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£10,000 - Steve Read (16th Sep 2005 - 19:23:16) Were my eyes playing tricks last week, in the Liphook Herald it was announced that the repairs to the pavement outside what used to be Coytes on the London Road was costing £10,000? Good work if you can get it! A couple of hundred slabs, a couple of ton of sand, 1 lorry, 1 van & 3 men. Anyone out there got Hampshire Highway & Byway's phone number, thinking of getting them round for a quote on my patio. Just put it on our community charge account.

Re: £10,000 - rob (18th Sep 2005 - 09:25:56) That's nothing compared to what Railtrack apparently paid to have the platforms at Liphook extended by a few feet. And the extensions achieved absolutely nothing at all! Why have we had so many water main ruptures in the village? There seems to be one running somewhere most of the time. It's as if the village was under pressure such that, when one hole is plugged, another one opens up somewhere else! Or is it that the maintenance guys (yes, it's always men) have found some failsafe way of ensuring a regular income without having to travel too far? Rob.

Re: £10,000 - Mike Grimes (27th Oct 2005 - 10:01:11) I notice that Headley Road is to get a Pedestrian Crossing (the ones that some motorists stop at at, as opposed to those Courtesy Crossings). This is presumably in place of the Lolipop Lady who would no longer work for £10 a day and Freddie who, presumably no longer, switches the orange lights on and off. Anyway, the cost of a few oblongs of white paint and a couple of orange lights (sometimes on - sometimes off) is reported to be £50,000 plus maintenance and running costs. Oh well, it's all work for the working man to do.

Re: £10,000 - Jane G (27th Oct 2005 - 10:54:04) And it's £50,000 well spent as far as I'm concerned...so many school children use that road every day and if it means that they can cross safely then it's well worth the cost.

Re: £10,000 - Ben Lawrance (27th Oct 2005 - 12:01:57) How much??? If anyone from the council is reading this, i'll do it for £30K. I've got some old paint brushes and light bulbs in the garage.

Re: £10,000 - Alex Cameron (29th Oct 2005 - 11:33:24) Interesting point this is. Where are the oversight procedures for local authority spending? In theory, we should be able to look at this ourselves and suggest alternative suppliers. I've seen first hand how the private sector's cavalier attitude to billing the public piggy bank - dollar signs in the eyes and so on. I knows its not as simple as that, but accountability would seem to be sorely lacking. I'm intrigued as to the costs involved here - can anyone could give us a ballpark rundown?

Re: £10,000 - Freddie Dawkins (30th Oct 2005 - 18:25:48) All here - All highways work is controlled by Hampshire County Council. Our County Councillor is Sam James, who's also Deputy Leader of East Hampshire District Council. Sam lives in Bramshott and can be contacted on 01428 723090. The Parish Council has a Highways,. Byways and Transport sub-committee, which meets once a month and is chaired by Cllr John Tough. John is a transport consultant. John lives at Griggs Green & can be contacted 01428 724492. Although the Parish does its best to have good relationships with both District and County Council, the area of local government, in my view, is a muddle. The County Council might schedule work more than a year in advance. If they forget to tell the Parish what's happening, or give us late notice, there's not a lot we can do to influence details. We have absolutely no say on costs. That's why I'm all for putting more power back to Parish and District Councils on issues such as Highways. Hope this helps. rgds to all Freddie Dawkins Parish Councillor

Re: £10,000 - Steve Read (31st Oct 2005 - 18:39:10) Freddie, With all due respect I know who our various councillors are and am not really concerned with the working relationship between the Parish Council and the County Council, as for things being in a muddle they have been in a muddle at Penns Place for a long time. How much did they have to pay back for the false develoment figures? (the money "fiddled" from central government). How many people were accountable for that fiasco. only the one who resigned? mmm! What I'am asking here is, someone somewhere within the vast grey area of officialdom must sit down and obtain tenders for the work specified, do they obtain numerous tenders for the same contract to compare prices? Do they award it to the cheapest ( I agree not always the best policy)? Or is it just submit the first figure that comes into your head because we know we will get the contract anyway? I am assuming here these projects are tendered to outside contract, or do the council use their own work force for this? Which ever way you look at it, this is a ridiculous amount of money, and while I agree with Jane G about the safety of our children, when next years community charge increase thumps itself on our doorstep I hope Jane remembers where all the money has "wisely" been spent.

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