City approves £2m for pothole prevention

Nearly £2m is to be spent on pothole prevention as part of highways improvement works, a local authority said.

Peterborough City Council's cabinet approved the allocation of £7.6m of works to its highways partner Milestone Infrastructure Limited.

It is proposed that the funding, made up of two Department for Transport grants, is distributed across five projects and will see upgrades to roads, footpaths, street lighting, bridges, cycle routes, pavements and bus stops.

Adrian Chapman, the council's executive director for place and economy, said the authority was still in a "better position than others across the country", in terms of pothole concerns.

Labour's Mohammed Jamil, deputy leader and cabinet member for finance, told this week's cabinet meeting that he often received complaints from residents about "unsightly" materials used to fill in potholes and resurface roads.

Mr Chapman said: "We work with Milestone all the time on new technologies and we've trialled several things over the last couple of years to look at how we might deliver pothole repairs in different ways, using different forms of machinery that cause less disruption but create a permanent repair.

"Watch this space. Technology is changing all the time.

"By comparison to many other councils, I know one pothole is one pothole too many, but we are generally in a much better position than many councils across the country."

Mr Jamil also asked how the council would guarantee the contractor was "not just taking us for a ride".

Mr Chapman said: "We're very alive to this. The value of this contract is significant and the work that Milestone deliver for the city is crucial to keep the city moving and keep road users and pedestrians safe.

"We review performance across a range of indicators including financial performance to make sure that value is being driven through the contract.

"For the projects where we have secured additional funding, and therefore there is no obligation for us to commission Milestone to deliver those projects, we have started to test the market to make sure that what we are getting back from Milestone is competitive."

Last year, it was reported that there were around 2,150 outstanding road defects across Cambridgeshire.

Peterborough City Council did not provide figures, but it noted it had been ranked third-best performing highways authority in the National Highways and Transport survey.

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