County deluged by potholes with 200 filled in daily (From Worcester News)
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Harsh winter weather has wrecked Worcestershire's roads
5:11pm Tuesday 5th March 2013 in News By Tom Edwards
Potholes are springing up all over Worcestershire
AROUND 200 potholes are being repaired every day across Worcestershire after the harsh winter battered county roads.
Snow, ice and rain has wrecked large swathes of the highways network, leaving a spate of ghastly holes and cracks for drivers to negotiate.
New figures show the county council has repaired 4,294 potholes since the turn of the year, with workers dealing with 200 daily.
Bosses say the cold weather since last November led to “an inevitable increase” in defects, particularly in rural areas where freezing temperatures have been fairly common.
Despite the dispute with Mr Jones, they are appealing for more residents to report potholes as and when they are found.
The authority says more and more people are using an app and the council’s website to pass on details of defects.
Councillor John Smith, the cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “The weather conditions this winter have certainly brought some challenges and pothole numbers are higher than the last couple of years.
“Unfortunately, this is inevitable but it's really good to see how many people are taking the time to let us know when they spot a problem.
“I'd like to thank everyone that's been in touch and encourage residents to continue to let us know of any issues.
“The crews are working really hard to fix things as quickly as they can - the sooner they are reported, the sooner they can be fixed.”
The vast majority of the repair work is permanent, as opposed to controversial surface dressing, which is only temporary.
As your Worcester News first revealed in December, the Government has awarded County Hall £3.2 million over the next two years for repairs.
Bosses have also earmarked an extra £500,000 towards roads maintenance from the in-house budget for 2013/14, after consultations revealed the public believe it should be the second biggest priority behind social care.
People can log on to www.worcestershire.gov.uk/reportit or ring 0845 607 2005 to report a pothole.
Residents can also download a free app for iPhone and Android Devices, which can be found via the app store or on Google Play.
Related article: The £165 pothole - Norton driver's battle for compensation
Comments(10)
Landy44
says...
6:11pm Tue 5 Mar 13
lowlybarnacle
says...
6:23pm Tue 5 Mar 13
Sorry if I've missed something obvious but what does this line in the article refer to??
Also, worth mentioning that (at least around Worcester) it's the same potholes that are repaired and then decay again soon after.
Hopefully the council doesn't pay the private contractor more than once to repair each pothole? Otherwise it's in the contractor's interest to do a poor job that won't last...
grumpy woman
says...
8:07pm Tue 5 Mar 13
Carry on Highways. There are many more potholes out there. Well done for those repaired so far.
CJH
says...
8:50pm Tue 5 Mar 13
.
And we're about 50 working days into the year and they say they've already done 4294 potholes this year. That's only 85 a day, not 200. No wonder the council is in trouble if this is the sort of calculations they're using. And did no-one proof-read this article and think to query it? And lowlybarnacle is right - just who the heck is Mr Jones?
Ms Honey
says...
11:53pm Tue 5 Mar 13
Jay1981
says...
12:48am Wed 6 Mar 13
Letterman
says...
7:30am Wed 6 Mar 13
And when the council do fill a pothole, that too is done to a poor standard meaning the council have to keep coming back to refill it, which must cost a huge amount in repeat visits and staff time. Surely it'd be more cost effective to resurface the road or is that too logical for the council?
More Tea Vicar
says...
7:31am Wed 6 Mar 13
In effect, it is doing a very poor job of repairing the roads, either through poor practice or in the interests of job creation. Repairs once done don't seem to last long, and of course, they are done in a way which makes them vulnerable, like a sticking plaster waiting to fall off, and which actually contributes to uneven road surfaces.
We did have a cold winter last year, but this is a north-west European island....it happens. It's nothing unprecedented.
It looks as though the Council is trying to spin this in its usual way. Present the problem as though it's something major and overwhelming; spin its efforts to deal with it as some heroic undertaking, pitting council management against the forces of nature; then dream up a solution which teflons the responsibility off onto the public, so when it goes wrong, it's our fault, not the Council's.
I am all in favour of there being mechanisms for the public to report potholes.
But I would hope that council employees would be reporting in problems anyway. People from the relevant departments should be out checking as part of their job. And others, such as binmen, emergency services, etc, should be reporting in.
But the real solution would be for the Council to be doing proper repairs on long stretches of road on an ongoing basis.
If there's money for Ms Haines' obscene salary, for the swimming pool etc, there should be money for necessary services like this.
Letterman
says...
7:42am Wed 6 Mar 13
04smallmj says...
6:04pm Tue 5 Mar 13