PPPS Priory Park Preservation Society
13th February, 2006

In response to the Echo's piece Most Expensive Road in World?

Dear Sir,

Whilst it is very welcome news for Southend that parliamentary questions are being asked about the spiralling costs of the Priory Crescent widening scheme, it is important to remember that Southend Borough Council still supports it. David Garston has once again made that perfectly plain.

What makes me so angry is that it was perfectly obvious 5 years ago that this was a stupid scheme. Those of us who fought against it from the beginning took a fair few personal risks, two of our number being taken to court on a spurious charge for their efforts and others of us being investigated by the police for no good reason. It was made plain to us at a Council Cabinet meeting in March 2002 by the former Town Clerk Krawiec that the Council would press for full and punitive costs should we risk a court case against them.

Meanwhile, as the scheme struggles in its death throes, Councillors are still in support of it, quite prepared to waste millions of public money in pursuit of a scheme which no-one wants and which would do nothing to solve the Town's traffic problems. If there were any justice in this world, those Councillors and officials who argued the case for this scheme should be made to pay out of their own pockets for all costs incurred to date, including the cost of the Public Inquiry. Howard Briggs, Roger Weaver, Charles Latham, Jorge Krawiec, David Watts, Anna Waite, Brian Kelly and David Garston should all be made to pay. Of course, that won't happen: the Council Tax Payers of Southend will all pay for the irresponsible bunch that call themselves Southend Borough Council.

Yours faithfully,

Peter Walker
Chairman, Priory Park Preservation Society

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