A HASLINGDEN pensioner has put a series of pictures showing his town’s grot spots online – and sent a link to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Leonard Wells, 68, of Rudd Street, Haslingden, has titled his slideshow album 3rd World UK?
He is inviting anyone concerned about the state of the town to take a look at it on his blogsite http://sirleonard.vox.com/
He told the Free Press: ‘I am hoping to embarrass the government into cleaning up this appalling mess.
‘What is worse is that here in Haslingden we pay more than twice as much council tax as properties in the City of Westminster and we get vastly inferior services. I pay £1,012 for my band A property; in Westminster I would only be paying £458.’
Mr Wells’ complaints include: the number of potholes in streets; double yellow lines being broken and unenforceable; a lack of gritting; litter and fly-tipping; dangerous pavements; overgrown and dirty alleyways.
Mr Wells added: ‘If you think that Britain is a very advanced, fair and beautiful place in its entirety, you would be very mistaken. Take a peep at my Smilebox slideshow; click on the photo on the right marked 3rd World UK?’
The Free Press contacted County Councillor Bob Wilkinson to get his views on Mr Wells’s blog.
‘I agree these are bad,’ he said of Mr Wells’ pictures.
‘I would like to thank Mr Wells for highlighting this.
‘We don’t have people checking every street and if other people have concerns they should contact their county councillor or local councillor.’
He said had passed the information on to highways engineers, asking for reports, particularly into the pavement problems, and would monitor what progress the county council made.
He pointed out that the county council had spent £1.4M on Rossendale’s roads in the 2007/08 financial year and would have spent £2.7M by the end of 2008/09.
At Rossendale Council, Councillor Peter Steen, Cabinet portfolio holder for environmental services, also thanked Mr Wells for bringing the matter to light.
He said of the slideshow: ‘I will print it out and present it to officers and also discuss the matters with the county council to make sure we get to it as soon as we can.
‘If people have issues they should bring them to the attention of their local councillors so we can act on them.’