I am going through the Budget and Performance Committee papers for this Wednesday (7PM Hendon Town Hall) and looking at the business planning report, which is pre-decision scrutiny on the budget. There are plenty of goodies, but it's in the residents perception survey that something very interesting crops up.
Top of the worries were crime, and I have written before about the shambolic and incompetent performance of the Mayor of London in regard to his crime strategy.
Second was an issue I have raised many times before, which is the state of roads and pavements. I find this fascinating. As we know, the funds available to fix them has been badly hit by the Tory Parking policy omnishambles of 2012. Residents are more and more worried about pavements, because they can see the Council just aren't interested in them.
Apparently, the Council have a target of 90% of all potholes being made safe within 48 hours of reporting from members and residents. How many of you recall my article about the chasm in the middle of Beresford Road when I first started this blog? Making safe is not the same thing as fixing, which is thier statisticl flexible friend. The survey (on page 57 of the BPOSC papers) says "[repair rates for potholes] were not of good quality and damage soon reappeared" wich was exactly the point I made, especially in relation to the large boulder that came loose on Market Place.
Residents also raised concerns about the scarcity of grit. I have been concerned about this in hilly areas, where icy pavements can really do damage.
There are many interesting things in these reports, and I will report more on them after I raise them at the meeting. I would reccommend these fascinating papers for all to read if they want to know what people really think.
You can read all 243 pages of the report here. It's a large file though, so not sensible to open on some computers or on mobiles.
