LETTER: It's not money that's the issue

I am referring to the state of our highways and in particular the Horsham Northern Bypass, the A264.

What visitors think when they are travelling this area I can only imagine. Direction signs are broken and remain this way for ages, that is when you can see them behind the grime or the overgrown vegetation. At last there has been some effort to cut the central reservation grass, but believe it or not this has only been half done with no attempt to finish long sections nor trim around road furniture.

To cut a central reservation must be expensive with around four trucks displaying caution signs to protect a single mower, yet there is no joined up thinking to arrange for the massive litter this reveals to be picked up at the same time, with the end result that the cut sections are litter-strewn.

The motivation behind this letter, even though I have agonised about this state of affairs for some while, was the report in WSCT on 18 August reporting on the WSCC Highways decision to cease to finance ‘highway rangers’, and comments from the cabinet member for highways and transport, Cllr John O’Brien, quote ‘We do not have the money to deliver what we would call aesthetics’.

It is not money that’s the issue, it is management! I have never really understood the benefits of outsourcing except that it appears to be the fashionable way, and I suppose transfers the direct thrust of managing people and throwing this at a third party. Outsourcing organisations are there to make a profit and reduce costs every which way, and they will do this to the full if allowed to do so.

In the case of this contract, jobs are done, but never tidied and clear up afterwards with the result of signs that remain for no purpose, and cones dumped in the hedgerows or on roundabouts. To report this to the authority is like cutting teeth - a report and then follow up after follow up, or give up.

A shake up would not be before time.

Brian Johnson

Langhurstwood Road, Horsham

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