So what exactly is the aim of this publicity campaign and why is it necessary? Is it perhaps to convince us that the Council are doing a good job; if so why do they need to do this? This smacks of a gross waste of public money to me, particularly at a time when public expenditure is under severe pressure, and cuts are almost inevitable. How many council employees would this money have funded who might now lose their jobs?

This is scandalous! Whoever thought up this criminal waste of funds should be removed from their post as they are clearly not focusing on providing the services they are paid to do. Whoever approved it should have the money deducted from their grossly inflated salary.

Is it legal for councils to spend money in this way? They are spending our money to help them convince us that they are doing a good job! They clearly are not.

What the local Labour lot are forgetting is that the money from the project came central government and is not costing Southend council tax payers anything.

I would guess this £70K is all part of that grant as its all part of the project.

Nick wrote on Feb 23^rd, 2010 at 11:50pm:


Frankly, I don't care where the money is coming from; it is still a waste of taxpayers money. These BS signs which have sprung up don't communicate anything such as road closures essential works details, and as far as I can see are simply publicity.

How many people would £70,000 employ in essential services who might lose their jobs in the coming cuts?

Oooh! re my previous post, someone at the Council must have got up this morning and read it because on my trip through the town via Victoria Circus there they were, diggers, doing their thing on the roundabout.

I know the BS signs that have sprung up around the town don't look like much (I wonder what BS could stand for other than Better Southend????) but there are a few large 'artist impression' type boards showing what is supposed to be happening.

Having said that, I think if the money had been spent on something like electronic information boards on all the routes effected by the works which could be updated daily to inform people of any delays (there will be many) then the cost could be justified as 70K, in the scheme of things, and with the budgets being spent is a spit in the ocean. I think it is the lack of much evidence as to the spend is what miffs most people. This Council does like it's Artist Impression type displays for almost anything it does...I did hear they were commissioning an artist impression of what the Western Esplanade would look like without half the cliffs spread all over it. 

In a way and particularly in respect of Priory Crescent they are (the BS signs) like a flag of victory over the people who would like to see the established trees remain, which includes me. I don't see the Priory crescent scheme doing much good traffic wise (ditto Progress Road). The signs are the Council equivalent to a Tom cat marking it's territory. The results will be the same also, leave a stain on the town and a very bad smell. Maybe I have pushed the analogy too far? 

AP, the High Street paving scheme took about four times longer than scheduled, I think eventually it was about 3 years. Someone in planning came up with the wonderful idea to lay out a pattern using various different types of paving stones that looked very impressive seen from an ariel view but if your at ground level, you just experience different textures under foot. After fencing off large sections of the high street to carry out the works and leaving at times an area less than 2 metres wide for pedestrians, which to be honest is unavoidable if your intend to do these types of works, the work began. Small sections took months and many, after being completed, were dug up weeks later to be relaid. Other section were cordoned off only to remain unlaid for weeks on end with no work going on at all. The Council had employed the contractors from abroad to complete the works as they were specialists?

For a nice timeline of some of the problems have a look at the Echo archive

http://www.echo-news.co.uk/search/?page=0&searchpattern=southend+high+street+pav...

Have fun 

It never ceases to amaze me with so many of these projects that will require future excavations for works to the main services why with more thorough planning they couldn't have installed a central conduit system. All service could then have been laid within the conduit which could be accessed via removable sections of paving. That would then allow for 90 % of future services works to be carried out by lifting the 'paved lids', and then replacing them after works were completed, simple really and I am sure not beyond possibility today. Yes it would cost more initially but that cost would be repaid over and again when any maintenance was required over the years. Maybe it's just too simple?