Shropshire potholes swallowing up road repair cash
More than 15,000 potholes have been repaired on Shropshire's roads during the past eight months, it was revealed today.
Figures obtained by the Shropshire Star show Shropshire Council contractor Ringway repaired 15,000 potholes between April 2012 and January 2013.
Meanwhile Telford & Wrekin Council repaired about 2,000 potholes during 2012. And council officials in Telford plans to spend more than £5 million on the borough's roads during 2013 as part of a new roads management plan.
It comes after a report form the Asphalt Industry Alliance claimed local authorities in England and Wales repaired more than two million potholes during 2012. The report claimed councils would need to spend up to £10.5 billion to bring roads up to standard.
Jon King, spokesman for Shropshire Council, said: "According to our records, our contractors Ringway dealt with 15,000 potholes between April 2012 and January 2013."
But nobody from the authority was able to say how much it plans to spend on road maintenance this year.
Russell Griffin, spokesman for Telford & Wrekin Council, said: "Telford & Wrekin's roads are at various condition levels. We estimate that to keep them all exactly as they are, with no improvement would cost in the region of £2.6 million per year.
"We are currently working on our transport asset management plan which will give us a better understanding of all our transport assets, including carriageways.
"The new plan will allow is to get a fuller picture of how much funding we need to get our carriageways up to a good standard.
"This year we only received £3.142 million from Government for maintaining all our highway assets. This includes bridges, streetlights, footpaths and highway drainage.
"This funding will only keep carriageways in their present condition and as a result it has been supplemented by £2 million of council funding."
Mr Griffin said Telford & Wrekin Council is working hard to improve its road maintenance service.
He said: "Our latest road condition surveys show us that one per cent of our A roads require maintenance, nine per cent of B and C roads require work and 22 per cent of unclassified roads require work.
"In addition to annual condition surveys we are gathering data to ensure we repair carriageways at the optimum time."
