THE Liberal Democrat county council faction has launched an astonishing attack on their Conservative counterparts, claiming the county's highways department is in a state of disarray. Understaffed, unfit for purpose and underspending on the county's roads to the tune of £5.2m, the no- holds-barred broadside was fired by the Lib Dems, who claim the county's much-maligned roads are being neglected. Citing underspending for the third year in a row - this time to the tune of £5.2 million - the Lib Dems have slated last year's decision to cut Highways staff by a third, thus paying millions in redundancy payments. The scathing attack was fired by Horsell councillor John Doran, who learned of the figures at a Transport Select Committee meeting last Thursday, with the publication of the outturn numbers for the year 2006/7. "You couldn't make this up," he snorted, "it is beyond satire." "The excuse given for most of the underspend was 'a loss of key design staff and vacancies'. Surely this is not the same council that spent most of last year cutting the staffing of the highways department by a third and paying millions in redundancy? "Meanwhile, new bridge schemes have slipped for the second year and important road improvements for Waverley, Woking, Elmbridge, Mole Valley and Surrey Heath have not been delivered. Never mind though; we saved £325,000 on the set up of the Transport Co-ordination Centre (TCC)." Endorsed by Surrey County Council's (SCC) executive in October 2004, proposals for the TCC were backed by all parties. Designed to be cost effective - Lib Dem figures say a 10 per cent saving on a budget of £45 million - the scheme brings other benefits. These include improved public transport, and a co- ordinated, more efficient and centralised system, dealing with all transport in the county, ranging from school rounds to hospital transport for the elderly. "If the council had got its act together and saved nearly £5m on the TCC and it had managed to spend the money it should have done, then £10 million more would have been spent on Surrey's creaking transport infrastructure without a single penny of extra council tax," added Mr Doran. Continuing on the offensive, Mr Doran also proposed further urgency surrounding the development of the TCC at Tuesday night's executive meeting. In a press release, issued before the meeting, Mr Doran commented: "Unfortunately the council has wasted millions in pursuing the infamous Business Delivery Review (BDR), rather than focusing on a project that saves up to £5 million and delivers improved services. Instead, they put all their efforts into the BDR, which has in many cases resulted in destroyed services. "Officers spent two years getting everything in place to have the necessary software to run the TCC only to be told that they could not proceed because this now did not fit the procurement process laid down under BDR. Because the service is very much concerned with co-ordinating school journeys it is now too late for the year 2007/8 and will therefore not come into force until 2008/9, four years after first getting the go ahead. What a diabolical waste of taxpayers' money." But this was also not the extent of Mr Doran's ire with the highways department. "It is a joke. You almost couldn't make it up. They have reorganised the highways department four times since I've been there and that was two years ago. "A third of the staff were made redundant last summer, and since the launch of the new plan in April, they are having to recruit a bunch of other people. It is unbelievably incompetent and stupid. "And we have got to do something about the contractors. Last year they ripped us off to the tune of £1 million. "And now it has got to farcical levels. When the contract went to Ringway and Corillian, all of the SCC guys who inspected roads and decided what needs to be done were contracted to Ringway and Corillian. And we are in the process of taking them back. I feel embarrassed about this - when I tell people about it, they think it's a joke." Conservative factions were understood to be equally scathing of the attack, citing it as "absolute nonsense," believing the TCC to be in perfect health. However, despite numerous calls to Farnham county and borough councillor, David Munro, SCC's executive member for transport, and Surrey's Conservative Association, no official comment was received before going to press.
