Doddinghurst Road safety issues forced on to agenda

People power finally forced the Tory administration to listen to the issues in Doddinghurst Road on Monday night when Cllr Barry Aspinell encouraged families to atttend the Highways Panel and force the Tories to listen to the problems caused by the volume of people traffic and the worries that there would be an accident.

Faced with a chamber full of local mums, dads and young pupils, the item was raised as a matter of urgent business by Cllr Aspinell, much to the chagrin of the Tory chair who struggled to hide her annoyance at the highjack of her meeting and was very keen to usher them out.

Cllr Aspinell raised the issue and got it firmly planted on the agenda but then, just as the crowds were leaving, Cllrs Karen Chilvers and Philip Mynott demanded to know when action would be taken.

The site will now be visited within a month and, although that still doesn't seem soon enough, in ten minutes the promise of action went from "never" to "soon".

"That's what Lib Dem councillors do as an effective opposition" said Cllr Aspinell, as he thanked the many local residents for turning up on a cold night to make their point "represent the people to the council, not the other way round.