A1101 Black Spot

I FEEL that the drive of your article was a little unfair. In a couple of instances you talk about the Campaign Group for the A1101 Black Spot “battling the County Council” in order to get the safety measures implemented.

I am the county councillor for the division and I am have been working with the campaign group since BEFORE I was elected. I have been at almost all of those presentations, I have spoken at Parish Council Meetings, Public Meetings, as a member of the AJC Committee - and at Full Council meetings I raised the issue passionately and directly to the cabinet member for highways.

I believe that my interventions since I was elected last year as the area County Councillor are not insignificant in the final outcome. Indeed, it was one of the things I pledged I would do on the doorstep during my campaign to be elected and was an issue I pushed very hard until it was achieved. I am sure, if you ask the Action Group or of the officers involved, both parties will confirm this.

Now please don’t get me wrong - the campaign group have been fantastic and their hard work and perseverence deserves full commendation. But the flavour of your article which paints the County Council as the ‘opposition’ seems to ignore the fact that the local County Councillor is part and parcel of delivering the improvements that are desperately needed and that the county council have found �350,000 (during very tight fiscal conditions) to get the work done! This is a good news story of politicians and local people working successfully together and I’m not keen on the way your article seemed to present it in a quite different light.

This is the sort of thing that makes people sceptical of what their local councillors are doing on their behalf. And since I’ve worked long and hard on this - as I promised I would before being elected - I feel a little disappointed at what you’ve written.

CLLR STEVE TIERNEY

Via e-mail