Sutton councillor slams ruling Conservatives at county council over road repairs claims

Coun Helen-Ann Smith, Ashfield Independents member for Sutton North, and Ashfield Council deputy leader, said 2022 would instead be remembered for a ‘complete lack of progress from a council “ailing to get to grips with fixing our broken roads and pavements”.

She spoke out after the council announced in its roads review there had been a 61 per cent drop in temporary pothole repairs across Nottinghamshire.

The authority commissioned a cross-party highways review last summer because the state of county roads was described by some councillors as the ‘biggest issue on doorsteps’ in the May 2021 election.

It aimed to move towards a “right repair, right-first-time” approach where roads were resurfaced, rather than holes being temporarily filled with treatment Viafix.

Some politicians reported seeing repair teams returning to the same pothole shortly after using Viafix and complained of “substandard work”.

But now, 18 months on from the review, the authority says there are now 61 per cent fewer roads being temporarily fixed and more permanent repairs taking place.

The council’s cabinet heard 96.5 sq metres of road have been patched on average per day since the review concluded last year, up from 46.9 sq metres a day before the review.

It follows the authority doubling the number of patching teams from four to eight and committing to a £15 million, three-year repair programme.

The three-year plan was a shift away from a one-year approach, which the authority said in February would give residents “certainty” over when their area will be resurfaced.

However, Coun Smith said the situation on Nottinghamshire’s roads is far from fixed.

She said: “The council is utterly failing at the basics and no amount of figures and spin can change that.

“People can see the Tory failures with their own eyes – they don’t believe what they say anymore.”

However, Coun Neil Clarke, council cabinet member for transport and environment, said: “This is completely outdated, old rhetoric that is no longer relevant.

“Residents are telling us they can see a vast improvement in their roads.

“The statistics are there for people to see – we’ve doubled the repair teams and quadrupled the number of repairs.”