Earlier this week, a number of constituents contacted me to query why a section of the pavement in Shaftesbury Road has been dug up and is being resurfaced - see right.
Its a reasonably short length on the south side. The City Council has advised me:
"This senior engineer who visited the Shaftesbury Road yesterday has advised that this section of footway was identified as the only granolithic concrete constructed section of footway on Shaftesbury Road and had been highlighted from inspections as being in poor condition and requiring upgrade."
No-one is more keen than myself to see the many poor conditioned pavements in the area upgraded, but as constituents have pointed out, the section of pavement here really wasn't in that poor condition at all when compared to many other stretches of footpath and there are numerous worse conditioned pavements in the immediate vicinity and in the wider West End. The Community Council Chair who lives in the street made exactly the same valid point at West End Community Council's meeting earlier this week.
The constituents who have contacted me have made the point that, in times of limited budgets and many priorities, it is important that the worst-conditioned pavements in the West End are tackled.