Liberal Democrat councillor David Franks is saying “Happy Birthday” to the hundreds of cones at the bottom of Eaton Green Road. But he is not celebrating. He wants to know “Will they still be there next year?”

In spite of probing questions at the East Luton Area Committee meeting on Tuesday 8th January 2008 residents are no nearer to knowing when the hundreds of cones at the bottom of Eaton Green Road will be removed.

A representative of the contractor responsible for the long running saga, Birse Civils, attended the September meeting and said the work would be finished by December. Now he gave yet another promise, this time that the job would be completed in ‘the Summer’ – more than two years after it was started.

“How long has the festoon of cones been in place? So long most of us cannot remember what life was like without them.” says Liberal Democrat councillor David Franks.

“It’s now more than 18 months, and the best they can say now is they’ll be there for another seven months. The M1 is being widened in less time than it’s taking to deal with this little roundabout.”

“Meanwhile, it is actually quite dangerous. You have to be very careful as you approach the roundabout because the painted lines on the road conflict with the rows of cones. It is very confusing. I am told the contractor is not getting on with the job because they are in dispute with the Council. If this is so then they should be seriously embarrassed. But in the end it is a major safety issue and it is the thousands of people who use the roundabout every day who are put at risk. If this is an example of how well councillor Worlding is monitoring progress on big money highway projects then we should all be worried.”