Road repairs by council ‘already gone to pot’
COUNCILLOR SLAMS CITY’S RECORD ON FILLING IN POTHOLES AS ‘NOT GOOD ENOUGH’
MANCHESTER council’s opposition has hit out at the city’s delayed road repair programme - branding much of the work already done ‘not good enough.’
Liberal Democrat opposition leader John Leech said most, if not all, the temporary repair jobs already carried out in his West Didsbury ward have had to be redone. He told the town hall executive: “Some of it has simply not been good enough.”
The M.E.N. reported last week how hundreds of potholes are currently being fixed late because councillors took so long agreeing the list of streets to be repaired last year, which, when combined with bad weather, meant much of the work could not be done until the spring.
But Coun Leech said even much of the temporary micro-asphalt repairs already carried out in his neighbourhood - particularly off Cavendish Road - have had to be done a second time following complaints from councillors or residents. He also accused the council’s highways department of ‘dismissing’ those concerns.
While he conceded that a report tabled by officers may be ‘statistically correct’ in arguing only 0.17pc of the road surface treated in the past year had then needed to be fixed a second time, he argued that did not give ‘the true picture.’
“Certainly in the West Didsbury ward, where we have had micro-asphalt surfacing put down, I think every single road that has had that thin layer of surface treatment has had problem with it,” Coun Leech said.
“So... if you look at the number of roads that have actually had problems - that have been resurfaced - I suspect the percentage would be exceptionally high.”
He added: “Highways have been very dismissive of complaints that have been made by members about the quality of the resurfacing work that has gone on. Some of it has simply not been got enough.”
Coun Angeliki Stogia, executive member in charge of roads, said the council had ‘acknowledged’ that ‘it was the first year of the programme and we had failures,’ adding were ordered to come back and redo the work ‘at no cost to the taxpayer and at no cost to the city council.’
She said there had been ‘quite a few complaints’ about the issue, but did not cite an exact figure. More ‘capacity’ is being brought into the council in the coming months to inspect the quality of repairs, she added.
At an executive meeting, the council signed off its list of road repairs for the next two years, admitting that around 300 jobs that should have been completed before April have overrun.
Acknowledging the delay, Coun Stogia said: “We have been busy all year round to deliver this work.
“Unfortunately, however, we have had a very bad spell of weather, which has delayed our ability to deliver.
“The other challenge we were faced with is that the programme of works was agreed quite late and this has also impacted in terms of the window of opportunity we have in order to deliver this work.
“As we know, we cannot deliver this work when the weather is bad. “In a nutshell, we have promised our residents we are going to spend investment on our roads in order to fix the problem and we are working hard to deliver that.”
Manchester council has pledged to spend £100m on highways repairs between now and 2022 and has now signed off work on nearly 500 individual pothole blackspots across the city, with a particular focus on ensuring major routes are up to scratch.
A list of what it calls its ‘community network’ - smaller roads it considers vital to local neighbourhoods - is also included.
Council leader Sir Richard Leese the estimated deficit on roads nationally was around £12bn. “This is not peculiar to Manchester,” he added. Coun John Leech