County braced for more pothole repairs (From Gazette Series)

People in Gloucestershire braced for more pothole repairs

9:30am Tuesday 18th January 2011 in News By Claire Marshall

THE county is bracing itself for another raft of polehole repairs over the coming months after the last bout of bad weather.

Gloucestershire County Council is about to start a major survey to count and repair potholes that have opened up in the last month.

Huge holes have started to appear across the area, with Stinchcombe again being badly affected having only been given patch-up repairs last year.

In fact potholes have opened up right across the Stroud district after freezing conditions followed by the recent thaw caused many road surfaces to break up. Cllr Stan Waddington, cabinet member for environment at the county council, said that he was aware that there were still some "problem areas" that they were working hard to address, but that at first glance the situation seemed "better this time round".

He said: "We repaired an unprecedented amount of potholes last year and we carried out a lot of work to seal the roads against bad weather and this has helped prepare the roads for this winter.

"Within the next couple of weeks, the full inspection should be complete and we’ll have a clear picture of the task facing us in 2011.

"Whatever we find, be assured that we are taking action and that we will do all we can to repair Gloucestershire’s roads.

"However, as we all know, money is tight so we will continue to prioritise what we do."

A county council spokeswoman said the aim was to fill in the most urgent potholes within 24 hours and less urgent ones within 28 days, she said. The county council had 3,500 miles of road to cover.

She said that the past two winters had caused major problems on the roads with the council repairing around 90,000 potholes in 2010 alone, more than the previous three years combined.

Simon Douglas, insurance director for the Automobile Association, said his staff were bracing themselves for a steep rise in reports of cars damaged by potholes.

"Last winter there were three times as many claims between January and March compared with the same period in 2009.

"We expect the pothole problem to be significantly worse this year because of three successive bad winters and the growing backlog of road renewal."

Potholes remaining from last winter will be repaired in Long Street this week. The road will be closed over the weekend to allow for full resurfacing to take place.