County facing £150m backlog for fixing potholes
COUNCIL SAYS IT WILL MOVE FROM PATCHING UP PROBLEM ROADS TO LONGER-LASTING REPAIRS
BROKEN roads across Nottinghamshire will receive longer-lasting repairs as the county council seeks to chip away at a pothole backlog which could cost the authority roughly £150m.
On June 15 the county council’s transport and environment committee began a cross-party highways review, as promised by the new leader, Mansfield MP Ben Bradley, in the run-up to the most recent elections.
The county council says national funding levels for road maintenance have fallen by around 40 percent over the last decade and in Nottinghamshire the backlog of works required to fully address this “long-term deterioration” is now in the region of £150m.
A total of £24m has already been invested in thousands of repairs over the past three years.
A panel has now been set up and the review took place with assistance from external experts WSP as well as the Local Government Association (LGA).
A 12-page report has been produced with around 50 recommendations on how the council can change the way it works when it comes to maintaining and repairing roads.
This follows numerous panel meetings and a visit to the Bilsthorpe depot to see how everything currently works.
Committee chairman Councillor Neil Clarke, who also represents Bingham West, told the Post: “Having had all these meetings we have come up with some recommendations and need to emphasise these have been unanimously agreed by all members on the panel.
“We want to move from a oneyear investment programme to three years. That gives more certainty, long-term, not only for Via and the operator but also the public who can be informed and see when is their road going to be repaired, so they will know in the future when the repairs are likely to take place.
“We are recommending as well we have a right repair first time rather than having to do a repair and go back and maybe do it again later on. We want to move to longterm, permanent repairs and leave the short-term filling of potholes just for emergencies.”
While the council owns its roadworks contractor Via East Midlands, it is functionally separate, but new plans will open up a new operational hub to “better coordinate” maintenance and a “whole street approach” to repairs will be adopted.
Long-term repairs will involve a wider area or even an entire road surface being dug up and hot tarmac then being used to fix any defects.
Short-term repairs, where a pothole is filled with cold tarmac and packed out, will be left for emergencies only.
The council will also focus on “prevention rather than cure” while the unclassified road network, as well as footways and pavements, will be prioritised.
Councillor Clarke added: “We’ve a good reputation for repairing the major roads, but members of the public are looking out their front window at the unclassified roads that maybe the repairs are required, so we are going to place a greater emphasis on those.
“What we did see is we were not doing anything wrong, things were being done well, but perhaps we did not communicate that to the public. We need to manage expectations here. Hopefully when it is approved it does not mean the next morning instantly everything is going to be pristine and spotless – it is going to take time.
“But I hope that over a shorter period of time people will see more roads permanently repaired and less blockages of the gullies and better maintenance to prevent flooding.”
The last major investment in potholes by the council was the purchase of a Road Master machine, which cost £1.75m, and sought to repair roads more efficiently.
Councillor Clarke believes this was money well spent and the machine will still be of use in future plans.
“The machinery that we have got it doesn’t mean we are going to change that, we will just use them in a more efficient manner,” he said.
The highways review document will be reviewed on November 17.