Wokingham’s council leader has condemned comments about a controversial junction redesign as ‘appalling and unwarranted’.
Peter Harper told Wokingham Borough Council it had its ‘heads in the sand’ over the new California Cross in Finchampstead and compared the project to the ‘Post office Horizon scandal’.
The £5.5m revamp resulted in a unique colourful leaf design replacing the junction’s double roundabout, with the aim of making it more pedestrian-friendly.
Instead of zebra crossings, there are white painted leaves showing where people should cross via foot.
But the council has come under fire after rejecting a number of safety audit recommendations for the scheme, which included roundabout islands and ‘look both way’ signs.
Councillor Harper’s petition calling for safety improvements at the junction, signed by more than 1,600 people, was presented to the authority’s overview and scrutiny committee on March 4.
During the debate Cllr Harper made a comparison of this project to the Post Office Horizon Scandal, which involved thousands of innocent sub-postmasters being blamed for financial shortfalls caused by faults in the IT system.
The conservative member said: “I get a feeling of this as a sort of discussion the Post Office were having when the Horizon scheme was being discussed – everyone was raising concerns, we have the executive members waving the flag about how wonderful the scheme is, with their heads in the sand.
“I think we should be listening to the people who are using that scheme, we should be listening to the safety experts.
“We should make the change now.”
Highways officers assured Cllr Harper that no recorded accidents had happened at the junction since it reopened in September.
Following the debate, Leader of Wokingham Borough Council Stephen Conway said: “A conservative councillor made an appalling and unwarranted comparison between the California Crossroads scheme and the Horizon IT scandal.
“Conservative councillors’ comments went well beyond the line of what can be considered acceptable, even in the form of political grandstanding.”
During the debate, Cllr Conway said the plans – which date back to 2015, when the Conservatives were in power – had been treated with ‘incredible care and thoroughness’.
Highways officer Chris Easton said his team were monitoring the junction, and there was ‘nothing factual to demonstrate it’s not safe’.
Mr Easton said there had been no recorded accidents on the junction since it reopened six months ago, but if any accidents did happen, appropriate action would be taken.
Cllr Conway added officers ‘have safety as their primary concern’ and the junction will ‘continue to be monitored’.
