Beware Tory spin

The Conservatives are distributing leaflets which blame the Lib Dems and the Residents' Party for the state of the borough's roads.

Let's be quite clear about this. The Conservatives are in control of Surrey County Council, the highway authority. Surrey County Council has delegated responsibility for roads in Epsom and Ewell to a Local Committee (made up of Lib Dem and Residents' Party councillors) which is funded and staffed by Surrey County Council. Surrey County Council made a third of all highways staff redundant last year and are now having to recruit staff. The number of highways staff assigned to Epsom & Ewell was reduced by around 50%. There is an estimated 20 year backlog in maintenance to Surrey roads. Surrey County Council underspent its budget for roads in 2006/7. Surrey County Council moved all Epsom & Ewell's highways staff to Leatherhead at the end of July which meant contact with them was impossible for three months. It is still virtually impossible to contact anyone directly about roads - telephone messages and e mails are not acknowledged.

The Conservatives are highly skilled at blaming others for their mistakes. Like the one about council tax in Kingston being unacceptably increased under Lib Dem control. In fact, the dates their literature referred to included years when the Tories themselves were in control and was cleverly worded to mislead.

One can tell that an election is looming but blaming the Lib Dems and Residents' Party for the state of our borough's roads? Not acceptable.