Councillor angry as Colchester butchered tree work cancelled.

A COLCHESTER councillor is seeking cross-party support to give county members more ability to scrutinise Essex Highways after a city road resurfacing project was cancelled for the second time.

The saga on Beche Road began in February, when trees were “butchered” ahead of scheduled resurfacing, with branches trimmed solely along the roadside and overgrown foliage facing residences left alone.

After months of misunderstanding about who was to blame, Essex County Council ultimately confessed in August that it had done the tree work.

But, just as the issue looked to be solved, councillor Lee Scordis discovered that Essex Highways had cancelled the resurfacing work for the second time, with no contact to homeowners or their representatives.

Speaking this week, Mr Scordis stated, “It is still not finished. It appears that Essex Highways has become a law unto itself. The latest failure prompted him to write to all Essex County Council backbenchers, requesting a new mechanism to hold the roads department accountable.

“I’m fed up with Essex Highways’ serious and repeated failures, and the Tories sweeping it all under the carpet,” said Mr Scordis, who represents Old Heath and the Hythe for Labour.

“When I report to Essex Highways as a councillor I am just ignored, and there’s no rectifying of it.” In his letter, he wrote: “As it stands, no mechanism permits county councillors to report bad or incomplete work, or cases of major failure by the Highways department.

Instead, we have a single committee that reviews broad strategy but not individual flaws.”

The councillor stated that current procedures render elected representatives impotent. “Then I have to go back to the residents and apologise, but there is nothing we can do.

So highways have become a law unto themselves. He wants backbench councillors to have “the opportunity to scrutinise schemes in their division where there are clear failings.”

Mr Scordis stated, “So far, all Labour councillors have responded to me in support. So far, one of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats has responded, proposing that I take it up with one of the committees to see if we can get things moving. So that is all of the 72 ward councillors out there.”

A Colchester councillor is seeking cross-party support to give county delegates more ability to examine Essex Highways after the controversial Beche Road project was cancelled for the second time, leaving people waiting for promised work.

The saga began in February, when trees were “butchered” ahead of scheduled resurfacing, with branches trimmed solely along the roadway and overgrown foliage facing residences left alone.

After months of misunderstanding over who was to blame, Essex County Council revealed in August that the substandard tree work was done.

On August 28, Councillor Lee Scordis revealed that Essex Highways had cancelled the resurfacing work for the second time without communicating with residents or their representatives.

This week, Councillor Scordis confirmed, “It’s still not done. It seems to be Essex Highways has become a law unto itself.”

The latest failure prompted him to write to all Essex County Council backbenchers, requesting a new mechanism to hold the roads department accountable.

“I’m fed up with Essex Highways’ serious and repeated failings and the Tories sweeping it all under the carpet,” said Councillor Scordis, who represents Old Heath and the Hythe for Labour.

“When I report to Essex Highways as a councillor I am just ignored, and there’s no rectifying of it.”In his letter, he wrote:

“As things stand, there is no system in place for county councillors to report bad or unfinished work, as well as major failures by the Highways Department.

Instead, we have a single committee that reviews broad strategy but not individual flaws.” The councillor stated that current procedures render elected representatives impotent. “Then I have to go back to the residents and apologise, but there is nothing we can do.

So highways have become a law unto themselves. He wants backbench councillors to have “the opportunity to scrutinise schemes in their division where there are clear failings.”

In response to the letter, Councillor Scordis states, “So far, all of the Labour councillors have written to me in support.

So far, one of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats has responded, proposing that I take it up with one of the committees to see if we can get things moving.

So that is all of the 72 ward councillors out there.” The scenario on Beche Road epitomises the issues raised by Councillor Scordis:

badly conducted preparation work followed by repeated cancellations with no communication, leaving homeowners frustrated and their concerns unmet.

“It’s all about political will and the fact is we are here because cabinet members in the highways department have failed,” he told us.

A representative for Essex Highways responded: “In February, tree work was done on Beche Road in Colchester to prepare for machine surfacing. Unfortunately, the surfacing has to be postponed to relieve congestion on the adjacent road network.

At the time, utility companies were performing a lot of emergency repairs in Colchester, in addition to a massive infrastructure remodelling exercise.

“Due to a sudden malfunction in one of our suppliers’ material batching facilities, the Beche Road works have been rescheduled until November on short notice.

“We completely understand the frustration at these unexpected delays and are committed to completing them as soon as possible.”

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