Put public safety firstCouncillor Aitken has made the following plea for the council to put public safety at the top of its priorities: I recently attended the half-yearly meeting of the Waltham Cross Community Safety Group. It was really heartening to hear the report of the local beat officer, PC Dean Perrett. Despite the problems we still face, crime in Waltham Cross has reduced in the past six months, and I offer my sincere congratulations to Dean and his colleagues. However many residents expressed their concerns on the total lack of progress in installing closed-circuit television, and in improving the lighting in the Monarchs Way underpass. We learnt from the Broxbourne Council officer that money has been earmarked for this from the developer payments from the Park Plaza site, but it will be well into next year or later before these vital improvements are implemented. This is an utter scandal. The borough has already received hundreds of thousands of pounds from this source already. With council bank balance surpluses in excess of £63 million, there is no excuse for not starting work immediately. Sadly the council would prefer to put £200,000 into re-paving around the Eleanor Cross, thousands into turning part of the Waltham Cross playing field into a car park, and similar amounts into tarting up station approaches, rather than preventing Waltham Cross residents from being mugged, raped or sexually assaulted in this dangerous underpass. The time has come for the Conservatives on Broxbourne Council to look at their priorities, and put public safety and community welfare before high profile headline grabbing projects. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the £1.4 million from Park Plaza is going to benefit nearly everyone except the people of the Cross. When will the council realise that a community hall (or two) is desperately needed. Far from advancing this need, they sit back and let the one remaining community building, Creasey Hall in Raglan Avenue, be demolished for further infill development that will only exacerbate the parking problems in that area. After seeing their environment destroyed by Murdoch's Monster on Park Plaza, and the overpowering warehouse at Fowley Mead Park, Waltham Cross council-taxpayers might well wonder what they have done to warrant the diabolical treatment they receive from this abject council. Malcolm Aitken
Labour gain an extra councillor as Tories and BNP fail |
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