Council chief defends quality of road maintenance and pothole repairs in County Durham

Council bosses have defended their record of road maintenance and pothole repairs.

Concerns had been raised about the quality of recent repairs, with claims surface fillings have been failing at the first sign of ‘adverse weather’.

But leaders at Durham County Council have insisted work was always done to maximise quality, while also conceding the local authority had faced a ‘particularly challenging’ winter for its works teams.

“Over the year to date we’ve had about 10,000 potholes repaired and thousands and thousands of requests,” said Rob Yorke, deputy cabinet member for neighbourhoods and local partnerships.

“We have over 3797 km of adopted highways and we’ve spent, in the last five years, £124.4 million on highways.

“We do use industry standard materials and whatever we do is up to the job.”

Cllr Yorke was speaking at this morning’s (Wednesday, March 24) meeting of the full county council, which was held by videolink and broadcast via YouTube.

He was responding to a question from Cllr Tanya Tucker, who quit the Labour Party earlier this year, querying the ‘value for money’ of the repair products and techniques currently used by the council.

Other highlights from the meeting, expected to be the last before May’s scheduled local elections, included:

A unanimously approved motion thanking NHS staff, emergency services and other key workers for their efforts during the coronavirus pandemic; Calls for new government measures to tackle food and fuel poverty; Approval of a series of updates to the county council’s constitution.

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