• IN the middle of a climate crisis and funding crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic Camden Council seems to be wasting huge amounts of money on unnecessary road and pavement works.

This is money that could be far better spent on other things and the carbon footprint for these works will be enormous.

The junction of Cantelowes Road and Agar Grove has just had nearly 2,000 sq m of footway replaced to deal with 10 sq m (council supplied figures) of slightly defective slabs.

Instead of just lifting and relaying the few slabs that have shifted out of position they have replaced all 1,910 sq m of them.

That is about 100 tonnes of concrete with a carbon footprint of 15 tonnes. To put it into perspective that is equivalent to someone driving some 200,000 km (c 125,000 miles) or 40,000 local journeys.

It does make a bit of a joke of Camden’s desire to restrict car usage when the carbon footprint of their unnecessary works is so huge.

Then there is the money wasted on this work, which could be far better spent helping the issues that the most vulnerable are now having with fuel poverty or the National Health Service.

To make matters worse the council is about to resurface the whole of Cantelowes Road when (again using council-supplied data) only a small section – 15 per cent – is in need of repair.

Cantelowes Road is a very quiet street with no through-traffic. Most of the road is completely fine. I can only assume that no real consideration was given to alternative, lower-cost, solutions.

I get the need for maintenance and I understand that pavements and roads need to be kept in good condition, but prioritise the areas that need it and don’t waste money on excessive refurbishment when lower-cost repairs will do, especially when the carbon footprint is so high.

As it stands the only people that are benefiting from this are the big construction companies that actually do the work.

Just because you have a budget to spend does not mean you have to spend it foolishly, which is what I think is happening here.

JASPER WARWICK, NW1