Ravages of winter take toll on highways

THE INCREASE in extreme wintery weather conditions since November have had a “noticeably damaging effect” on roads across North Yorkshire, the country council has said.

Nearly 50,000 tonnes of salt have been spread over 7,000 gritting runs already this winter, exceeding the amount done in the whole of last winter, North Yorkshire County Council confirmed yesterday.

Weeks of plummeting temperatures, rain sleet and snow have seen the number of reported potholes, emergency pothole repairs and road conditions causing concern over last December and January more than double that of the same period last winter. It is now planning its spring season of road repairs.

The county council’s executive member for highways, Coun Don Mackenzie, said: “The deterioration is there for us all to see. Come the spring we will re-start our annual programme of maintenance and repair work when we can make inroads into the damage.

“The 2018 schedule of works includes again hundreds of roads which will be patched and dressed and others which will be planed off and completely resurfaced.”

Meanwhile, in London, all “non-essential” road improvements have been paused because of a lack of funding, City Hall has announced. It warned that the forthcoming loss of Transport for London’s operating grant from the Government would have “obvious consequences”.