They Blog For You

Potholes

We all hate potholes.  They're extremely hazardous to cyclists and motorbikes, damage cars and make our roads look ugly.  Bizarrely, they also seem to have replaced kissing babies as the 21st century politician's photo-opportunity of choice, as the very funny ‘Glum Councillors’ website shows…

So it is with a sense of foreboding that I launch my own 'fix our potholes' campaign.

The fact is they cause accidents and damage cars.  Which is why I'm disappointed Wandsworth Council seems to be doing so little to deal with the enormous number that have appeared on our streets in recent months.

The Council will try and fob residents off, telling us it's a national problem caused by the extended cold spell we've had, but the reality is that for years we have suffered the consequences of Wandsworth Council not maintaining our roads and pavements properly.  Indeed recently the Evening Standard reported that Wandsworth had the second highest number of pot holes in the whole of London, and that just 1 in 3 get fixed.

It’s time to show Wandsworth just how poorly they’re maintaining our roads, and get them to do something about it.

So please take 10 minutes from your day and:

• Take photos of potholes on your road.
  
  
• Upload the photos to my Facebook group or Flickr group.
  
  
• Tag the photos with the road name/location.
  
  
• Forward this email on to your friends and neighbours in the area.
  
  
• Send me your details if you wish to be included in any representations I make to Wandsworth Council.

Hopefully with enough evidence out there, we can embarrass them into taking some action and providing us with well maintained and safer roads.

MPs pay

Yesterday morning’s papers had a fair bit of coverage on the 1.5% pay rise that has been recommended for MPs by the Senior Salary Review Body.

Like last year, I won’t be accepting this pay-rise, or an increase in my Ministerial salary.

At a time when many people in Tooting and throughout the country are having to accept pay freezes I don’t think it’s appropriate for MPs to accept a pay-rise.

As a collective MPs need to rebuild trust in the political system, and cut the cost of ‘doing politics’ – I don’t think accepting a pay-rise at this moment in time would aid these causes at all.