The State of Castle Point's Highways

It will not come as a surprise to anyone using Castle Point roads to be informed that our highways are in a shocking state.

Essex County Council have the responsibility to maintain our highways to a safe and acceptable level, and we learnt in December 2022 that their strategy is to provide a ‘managed decline to our roads’. The value of annual deterioration, is modelled at £77.7m per year across Essex. This is compared to Essex County Council’s investment of £36.675m per year to fix those wear and tear issues such as potholes.

ECC have also decided to halt funding of the Highways Rangers – who carry out cleaning and minor repairs on road signs and bollards, trim vegetation to improve the visibility of signs and ad hoc grass cutting and strimming of highway verges.

PIP do not believe these decisions are acceptable, and that we should not just put up with road users safety being compromised. We have tried to lobby ECC councillors on this matter via our party's local councillors, but as we do not yet have any ECC councillors of our own we find a limited response.

PIP will be fielding candidates in the next Essex County Council elections in 2025.

If you care about the state of our roads we would urge you to report issues to this ECC highways link

Tell us - Essex County Council (essexhighways.org)

Also inform your Essex County Councillor for your area;

Hadleigh

Councillor Mrs Jillian Reeves: Conservative Party

Email: cllr.jillian.reeves@essex.gov.uk

South Benfleet

Councillor Andrew Sheldon: Conservative Party

Email: cllr.andrew.sheldon@essex.gov.uk

Thundersley

Councillor Beverley Egan: Conservative Party

Email: cllr.beverley.egan@essex.gov.uk

If you are unsure which of these is your councillor please use link below to search by postcode

Councillor Search (essex.gov.uk)

And lastly please copy our Castle Point MP, Rebecca Harris who should be on our side fighting for the correct level of money from the UK Government to fund our local services.