Eastwood councillor calls for action to fix town's 'diabolical' roads

Councillor Kane Oliver, who was elected to Nottinghamshire County Council in December’s by-election, came out fighting for the town at his first council committee meeting this month.

Independent councillor Oliver requested to be put on the council’s Place Select Committee, which serves to scrutinise Nottinghamshire County Council’s performance in fixing highways.

In his opening remarks at the meeting last week, Kane addressed councillor Neil Clarke, the Conservative cabinet member responsible for broken roads and pavements.

He said: “Ask anybody in Eastwood, Broxtowe and across Nottinghamshire and they’ll tell you the same thing – the state of our broken roads and pavements is diabolical.

“This council has lost control of potholes and this committee needs to oversee fundamental change.”

Coun Neil Clarke then gave a presentation, stating that resident satisfaction on highways repairs and the state of Nottinghamshire’s roads was ‘increasing’.

Coun Oliver asked for evidence of this but revealed he was not satisfied by coun Clarke’s response.

Speaking after the meeting, coun Oliver added: “Residents in Eastwood sent me to County Hall to be a strong voice for them.

“That’s exactly what I am doing at every opportunity.

“If burying your head in the sand fixed potholes, the roads of Eastwood would resemble Donington Park.

“The reality is they’re not. There is no use pretending otherwise.

“I will use every opportunity to continue my fight to fix Eastwood’s broken roads and pavements.”

Meanwhile, Nottinghamshire County Council revealed that recent bad weather saw the amount of pothole reports “almost doubled” between December 7 and January 7.

The council said the sub-zero temperatures in December, salt used to grit roads and recent heavy rainfall caused the spike in reports.

Coun Neil Clarke said: “Wintry conditions always take their toll on highways across Nottinghamshire.

“I would like to reassure our residents we are not alone as an authority in experiencing this.

“We ask residents and road users to bear with us; they will likely see an increase in emergency repairs as we keep roads safe through the winter until larger-scale permanent repairs can be made.

“However, we’ll still be undertaking permanent repairs wherever we can and are continuing with our large-scale patch repairs, as part of our four-year programme.”