John with (left) Gill Burton, chairman of Forsbrook Parish Council; Chris Snape, Forsbrook Parish Council clerk; Gail Edwards, District Partnership Officer and Bill Day

Pride of place goes to parish road scheme

I joined local member Bill Day in the Moorlands village of Forsbrook last week.

We met with members of the parish council in celebrating the success of a pilot called Parish Pride.

The Parish Pride initiative is all about giving the community the power to get road issues sorted. 

First of all, I know that people may say that the county council is the highway authority and this should be our job, and not the job of parish councils.

That is right, but our priority must always be road safety, and our budget is finitie. Parish Pride targets issues which are not directly safety-related but which are still of local concern.

The solution in Forsbrook was for Staffordshire Highways to provide a "Community Gang" of highways workers for a week, who followed the Parish Council's lead on what they wanted done.

Improvements made by the gang included replacing damaged street furniture and kerbs, replacing faded signs and, resolving small scale drainage problems.

Staffordshire Highways were also able to co-ordinate other planned activities during the week of the Community Gang visit and carried out patching of roads and replacement of faded road markings.

Parish Pride really has been a success in a number of different ways. Not only has it enabled more highways issues to be put right, but it has enabled the relationship between the parish, district and county council to be strengthened, which can only lead to more positive improvements for the area. 

I'm delighted to have celebrated this success with all those involved.

 

Page Last Modified: 24/10/2007 12:13:09

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