Potholes, potholes, potholes

As you might imagine, during a General Election most conversations on the doorstep tend to focus on national issues, given that the vote is to decide who will represent us in Parliament. So, it’s a testament to just how bad our roads have become, that every time I go out knocking doors potholes keep coming up on the doorstep.

It’s not really that surprising. Public highways are the one service absolutely everyone in the country uses on a regular basis and with the backlog of road repairs growing every year the Conservatives have been in power, the roads are now in an appalling state.

A Labour Government will create a National Social Care service, removing the biggest financial pressure on local authorities and thereby helping them to get their budgets in order.

In the meantime, I need your help.

At the start of the month I launched a petition with other Labour candidates in West Sussex. Unlike other petitions, this petition is produced in-line with the county council’s petition scheme, meaning that they cannot easily ignore it.

With just 3,000 signatures all county councillors will be required to debate the petition at their next meeting. In addition, it sets out specific proposals as to where the money can be found in the county council’s budget and requires that they address the unfairness which has seen Crawley left with a small fraction of the number of road repair schemes compared to other parts of West Sussex.

It is not a guarantee that the Conservative administration at West Sussex (including my Conservative General Election opponent) will act, but if they refuse to do so it will be made clear where each of them stands.

So, please: