Each time it rains heavily Rotten Row floods close to the boating lake. This has been going on for months. Its about time the council did something about it.

Rotten Row has been like this for the past four weeks. The speed of the Local Authority to sort it out has been mind blowing. Absolutely useless in the extreme.

Originally Posted by hja

Rotten Row has been like this for the past four weeks. The speed of the Local Authority to sort it out has been mind blowing. Absolutely useless in the extreme.

Before casting ill informed aspersions perhaps you should pause to consider this -

the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats made unprecedented and severe cuts to public funding. The ruling Labour Council rubber stamped and implemented those same cuts which, in turn, has led to commensurate level of service cuts.

The LA has no gully wagon to clear this and no budget to increase the level of service provided by the contractor currently carrying out gully clearing.

The water is doing very little in the way of harm and requires nothing more than a simple easing of pressure on the accelerator pedal to avoid any damage to a vehicle.
The pathways do not have a high level of footfall so the likelihood of pedestrians being harmed is negligible.

Given that other services will inevitably take priority, perhaps you'd like to suggest what the Council should not do, so that this relatively benign sheet of water can be removed.

In these situations you can almost guarantee some buffoon will have a cheap shot at those tasked with keeping Southport in as reasonable a state as is possible.

Originally Posted by gazaprop

Before casting ill informed aspersions perhaps you should pause to consider this -

the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats made unprecedented and severe cuts to public funding. The ruling Labour Council rubber stamped and implemented those same cuts which, in turn, has led to commensurate level of service cuts.

The LA has no gully wagon to clear this and no budget to increase the level of service provided by the contractor currently carrying out gully clearing.

The water is doing very little in the way of harm and requires nothing more than a simple easing of pressure on the accelerator pedal to avoid any damage to a vehicle.
The pathways do not have a high level of footfall so the likelihood of pedestrians being harmed is negligible.

Given that other services will inevitably take priority, perhaps you'd like to suggest what the Council should not do, so that this relatively benign sheet of water can be removed.

In these situations you can almost guarantee some buffoon will have a cheap shot at those tasked with keeping Southport in as reasonable a state as is possible.

That area never flooded before the field next Victoria park was raised to try to eliminate the toxic land so that it could be used as a caravan park. Although areas of it were concreted over there were no drains installed. Several people have complained about the amount of water that runs down to the park, to the children's playground and out on the road. It is quite possible that this water could wash the toxins from the field and spread them to the children's area and down on the road. That is probably why footfall is low in that area.

The flooding has nothing to do with cut backs. The council turned a public park over to the management of an agency, who has since allowed the owner of the Caravan park to use the land under an agreement for the park to be maintained. This has involved closing the public park to the public so that caravans can have the use of it on many occasions - to many complaints from the public.

The so called 'cut backs' that many refer to, imitating the local councilors - are a method adopted to prevent wasted money from councils who overspent the grants allowed them from government. Everyone is fully aware of the amount of money wasted by the council locally i.e. £50,000 for an agency to advise how Southport should be planned ( Why not just ask the people of Southport for no cost?) £65,000 to retrain road sweepers (Why - they had been doing the task for many years?) Councils now have to carry out their housekeeping more responsibly. The government do pay out money for emergencies but councils have to apply for it. Liverpool joint council has done so on several occasions and has been awarded £millions from the central Government - even though the toll roads bring in £milllions for the council every year.
The BBC reported:

"Knowsley Council said it paid £16.6m out of reserves to cover three years' worth of planned pension deficit payments in one go. It said the payments had been made in advance to save the council £1.8m and there was a "clear repayment plan in place". It added reserves were not being used to fund day-to-day services and were not running out."

Why is the land toxic?

What a truly pathetic excuse for a political statement and as usual you're practicing 'kitchen economics'!
If the drains are not cleared very soon ice will start to form in that area as the night time temperatures continue to fall. If it is left as you suggest, the stretch of road will be -
1. A hazard to pedestrians, cyclists (God forbid this should happen) and motorists increasing the risk of claims for damage / personal injury which wil further strain Council budgets
2. The road surface will start to break-down due to fracturing from ice creating a distinct hazard for all road users from flying grit / stones and increased risk of claims for damage / personal injury.... more cost to Sefton
3. The road will inevitably require re-surfacing far sooner as a result of the surface degrading far faster than it should....... even more cost to Sefton
4. If the road is resurfaced by the Council's usual 'hopeless' contractors the road surface will require relaying again and again and again......... a ridiculous waste of precious resources............
So by hiding behind a facade of 'budget cuts / no money / blame the Govt' your suggestion will cost far more in future years. Need I remind you it was the 'kitchen economics' mentality of the Blair / Brown years that put us in this mess in the first place!
Instead of whinging about budgets learn how to save unecessary expenditure and improve 'whole life cost' for the Council Tax payer......

Originally Posted by Tallboy

What a truly pathetic excuse for a political statement and as usual you're practicing 'kitchen economics'!
If the drains are not cleared very soon ice will start to form in that area as the night time temperatures continue to fall. If it is left as you suggest, the stretch of road will be -
1. A hazard to pedestrians, cyclists (God forbid this should happen) and motorists increasing the risk of claims for damage / personal injury which wil further strain Council budgets
2. The road surface will start to break-down due to fracturing from ice creating a distinct hazard for all road users from flying grit / stones and increased risk of claims for damage / personal injury.... more cost to Sefton
3. The road will inevitably require re-surfacing far sooner as a result of the surface degrading far faster than it should....... even more cost to Sefton
4. If the road is resurfaced by the Council's usual 'hopeless' contractors the road surface will require relaying again and again and again......... a ridiculous waste of precious resources............
So by hiding behind a facade of 'budget cuts / no money / blame the Govt' your suggestion will cost far more in future years. Need I remind you it was the 'kitchen economics' mentality of the Blair / Brown years that put us in this mess in the first place!
Instead of whinging about budgets learn how to save unecessary expenditure and improve 'whole life cost' for the Council Tax payer......

A typically stupid response with no solution offered - just a head in the sand refusal to acknowledge that the cuts really happened. Similar blinkered view on their effect on council responses.