Council poor on potholes but better in other areas says survey

WEST BERKSHIRE Council was highlighted as the fourth worst performing unitary authority in terms of satisfaction of the condition of highways, but fared well in a host of other areas including traffic management in a recent survey.
The National Highways and Transport Network Public Satisfaction Survey 2013 placed the district fourth bottom in a league table of 26 similar authorities in terms of satisfaction on the condition of highways with an overall score of 21.7 per cent.
However, the district performed well in other areas, being voted third best out of 26 for satisfaction of the management of roadworks, while it was placed eighth in terms of satisfaction of traffic level and congestion.
It was also in the top half of authorities for satisfaction of pavements and footpaths, traffic management and road safety education.
The results of the survey comes just weeks after the council proposed to cut £165,000 from its road maintenance budget of £942,000 as part of its plans to slash £3m from frontline services.
Responding to the figures, Keith Woodhams (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) said: “It is just appaling. It is a false economy, by cutting the budget and delaying repairs, the conditions of roads are going to get even worse than they already are.
“Residents I have spoken to have been astonished at the way pothole repairs fail within days of being filled. One resident even told me that his grandson had fallen off his bicycle after hitting a crack in the road in Thatcham High Street.
“This road does not even appear in the Resurfacing Programme 2013/14 and is in a shocking state of repair.
“Yet the Conservative Member for Highways & Transport would have us all believe that our roads are in good condition and well maintained, and that reducing traffic congestion is their priority.
However, West Berkshire Council Leader Gordon Lundie hit back.
He said: “Keith is simply looking for a story and is deliberately picking the one area which makes us look bad. There are around 27 indicators in the survey and in most of them we are performing perfectly well, including the safety of roads.
“The report is based on a very small number of users and is not a true reflection on the work we have been doing.
“It is out of date and was taken during a time when the roads in West Berkshire were facing their biggest challenge.
“There has been significant extra investment since then. We like to concentrate on running the local authority and not waiting for reports like this to come out and compare us with other authorities.
“Unfortunately every local authority is having to make cuts. We need to save £11m and if we don’t reduce the road budget we will have to find £165,000 it from somewhere else.
”Where does councillor Woodhams propose that money comes from?”
The survey is sent by post to a minimum of 4,500 households in each participating local authority area every year and collects public perspectives and satisfaction of, highways and transportation services in those areas.