Council winning the pothole battle - Coun Richard Davies

Lincolnshire County Council is on course to repair more than 40,000 potholes this year - and surface dress more than 300 miles of roads.
Potholes are being repaired quicker.Potholes are being repaired quicker.
Potholes are being repaired quicker.

The authority has been criticised for the the time it takes to respond to requests for repairs - and the quality of work carried out, despite securing millions of pounds of additional funding.

However, Richard Davies - the council’s Executive Councillor for Highways, said more repairs were being carried out than ever before - and the standard was improving.

Speaking at a meeting of Horncastle Town Council last week, Coun Davies said: “We do 40,000 (potholes) a year and 90 per cent of those are first time fixes.

“We’d love to be able to say that figure was 100% - but we can’t.

“There will always be a percentage that go wrong but during the last seven to eight months, the quality (of repairs) has improved.”

Coun Davies said an ‘horrendous’ winter had left a backlog of work but confirmed he hoped that would be cleared by the end of the summer with extra crews - and resources - made available.

He also said inspectors were now touring the county to ensure the standard of repairs is as high as possible.

Coun Davies revealed sub-standard repairs meant contractors could be ‘ordered back in’ and highlighted a recent issue on the A15 north of Lincoln as an example of that.

He added the majority of repairs were now ‘hot fix’ with potholes ‘plated and sealed’ .

He also encouraged councillors and members of the public to continue reporting any issues - or concerns about the standard of work.

Coun Davies went on to confirm a number of major projects for Horncastle including West Street and improvements to the Mareham Road/Boston Road junction after long-standing complaints about flooding.

He also confirmed plans were in place to completely resurface Conging Street in the next financial year, along with some other ‘smaller projects’.

Town councillor Marice Lamb asked about the poor quality of the road surface on the A153 south of Horncastle, between Haltham and the turn-off to Tumby.

Coun Lamb said the county council had initial indicated the new A153 surface would last 20 years but claimed it was already breaking up. Area Highways Officer Andy Radcliffe said the matter was being investigated but added it was an increasingly ‘isolated’ problem.