Chairperson, Laurence Brass: I invite Councillor Beth Kelly to move the last motion up on today’s order paper.

Cllr Beth Kelly: Thank you very much, Mr Chair. I am bringing this motion today about unadopted roads to this full council to shine a light on a very long-standing and frustrating issue that has been affecting residents across Hertfordshire, but particularly in Salisbury Village in Hatfield.

These unadopted roads, while used daily by residents who pay council tax and estate management fees, remain in a kind of legal and practical limbo. The result is that they suffer from fly-tipping that is not removed, vegetation that is not maintained, neglected social spaces, anti-social behaviour, and a lack of enforcement. This leads to problems not only with lighting, which affects safety, but also infestations of rats.

When residents ask for help, they are often told that nothing can be done because it is private land, or that it is not our problem but another council’s problem. What this has resulted in is twenty years of residents feeling that they are living with rubbish and being totally neglected.

What is worse is the absence of a clear process or timeline for road adoption. This means that residents are left asking who is responsible for these roads and when the issue will finally be resolved.

I have brought this motion today because, since being elected to this council and even before during my campaign, there was nothing I heard about more often than the problems linked to these unadopted roads in Hatfield. These roads have been an issue for over twenty years.

Over the last two weeks, however, we have finally started to have meetings to solve the problem. On Friday, some of the fly-tipping was even collected, which was fantastic progress. But to make that happen, I had to involve Andrew Lewin, our local MP. I worked with the County Council, the Chief Executive of the Borough Council, the Leader of the Borough Council, Max Holloway, and Councillor Jane Notamani, whose ward it is. We also had the Environmental Health Officer from the borough, local police, at least five County Council officers, and four officers from Taylor Wimpey.

It took all of those people and all of that coordination to get some action over the last two weeks.

If it takes that many people that long to achieve something, then there must be something wrong with the system we have in place. That is why I am bringing this motion now. If it takes this much effort to get something sorted for our residents, then we need to acknowledge that the system is not working and it needs to change.

I am asking the council to look at its processes and consider how roads might be adopted more efficiently so that we can improve the services we provide for our residents, especially the long-suffering residents of Salisbury Village in Hatfield.

Thank you.

Chair: Thank you, Councillor Kelly.