I have received this note from the county council. There are various reasons cited for the promised work not being done – the last and least acceptable is the state of play in relation to the development on the former Oaklands College site. If the developers decide not to proceed further because of economic conditions then Lemsford Road will remain unsurfaced indefinitely in direct breach of the commitment given to residents.

This shows that the County Council continues to be TOTALLY UNTRUSTWORTHY.

Note from Herts County Council

There are two phases of works required:

Phase 1 – Pre-patching works to correct the worst defects and reshape certain areas of road. These works should now be clear to proceed and are looking to programme them in Jan or Feb ’10. These works are not dependant on the utility connections to the site being completed and can therefore proceed.

Phase 2: Ralumac (heavy duty micro asphalt) surfacing to the whole road.

These works can only proceed once the utility connections are done to avoid the new surface being dug-up although the connections only affect the last section of the road (about 1/4).

There is a suitable programme of Ralumac provisionally planned for March 2010 in which this could be included although details and dates are still to be confirmed.

If the connections are complete by then we would complete the Phase 2 works on the whole site.

If there are still outstanding works to connect to the development we would surface the majority of the road in March and return to do the last section in the following FY once the utility works were out of the way.

There are, however, a number of circumstances beyond our immediate control that need to be flagged up as potential risks to this timetable:

Weather: Severe weather, such as snow or prolonged heavy rain, is always a risk in the last part of the year and may cause programmes to slip. In particular Ralumac is a weather sensitive process (although less so than some similar processes) which is one reason why this aspect is programmed for March rather than January to February. However an extended period of bad weather could cause the works to slip.

Furthermore Ralumac is a proprietary material meaning that we depend on the availability of the specialist contractor.

The development: while the above plan is based on our latest best information, the development has been on/off for a while as a result of economic conditions. It is possible that something further may change to complicate matters