Council denies claims Derbyshire is among worst counties in UK for potholes

Liberal Democrats in Chesterfield have pointed to a report by the This is Money financial website – which found Derbyshire is the third highest area in the UK for the number of potholes reported or identified.

Councillor Simon Spencer, Derbyshire County Council’s cabinet member for highways, transport and infrastructure, said he disputed the Liberal Democrats’ claims.

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"The county council has been highly successful at repairing the potholes that have been reported,” he said.

"We've repaired a significant number. The estimates over the last four years are about a quarter of a million repairs.

"Instead of taking photos, if you see a pothole, report it to us."

Chesterfield Liberal Democrat councillor Paul Niblock said he was ‘shocked’ by the state of some roads in the town.

“Following up a complaint from a local resident about the state of the footpath off Gilbert Avenue in Walton, I was shocked to see the state of the road itself,” he added.

“The deterioration and potholes on the main road are bad enough but the state of the side roads is appalling."

Fellow Liberal Democrat councillor Ed Fordham says he reported 36 groups of potholes and ‘fairly serious road damage’ from across Loundsley Green in just one weekend.

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County Hall agreed work totalling more than £46 million to be carried out on the county’s roads and pavements over the next year at a cabinet meeting this week.

From April 2021 to March 2022, the council plans to improve the condition of the county’s roads by surface dressing 260 roads, resurfacing 78 roads and 65 pavements, 84 miles of roads will be surface dressed, and 11.5 miles will be resurfaced.

Coun Spencer added: “The programme includes a number of highways schemes that previously we weren’t able to do because of the severe flooding in November 2019, February 2020 and February 2021, the Toddbrook dam incident in the summer of 2019 and the impact of Covid-19.

“All these events both took up weeks and months of many members of the highways team, and we have had many more roads needing repairs because of the flooding.”

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