LETTER: Are our councils most incompetent?

Do we have the most incompetent local and county councils in the land?

They have received massive grants for the so-called Spalding Western Relief Road.

How can any right minded person claim that two cul-de-sacs, approximately three miles apart can be classed as a relief road?

They claim to have held public consultations. Surely a consultation should consist of discussions between two or more parties, resulting in a satisfactory outcome for all involved.

The councils’ version of consultation is “this is what we intend to do and that is exactly what you will get”. What happened to democracy?

Why have sections one and five been positioned so close to South Drove Drain and Vernatt’s Drain when there is ample space available for them to be sited well away from both of the drains?

This can only have been done to enable the maximum amount of new housing to be crammed in.

Why do some of our councillors and council officers dance to the tune of the developers and what is their incentive to do so?

We also have the saga of Bourne Road – how can they treat the residents so diabolically?

They were unofficially told in February that their homes could be at risk. They were then left in limbo until October, before learning that their properties will most likely be the ones to be demolished.

Our totally inept county council highways department could not even get that right, leading some residents to believe via a letter that their homes were safe. Later that day the residents contacted the council by telephone to be informed that their houses could also be demolished.

Did the planners really consider other possible routes for the road or is that simply more “fake news”? Only they know the answer.

Why was planning permission granted for a pair of three storey houses on Bourne Road, which have only been occupied for two years and now will have to come down?

It would seem that there has been a major error here, especially as the chairman of SHDC planning committee also sits on the south east Lincolnshire joint strategic planning committee.

Perhaps at the time he had forgotten about these pipe dream plans for a relief road.

J Batterham
Spalding