Potholes a priority for the Liberal Democrats
Cllr Jon Abbott (Liberal Democrat) highlighted the deteriorating condition of Bedford Borough’s roads at the meeting of the Environment and Scrutiny Overview Committee on 6th June, 2024.
Cllr Abbott said: “I think its going to be very important that the council’s performance on fixing potholes is properly scrutinised. The Conservative’s aren’t investing enough in renewing our local roads and it will become ever more obvious. It’s awful that in January and February almost 6 in 10 of the category 2 potholes weren’t even fixed within 8 weeks. The condition of our roads is getting worse again after having had significant investment over the years.”
The council’s own figures show that 57% of Category 2 potholes failed to be fixed by the Pothole Hit Squad within an eight week timeframe in January and February 2024. Cllr Abbott urged the committee to prioritise this issue now, as potholes are always worse over winter and summer is the time to get a grip of the situation.
The Pothole Hit Squad teams were set up by Mayor Dave in 2011. Urgent action needed to be taken to undertake high quality road repairs, as Cllr Abbott reminded fellow Councillors, warning of the ‘bad old days’ that ‘no one wants to go back to.’ Cllr Abbott insisted that potholes be added to the Work Programme of the Committee and kept under close scrutiny.