THE NUMBER of potholes in Wokingham has gone down over the past 12 months says the executive member for highways.
Cllr Paul Fishwick told a meeting of Wokingham Borough Council last Thursday that the Lib Dem-led Partnership had reduced the blight on the roads since they had been in office … but residents disagree.
“The average number of potholes reported between 2019/20 and 2021/22 was 2,179,” he told the chamber. “During this financial year they have decreased to a forecasted 1,500.
“So, the potholes are not getting worse since the Lib Dems took over, they are getting less, significantly less.”
He said the party had also set up a system to charge insurance companies for damage to highway property.
“The previous Conservative administration had nothing in place and the Council taxpayer picked up the bill for the repairs,” he said.
But readers and councillors disagree.
We asked for readers to say which roads they had seen potholes on, and one said: “Have you spotted any roads in the potholes?”
Large potholes have been reported by readers on Easthampstead Road, in Finchampstead, on Reading Road in Wokingham, Vauxhall Drive in Woodley, and … just about every road going.
Cllr Charles Margetts is the Conservative shadow member for highways. He said he was seriously concerned about the deterioration not just of roads, but pavements.
He felt the number of potholes was not reducing and called on his counterpart to listen to residents rather than “pretending it isn’t happening”.
“Cllr Fishwick’s speech shows how far away from a solution the Liberal and Labour coalition in charge of the council are from getting to grips with this issue,” he said.
“The major reason for the expected fall in the number pothole repairs is the extra bureaucracy the Liberal and Labour coalition have introduced. Previously when a pothole was reported the council’s contractor went to site and fixed it. Now the council sends an officer out to look at most of the reported potholes before repairing them.
“This extra process naturally slows down the amount of potholes that can be repaired in a certain period.”
He added: “Instead of quoting Soviet style tractor production figures of predicted pothole repairs Cllr Fishwick should leave Shute End for a short period and travel around the borough – he would quickly see that quoting predicted pothole repairs figures is meaningless to residents who see the poor condition of some of the roads and just want the council to sort it out.”
The Conservatives were also concerned about long-term issues. Cllr Margetts pointed out the Barkham Ride roundabout where the road surface is breaking down.
“You could do another 30 pothole repairs here but they would not fix this. Rather than endlessly patching roads such as this resurfacing work needs to be bought forwards and actioned.
“The only solution to this is to invest more money in road and pavement maintenance. However, the Liberal and Labour coalition plans three years of real terms cuts to the road and pavement repairs budget.
“The consequence of this is less pavements and roads will be repaired which will create a backlog of maintenance to be resolved in the future.
“We are calling on them to listen to residents, invest more money in road and pavement repairs and get a grip on this issue.”
Last week, the council revealed it had been allocated £589,200 for highways maintenance in 2023-2024, a sum it says is not enough.
Cllr Fishwick said: “There is still a huge shortfall, not just in Wokingham Borough but across the country, and the government needs to do more to help us keep our residents safe when travelling around the borough.”
And this week, Simon Dale, Director of Place and Growth at Wokingham Borough Council said: “Our residents’ safety is our number one priority. Officers from the council’s highways team continuously survey road conditions and identify areas in need of improvement across the 967 miles of roads and footpaths which they maintain to help us keep our residents safe when travelling around the borough.
“To date, 1,521 potholes have been fixed across the borough this financial year. We continue to ask residents to report any potholes via our ‘report it system’ on our website.
“Not only is this the most efficient way to report a problem, as residents can pinpoint the exact location and it goes directly through to the relevant team, but it also offers residents the opportunity to be kept up-to-date with the progress we are making to resolve the issue.”
Reports can be made by logging on to: Wokingham.gov.uk and searching for ‘pothole’.
