I complained to the council about our dodgy pavements… but I could not believe their snarky reply

A MAN was furious after complaining to his council about dodgy pavements only to get a snarky response months later.

Wannabe councillor Finlay Gordon-McCusker, 20, moaned after he hurt himself on a footway.

But the Labour candidate was told to try to get more funding from the Government "instead of inundating an already overloaded system with more complaints".

Stoke-on-Trent council's full response said: “The footways aren’t in great condition and would be better if they can be resurfaced/reconstructed rather than small repairs.

"Mr Gordon-McCusker would be better served trying to get us more funding from Government so that we can do a better and proper job instead of inundating an already overloaded system with more complaints.”

Finlay fumed to : "I was so angry. I was really, really disappointed because whoever wrote it has 100 per cent brought politics into it by saying that about getting funding.

"At the end of the day, this isn’t about politics. This is about people in the area who have awful pavements.

"They can’t go out and walk their dogs, some people have told me, because they’re frightened of going out.

"They can’t ride their mobility scooters because of the state of the pavements.

"And the council is looking the other way - they don’t seem to care about getting it done.

"There shouldn’t be something where just because I wear a red rosette, what I report doesn’t get taken seriously. People frankly deserve better.

"Anyone who reports something to the council is trying to do their bit to make the place a little bit better.

"If I wasn’t standing to be a councillor, and I’d just seen something on my street, and I had received that response, I’d never want to report anything again.

"And that’s how we get to this state of things not getting picked up and the city just becoming a worse place to live."

Labour group leader Jane Ashworth added: “I’ve never seen anything like this.

"No wonder people have lost confidence in the council. How many more residents have been insulted in this way?"

A council spokesman said: “We apologise to Mr Gordon-McCusker for the reply he received and we are looking into this incident to ensure that it does not happen again.

"We always welcome reports of highways defects from anyone living inside or outside the city and expect our employees to respond with the upmost professionalism.”