LETTER: I will keep campaigning

I read with interest in the local press that South Holland has become the worst place to live.

It is time to stop pretending, with houses in the wrong place, a total lack of infrastructure, and eyesores that have been left to rot in our town for decades.

How can this be the pride of South Holland?

There have been promises coming from Springfields to come up with initiatives to improve the footfall in our market town linked to their expansion plans that will most likely get the approval they need to bring more big names into the outlet, but still we see no investment in the town centre.

Housing development is growing within the region of 12,000 new homes planned for the South East Lincolnshire over the next few decades. Population will increase as well as volumes of traffic on our crumbling rural roads.

Where is the infrastructure? Surely this has to be put in first and not be an afterthought. Our market town is under great strain now with little to offer the growing surroundings, what will it be like in ten years from now?

Our local authorities are letting us down with false promises. Whatever happened to the Better Spalding initiative, The Big Idea, Better Hall Place, and the Enough Is

Enough Campaign to rid our town of anti-social behaviour?

All these promises still undelivered with only the perception that things are getting better when clearly local people can see things very differently.

The county council claims to have spent £39m on roads over the last year, £4m on pavements and drainage, £1m on signage, £2.3m on grass cutting and other environmental works, not forgetting £2.9m on street lighting.

The ongoing problem is only made worst by the massive shortfall in funding from central government, with over £100m a year being lost every year. This makes a massive difference.

So let’s stop pretending here, local campaigns have failed, austerity is not over because central government refuse to implement a fair funding system for all.

Hundreds of millions are needed to bring our roads alone up to any standard, sticking plasters will not do.

Take the A16 and the B1166 Hull’s Drove, local people deserve better after years of patching this rural area up.

Yes, South Holland may not be the best place to live, but I was born here and I will keep campaigning for better things and live in hope that we can all work together to achieve this.

Rodney Sadd
Spalding