THEY’RE driving us crazy and springing up everywhere. But a new initiative from Wokingham’s Conservatives is aimed at making them a little easier to cope with.
With winter weather here, cracks and potholes are appearing in roads across the borough.
Some are so big that residents are taking to social media to warn others to drive carefully along certain roads.
And over the past two weekends, Conservative councillors and volunteers took to the streets to chart a range of hot spots.
Each one has been reported to Wokingham Borough Council, which will then take action in the weeks ahead.
And the reporting is so easy, the brains behind the scheme is urging residents to get reporting the borough’s biggest holes, so the council can look into them.
“Pothole really annoy me,” said Cllr Gregor Murray, Conservative member for Norreys ward. “They really annoy residents too.
“Wokingham Borough Council has an online pothole portal, but not enough people know about them. We want to raise awareness of it.
“Residents can report their own potholes from the portal, and the council will send someone round to investigate them.”
There is an urgent hotline number, which will see council officers respond within two hours. For all non-urgent holes, the council aims to respond within 28 days.
Residents who want to report a pothole need to tell the council the location and give a brief description of the problem. Council assessors will consider the depth of the hole, the surface area, safety to road users and the location of the hole when making their decisions.
Cllr Murray felt that his team’s exercise had been really successful – and created a lot of work for council officers.
“Over two weekends, a team of eight of us reported 240 potholes across the top 50 streets in Wokingham and Winnersh. The council are investigating all of them and will take action when appropriate” he said.
“What is shows is that a group of people can get together and do something. We wanted to take action on potholes.”
And he said that the council is working on a longer-term solution.
“Fixing potholes has been a big issue,” he said. “The council will invest extra money over the next year to rectify the problem.”
“It’s absolutely fantastic.”
And he added: “The Wokingham Borough Council portal is easy to use. It’s fantastic, but not enough people know about it.”
To use it, visit www.wokingham.gov.uk and search for ‘report potholes’.
