Gully cleaning promises not fulfilled?

Councillor Ashley Dearnley

Rochdale Council Conservative leader, Councillor Ashley Dearnley, took the Lib Dem council to task at tonight’s (Wednesday 22 July) full council meeting for what he called “failed promises”.

Councillor Dearnley was referring to the Lib Dem promise to clean every gully in the Borough, a promise vociferously made 12 months ago by Lib Dem Councillor Peter Rush and touted as a “flagship” policy.

Councillor Dearnley said there are still gullies that have not been cleaned and this, he said, was indicative of the Lib Dems not fulfilling promises made to the people of the borough.

Leader of the Lib Dems and the Council, Councillor Alan Taylor, refuted Councillor Dearnley’s accusation and said he is "proud" of the progress made to date. He said: “There will always be some gullies missed, for example, due to a car being parked over them at the time, however, when these are brought to the council’s attention they are quickly sorted.”

Councillor Taylor also cited recent heavy thunderstorms and pointed out that previous problems of flooding in parts of the borough, due in part to blocked gullies, had not occurred, and this he considered to be a measure of the success of the gully cleaning scheme.