£5.2m pothole blitz will continue with permanent repairs
Making sure roads ready for winter ahead
Kent County Council is pledging to fix hundreds of potholes permanently before the winter as part of an ongoing £5.2 million drive to repair damaged roads.
A blitz started in April and is due to run until Christmas if the weather remains good during October and November.
And the politician in charge has promised to make sure repairs to roads are done to a standard that means there will not be any need to revisit them.
Cllr Matthew Balfour, KCC cabinet member for highways, said: “Potholes are one of the biggest bugbears for residents and remain one of our top priorities.
“People often assume these are quick and temporary fixes but I can assure you these are not.
“We do a quality, first-time fix, and do not expect to be back out again fixing the same pothole.
“We have got crews working on potholes who know their areas and this year we’ve extended the scheme up until Christmas to ensure our roads are ready for the winter months ahead.”
To date this year, KCC has spent £2.7 million, patching 66,800 sq m and filling an equivalent 133,600 individual potholes on a road network of across 5,000 miles.
Earlier this year, the KM Group revealed how KCC managed to avoid paying compensation to motorists using a loophole.
More than 500 pothole compensation claims from motorists were rejected in Kent in two years, on the grounds the council was planning to repair the roads in the future.
A law permits authorities to dismiss claims made by motorists whose cars have been damaged by defective roads if they can demonstrate the road in question was scheduled for repair “within reasonable time”.
KCC has contracted the work out to local companies in the districts to ensure quicker response times to reports of problems.
Cllr Balfour added: “All this work isn’t to suggest we don’t need people’s help reporting holes.
“We can’t be everywhere all the time and so I’d encourage people to go online and report potholes so we can arrange for them to be filled.”