This meeting was in fact a waste of time.  There is already a Kingsway Group, consisting of QUVL, Kingsway Residents Assoc., County Councillors, City Councillors, Parish Councillors, Council officers etc.  That groups meets every quarter and has been working hard to bring these issues to light and work through them.

This group was initially formed by the County and City Councillors and brought the right people together to discuss and move things forward in an open and honest way.  It is an insult to the local Councillors that the MP thinks he can call a quick meeting of similar people and claim to solve all the issues in one shot.  It is because of the hard work and effort of the already established group that there has been the progress to date and that the adoptions are now happening.  Everyone recognises that it is later than we would have liked but it is due to hard work over a period of time that things are moving on, and while progress has been slow, there has been progress which was clearly evident at the last Kingsway Public meeting that I ran in November.

It is also a shame that he has gone out of his way not to invite the Parish Council. They have Councillors with a lot of experience in Kingsway Matters.  Myself and the City and County Councillors have worked very hard over the issues here in a true cross party basis, and it is clear that the MP has more eyes for the political headlines rather than rolling up his own sleeves, or even listening to his own elected representatives who have been around the issue for a lot longer than he has.

It is an emotive issue for me, not only for the way that he has just gone for the glory shot, but also the fact that he is doing down the good work of Jackie Hall, Debbie Llewellyn and Fred Wood, who have worked hard alongside me for the Kingsway Area.  He obviously had not asked, or taken on-board the work that has already gone on.