Council agrees to meet road repair shortfall

The council will spend £522,000 from its reserves on top of the £1,489,480 grant that was given to the them by central government in March – putting the cost of rectifying the damage caused by the recent severe weather at more than £2m.
Following the floods that battered the country at the beginning of the year, the Secretary of State for Transport announced that he would be making £140m available to local authorities in England to help repair damage to road networks.
The council subsequently submitted a bid for repairs to 6.37 miles of A and B class roads, 14.5 miles of C class and unclassified roads and 11 highway structures, but said that the grant was not enough to repair 41 roads in the district.
The decision to spend the extra money to make up the shortfall was agreed at a meeting of West Berkshire Council executive last Thursday.
The council said it considered other options, including not repairing the roads and borrowing the extra money that was needed.
However, it said that neither of these options was practical – as the roads needed urgent repair and the cost of borrowing the money would have cost the council £60,000 a year over 10 years.
During the meeting, the portfolio holder for highways, Pamela Bale (Con, Pangbourne), said: “The Department For Transport does not have sufficient funds to meet our request of repairing 41 roads we could prove had been damaged by the weather. We need to put this extra money in.”
Despite the council agreeing to spend £522,000, its leader Gordon Lundie was still forced to defend the state of the district’s roads amid criticism from an opposition councillor.
Councillor Keith Woodhams (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) asked Mr Lundie when he would investigate what he called “shoddy workmanship” from the council’s highways contractor Volker, following complaints about temporary pothole repairs.
Mr Lundie replied by saying that Mr Woodhams had asked the exact same question “27 times before”.
He then said: “It was the wettest winter on record and inevitably there will be potholes and road damage.
“Since April 2013, our contractor has repaired 16,000 square miles of roads. I strongly refute any allegations of shoddy workmanship.”
Mr Woodhams then proceeded to read out emails from two residents, complaining about road repairs – with one of them stating in an email that “a monkey could have done a better job” than the contractors.
Mr Lundie responded by saying: “I am aware of these emails and thank you for raising the issue tonight.
“When this council gets a complaint about potholes it fills them and we will continue to fill them. It is disingenuous to suggest there is a flaw in the council’s system.”