As residents will know the council has spent over £1,200 on van rental to block a hole following broken bollards at the entrance to Broadgate.
Conservative Councillor Tim Mayer raised questions a couple of weeks ago about why Coventry Council were spending this sort of money on van rental when there were better options available. Cllr Mayer has asked why temporary bollards were not used, the council stated they wanted a more flexible approach and protecting the public was the priority.
The bollards at the Trinity Street entrance of Broadgate were damaged in early July and, since then, Coventry City Council has used a van, now a car to block the access.
Conservative Leader Cllr Gary Ridley has now joined Cllr Mayer in questioning the approach.
Cllr Mayer has stated “This is load of Bollards and a Shower of delusion and confusion from the city services team. Just yards to the right of the gap currently blocked by a Prius, there is an equally as large gap which vehicles are using to get into Broadgate anyway.
This area had a missing Bollard before the auto-bollards were damaged. If protecting the public was really the priority we would have fixed this issue and saved rate payers money. Everyone knows the dangers and damage vans can do in the wrong hands. The cabinet member needs to step in and ensure all entrances are sufficiently blocked rather than wasting money blocking one entrance and then leaving other routes to Broadgate completely open by removing bollards!”
Cllr Ridley said “ Broadgate was pedestrianized meaning it should be protected from vehicle access bar a few exceptions. I appreciate the council is working on long term solutions but we must also have the correct short term one. What we have so far is not adequate. The Prius is left at times so that anyone can drive past. The Bollards at the other end of Broadgate are left down for long periods of time and now we can see that just to the right vans and other vehicles are accessing anyway due to a missing bollard”.
Surely we can do better than this and ensure all residents using Broadgate are protected in the correct manor while not wasting money on short term solutions that do not do the job required?