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KENT COUNTY COUNCIL’S TORY SPIN MACHINE TAKES ITS TOLL ON THE FACTS
Ray Parker (Labour County Councillor for Northfleet & Gravesend West) has hit out at Tory Kent County Council for issuing another misleading press release about the Dartford River Crossing Tolls.
Kent County Council had been getting £1million in supported borrowing from the Dartford Tolls that it used for projects in the Dartford and Gravesham area. Last year to the amazement of both Officers and Opposition Members, Kent’s Tory Cabinet told the Government that it didn’t want the money anymore. Now the Government has withdrawn the offer this year, those same Councillors who refused the £1million are cribbing that they’re not being offered it again.
Ray Parker (Labour County Councillor for Northfleet & Gravesend West) said: “Keith Ferrin (Tory Cabinet Member for Highways) has been spinning the truth when it comes to Government spending in Gravesham. Last year he refused an offer of £1million from the Government that could have been used to improve Gravesham’s public transport system, now the Government has withdrawn the offer he’s complaining. I’m flabbergasted”.
Councillor Ferrin went on to suggest that the Government is moving highways cash away from Kent and that Gravesham will suffer.
Ray Parker went on to say: “Gravesham is suffering, Councillor Ferrin is quite right, but we’re suffering because he and his Tory friends are playing politics with our roads and pavements. While the Government, through the Highways Agency, is spending millions on moving the A2 away from people’s homes, and millions more on Gravesham and Dartford’s award winning Fastrack Bus Service he’s overseeing Kent Highways wasting millions on new offices and yet another reorganisation. People don’t want reorganisation; they want potholes filled, cracked pavements repaired and grass verges cut back”. The £1million refused by Kent’s Tories should have been used to upgrade Greenhithe Railway
Station, but plans were thrown into turmoil when KCC announced that it wasn’t taking the money. Thankfully the railway company stepped in and came up with sufficient funds to see through the Greenhithe Station refurbishment.
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