*** A link to a video is below *** New figures show that Leicestershire County Council fixed around 6,000 potholes over the past 12 months. Following the recent cold snap, highways’ teams have been working hard to fix the problems caused by freezing water expanding the road surface and leading to cracks. The statistics have been published following the county council agreeing last month to plough an additional £600,000 each year into fixing potholes, tackling flooding ‘hot-spots’ by investing in more gully-emptying vehicles, repairing signs and relining roads. Blake Pain, county council cabinet member for environment and transport, said: “We are working very hard to deal with potholes and we’ve more than doubled the resources available. “We’ve got some of the best roads in the country. But, like all council services, finances are stretched and this extra money will reduce the pressure on road maintenance budgets.” Other figures released by the county council show that the recent wintry weather led to a big increase in the number of enquiries received about potholes from 140 enquiries in December before the cold snap to 786 enquiries in February – a five-fold increase. Earlier this week, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling announced that local councils will benefit from a further £100m to help repair potholes and damage caused by recent storms. Leicestershire is set to receive around £1.56m and Mr Pain added: “We welcome the announcement and we’re awaiting more detail. While we can never prevent all potholes from forming, we’re determined to tackle them in the most effective way and this additional funding will support the work.” You can report a pothole problem online at https://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/report-a-road-problem VIDEO: Here’s a link to a video of Blake Pain talking about our pothole priorities: |
We The Lutterworth Cloud and our readers would like to ask Cllr Pain, |