Lib Dems welcome "stunning" Tory U-turn on roads

Surrey Lib Dems welcomed a stunning U turn by Tory Surrey County Council. Just weeks after making a third of all highways staff redundant the council has admitted, after Lib Dem pressure, that it has to recruit new staff to cope with a horrendous backlog.

New schemes are being held up because there is no one on the Surrey side to manage them

Contractors are laying off staff because of this

Despite an estimated 20 year backlog in maintenance to Surrey roads it is now certain that Surrey will significantly under spend its budget this year

Thousands of e mails and letters from councillors and residents are going unanswered because of shortages

Staff are leaving or having stress related illness at an alarming rate

All this is against the background of two reports detailing Surrey's mismanagement of the highways contracts.

John Doran Lib Dem spokesman on transport called for urgent action by the council.

"We tried to raise this as an issue at the full council meeting on Tuesday but were effectively prevented from doing so by a procedural device. It is no wonder the Tories don't want to talk about this. It demonstrates gross incompetence! We have two contracts that we now know have wasted millions in the last few years and yet the Tories through political correctness decided to cut staff in the recent review. We now have the disgraceful situation where the council, having spent thousands making people redundant, is rushing around recruiting new inexperienced people to cope with the backlog.

This was brought into stark relief during the recent heavy rains. There was flooding on Morton Road (an ongoing problem) which also flooded a number of classrooms at Woking High School. I tried to phone officers but was told that I could not speak to them until the following Wednesday (nearly a week later) as they were moving office (their 3rd office this year). The call centre took my name but no one called back. If this is the way a councillor is treated what hope is there for the public!"