anyone googling “camera obscura, murder, English village” will find that you have the number one site on the planet. Your village sounds wonderful. I’ve been to England many times... and will try to work your town into a future trip. Ah, to be at the Cock and Rabbit right now with a hand-pulled real ale. As it is, back to the mystery... and a Coors Light.
Congratulations on a wonderful site!
Rich Grant
Communications Director
Denver Convention & Visitors Bureau