6/5/2008

Surrey Local News

State of roads prompts most council complaints

MORE than a third of all complaints received by Surrey County Council in the past year have been about the authority’s highways department.

During 2007/08, 1,091 grievances were made to the council, 395 of which were directed towards Surrey Highways.

The body is responsible for maintaining and improving the county’s roads as well as dealing with its street lights, grass cutting and signage.

Some 99 complaints were made to the highways department during April, May and June of last year, according to a report presented to the county council’s Standards Committee.

Only 76% of those received a response within 20 working days despite the council having a performance target of 82%.

The following three months saw a further 98 complaints, 20 of which remained unanswered after the target deadline for responses.

"Lost confidence"

Dissatisfaction with the state of Surrey’s roads peaked during autumn and winter last year, with 110 letters, e-mails or calls of disapproval made in October, November and December.

By this point, the council was apparently addressing the complaints more quickly as only 6% did not receive a response within the target period.

During the first three months of 2008, 83 of the 88 complaints made to Surrey Highways were addressed within 20 working days.

Liberal Democrat spokesman for transport, John Doran, said he was not surprised Surrey Highways received more complaints than any other council department.

He said: "Surrey Highways is only just recovering from the reorganisation that followed on from the Business Delivery Review (in 2006).

"The Conservatives have never invested enough money in the roads and they went through this reorganisation that demoralised staff and nothing was done.

"We’ve been saying that the contractors had lost the confidence of the people of Surrey but we’re still with them."

Adult services was the second most unpopular area of the council's work, with 137 complaints received during the course of the year.

First printed in: Surrey Advertiser Online

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