Council losing control of districts roads
Keith Woodhams (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) claimed this week that Audit Commission figures revealed that the council spent £3.94 per head of population on maintaining principal roads in 2011/12 compared with more than £8 on average by other councils - placing it 20th out of the 55 listed unitary authorities.
Mr Woodhams, shadow portfolio holder for Highways and Transport, also revealed that in the present ‘insurance year’ which runs from November 1, the council had received 425 claims relating to damage to vehicles on its highways.
Speaking to the Newbury Weekly News this week, Mr Woodhams said: “These latest figures prove without doubt that the Executive Member for Highways and Transport is
losing control of road maintenance in West Berkshire.
“If Councillor Bale does not have time to run the department properly she should step down immediately. It is an appalling mess.”
However, Mrs Bale (Con, Pangbourne) hit back, saying: “We only pay on average three to five per cent of claims made to us and last month we only had six claims come into the council.
“If he (Mr Woodhams) would like to come to me with justification I would welcome his views. If I thought I was failing I would consider standing down from my portfolio, but I can assure people we are filling more potholes than ever and have put in extra money to budget for this year.
“Each road is assessed, but the council only has so much money it can spend.”
Of the 425 complaints lodged with the council, it says it has dismissed 324, having concluded it is not liable. A further 30 have been referred by the council to itscontractor to see if they were caused by failed repair or a failure to act on an instruction from the council to repair. There are currently 71 cases that remain unresolved.
Mr Woodhams concluded: “Residents have complained to me about poor workmanship and situations where repairs to potholes have failed within a matter of days, causing further damage to their vehicles.
He added: “The whole thing is falling apart and it is a complete and utter disaster.”
Spokesman for the AA, Gavin Hill-Smith, said that although pothole incidents are not individually recorded by the AA, they are a huge danger to motorists.
He said: “Potholes are an ongoing battle and something we receive complaints about every day.
“We would like to see local councils have increased funding in the form of ring-fenced grants to ensure that money given for maintaining roads is spent on exactly that and not diverted elsewhere for other spending.
Just this week, East Ilsley residents accused the council of ignoring potholes and the condition of roads in the village, including Abingdon Road, the main road that vehicles travel down when coming off the A34.
The total spend was calculated using total expenditure, expressed as pounds per head of the total resident population, from Office of National Statistics mid-year population estimates and show the sum of expenditure on structural maintenance.
