Burnley Express letters | How has Extwistle Road saga been allowed to drag on this long?

Yet again our politicians have blamed a lack of funding for the inconvenience of residents.

The Todmorden/Extwistle Road saga goes on, with our LCC representative, Cosima Towneley all of a sudden taking charge of communication and announcing a further three months closure, which will in all probability go on for months longer.

This road has been left to rot and our councillor has not fought (well not within my listening ear) to have it resurfaced before it became undriveable. Coun. Towneley professes being depressed over the situation and says highways are scrambling for funding.

But like for MPs, there is always the funding to pay councillors healthy allowances for a role they volunteered to do and in many cases, are not qualified to do.

Basic rates for LCC representatives (and there are many of them) is over £11,000 per year and ones, like Ms Towneley, with special responsibilities, get £36,509; add on travel expenses and as said many times before, the voluntary role becomes a wage many in Burnley can only dream of.

And what will happen with devolution, more expense no doubt. The whole system needs looking at , parish councillors who give up their time, get nothing for serving their community. Yet, they too have to go to meetings, make hard decisions and take the flak from frustrated residents.

If we are to continue to pay for these high earners, we want at least value for money. Next May, the Burnley Rural ward on the county will be up for grabs, so we need a strong candidate prepared to fight for Cliviger, Worsthorne and Briercliffe. After all there are many roads and pavements which have been neglected and the villages, seem to be always left out, despite paying high council tax.

Instead of being depressed about what is going on, we need someone who is prepared to fight and to actual listen to residents, not play about at county hall.

And then we might just be able to go about our business and not have to take massive diversions, just to lead our normal lives.