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Freezing weather adds to the extent of winter damage to district’s roads

9:33am Thursday 3rd February 2011 in News By Marc Meneaud

Councillor Michael Ellis Councillor Michael Ellis

City Hall bosses face a huge bill of more than £2million for repairs to roads damaged by the freezing weather, it has been revealed.

The worst winter for decades has caused large potholes and cracks to open up and other damage to roads across the Bradford district.

The total cost of repairs so far this financial year is £2.066million, the Council revealed following a Freedom of Information (FoI) request.

That compares with more than £3million the previous year, £2.9million in 2008/09; about £2.5million in 2007/08; and £2.9million in 2006/07, the statistics showed.

Bradford Council has also paid contractors about £10.7million for major resurfacing work at 449 sites since 2006.

In all, £30million has been spent on road maintenance in the past four years, it was revealed.

Now calls are being made to make funding for highways resurfacing “a priority” following criticism councils will struggle to repair potholes because of a funding shortfall.

Councillor Michael Ellis, deputy chairman of the Council’s environment scrutiny committee, said: “Last year, money was released because of the damage caused by frost – we are not used to frost as bad as that – and there was a lot of reaction to that.

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“But it is very difficult to say (if more funding will be released) because we are in the budget process but the consensus is that road maintenance is a high priority, particularly for the Conservative group.”

Coun Ellis (Con, Bingley Rural) added: “Vehicles are damaged and we just cannot have the accidents that are caused by poor maintenance. It just has to be a priority.”

  • Read the full story in the T&A

Comments(10)

mr-mixalot says...
9:58am Thu 3 Feb 11

What about all the claims from drivers for damaged wheels, tyres etc, does the figure include these payouts as well?

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markjoe says...
10:47am Thu 3 Feb 11

"The worst winter for decades has caused large potholes and cracks to open up and other damage to roads across the Bradford district. "

Worst winter for decades, I'd admit it got very, very cold but other than that this winter hasn't anything like last year. We had some snow at the end of November beginning of December.

The question must surely be how come it costs so much, I think better tendering would solve that problem

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John Phillips says...
11:53am Thu 3 Feb 11

If the shambles of a 'Council' didn't use sh!tty material in the first place, maybe none of this would have happened?
.
Something for the shower at City Hall to think about..

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Mike Strutter says...
11:59am Thu 3 Feb 11

Most of the time it is previously repaired pothole opening up again.

Maybe someone in the highways dept would care to enlighten us why when potholes are repaired the gangs don't roller or whacker the tarmac down ?
Too often the tarmac is a mini mound that will have air and cracks in it, water gets in and freezes and then.....yeah you've guessed it !!

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Herbal Nation says...
3:08pm Thu 3 Feb 11

Such repair costs should be wholly funded by central Government out of the funds taken in Vehicle Excise Licence (ie. Road Tax) Revenue, and out of the tax charged on petrol/diesel.

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spinnekop says...
6:52pm Thu 3 Feb 11

Bad workmanship in the first place. Where I live the repairs done last year, year before ect are all void of tarmac, again, because the job hasnt been done right repeatedly over the years. And that is the responsability of the contractor doing the 'repair' not the tax payer.

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Tink79 says...
7:17pm Thu 3 Feb 11

We blew a tyre n a huge pothole nearly wrote the car off and had to get rescued off the side of the road luckily vosa turned up & were really helpful we submitted a claim but never heard anything.

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yezboss says...
8:31pm Thu 3 Feb 11

They can't even re-surface roads properly let alone repair potholes. How many roads show signs of the stone chippings lifting because of inferior re-surfacing.
I'll name one.
Northcote Road from Killinghall Road to Otley Road. Only done last September What a mess.
Name another - shame another.

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Mekon says...
9:39am Fri 4 Feb 11

Many of these potholes appear due to the terrible job of refilling done by utility contractors. They should be asked to contribute.

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don foster says...
11:45am Fri 4 Feb 11

Last year my sons offered the council a product that would save them money on pothole repairs not affected by frost or heat no need for expensive equipment or high manpower and lasts if it had been used 4years ago I reckon the £30M would have been nearer £15M sounds like a good saving to me.But was turned down. OOPS!!

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