Streatham Road - missed opportunity

Cycling home last night, I spotted this sign at the end of my street:

Sadly odds on not to put in cycle lanes at the same time as resurfacing @MertonLibDems @Merton_Council pic.twitter.com/ennQUWw3CZ

— Jon Irwin (@Jon_events) October 21, 2015

From a glance this morning, Streatham Road has been re-instated to the original plans.

Every time that a road is re-surfaced like this, it is an opportunity to use latest best practise to improve safety. That requires that our local authorities have joined up thinking and are constantly learning and looking for ways to improve.

It was a suggestion that I made as part of this petition for Mitcham Lane which adjoins Streatham Road. At the last check, there is funding in the pipeline for Mitcham Lane to make the changes.

Would it not have made more sense to do improvements at the same time as the road was resurfaced last year?

I'm fed up with the council and councillors either complaining that they don't have the money, or they don't run the whole council to be able to make things happen. Clearly funds are tight. All the more reason to genuinely look holistically at how they want the area to be improved so that these limited funds can be targeted to get the best outcomes. No council can be all things to all people. The least we deserve is to be given clarity as to the real direction that our elected representatives want to head in.