Roads finally on green for major repairs
Calderdale Council Cabinet has responded to the “lack of action” to fix the thousands of potholes blighting the area’s roads. Councillor Peter Caffrey who has Cabinet responsibility for economy, said: “There is a perceived lack of action by Highways and a view that repairs are taking too long.”
Major road repairs will cost the authority £2.3m to fill more than 1,000 potholes, reported by road users in 2014/15.
A Highways report put to Cabinet said a further £1,050,000 should be spent on general structural maintenance of carriageways, condition surveys, street lighting, stock maintenance and surface dressings at various Calderdale locations.
The report found the estimated cost of the backlog of essential and high priority maintenance work across Calderdale was £35m in April 2013 and year-on-year is increasing.
Major roadwork improvements to Southowram’s Law Lane/Bank Top and Cain Lane to Southowram Bank is estimated to cost £450,000.
Councillor Caffrey said Cabinet had inherited a “dysfunctional system” and a new reporting system with improvement to IT would be implemented.
“More than 15,000 calls reporting road problems were made to the council last year. It is hoped a long over-due system will deal with reports quicker and save a lot of staff time if the public are aware of the online fault reporting system.”
Councillor Caffrey also said different types of pot holes and in what weather conditions they can be repaired also explained the delay.
Councillor Janet Battye (Calder, Lib Dem) asked why six of the proposed schemes for maintenance repairs, including the A646 in Hebden Bridge, had been deferred.
Member of the public and Brighouse Road Safety Com- mittee member Pat Oates expressed her fury at Brookfoot Lane, Brighouse, not being scheduled for repairs.
Addressing Cabinet, she said: “The road is absolutely disgusting. I will keep coming here - the road should be on your list.”
Councillor Caffrey told her the matter was a “contentious issue” and that Cabinet would look further into the point she raised.