Highways ‘should be ashamed’

A campaigner trying to get bollards repaired and lighting at a site of recent crashes said the county council Highways department should be “ashamed” of its approach.

Rodney Sadd, of Carrington Road, Spalding, started the campaign to improve lighting at the B1172 junction to Spalding Common more than 20 years ago.

Mr Sadd revived the campaign after two bollards were obliterated last year. He is still waiting for the bollards to be replaced and has had a definite ‘no’ from the council regarding lighting. A date has now been promised for the repair, however.

A highways spokesman said: “In early June, we’ll be installing modern, high-visibility, reflective bollards, which do not require illumination. These provide a similar level of warning, but are less susceptible to damage and need less maintenance.

“The Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership has confirmed that previous accidents at this location have not been related to the absence of lighting, so the provision of street lighting as part of a safety scheme cannot be justified.”

However, Mr Sadd maintains the council shouldn’t be waiting for accidents to happen before they act.

He said: “It’s ok to quote statistics, but there have been many incidents that could have been more serious that have not been recorded.

“I thought the County Council would welcome a member of the public like myself that wants to work together to make things better and safer for all concerned.

“But from the onset I feel there has been too many hoops to jump through and these have been put there as a barrier.

“The Highways department should be ashamed of the service they have given me.

“It should not come to this just to get a simple task carried out.

“Going forward what about some preventative maintenance, or are we putting cost before people.”

Mr Sadd has lodged a formal complaint with the council and his concerns are currently at ‘stage two’ of proceedings, which results in an independent investigation.