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View Full Version : Northants biker criticises council for diverting road repair funds



Bob
21st October 2004, 23:48
A Northants biker has criticised a decision to spend £49million earmarked for repairing Northamptonshire roads on other services instead.

Paul Pickett (NO RELATION!), of Westhorp, Greatworth, a sales consultant who travels 50,000 miles a year, said the county's roads were the worst he had to drive on "The road surfaces in Northamptonshire are without doubt the worst I have to drive on and my job takes me to Birmingham, Essex, Oxfordshire and beyond," he said "I know the county council has been dealing with a number of insurance claims because of damage to people's vehicles."

The council's ruling Labour group admitted diverting the money for roads into education and children's services over the past ten years.

"We are not denying that we have favoured other services, which were thought to be a higher priority – those were schools and children's services," said Labour group spokesman John Courouble "It was a choice between spending less on something else or charging more tax. If we charged as much council tax as Oxfordshire we would have had an extra £25m to spend.

"But we recognise that roads have become more of a problem and so £25m extra will be spent on them in addition to the usual £9m a year maintenance over the next three years."