'Medway's roads ‘plagued’ with potholes, Lib Dems want to fix them'

Any Medway resident knows how bad our roads have gotten over the last few years, with car journeys becoming a dangerous and expensive process, as people have to swerve around deep potholes or risk costly wheel repair bills. Data obtained by the Liberal Democrats through Freedom of Information requests has revealed that some councils in England are taking over a month on average to fix potholes once they have been reported.

Liberal Democrats have criticised the Government for creating a “pothole postcode lottery” by cutting local authority’s highways maintenance budgets by £500 million (28%) since 2020-21 and announcing only a £200 million top-up to the national ‘Potholes Fund’ in the Budget last month. The party is calling for these cuts to roads funding to be fully reversed. In total, the 81 councils reported 556,658 potholes in the financial year 2021/22, up from 519,968 in 2017/18.

Liberal Democrats want to see local authority highways maintenance budgets fully restored in addition to the national £200 million Potholes Fund top-up, so local authorities have the necessary funds to repair their pothole backlogs.

John Castle, Medway Liberal Democrat candidate for St. Mary's Island said, "I believe that Medway Council has A DUTY OF CARE to all road users in our town's. Motorists, motorcyclists and cyclists are being put in harm’s way every day by the extraordinary amount of potholes in our roads. Some of them are not only wide but very deep and I consider them to be dangerous.
 

Medway Liberal Democrats have had a successful and ongoing campaign to report all potholes seen, and that has resulted in many of them being repaired. An example being the depression in Berengrave Lane in Rainham at the junction with the new houses at Queen Court Road. Not only was it a danger to motorists, but above the main sewer line that runs along the centre of the road. We setup a petition that called on Medway council to immediately repair the depression and protect the sewer beneath.

I believe that all levels of council are responsible in some way for funding or fixing. This clearly the result of the council not properly investing in our roads. They look for quick-fix solutions but don’t have a long-term plan for our road maintenance. They need to step up to the duty of care they have to us as residents of Medway, take notice and listen to our road using residents and the passengers they carry. Medway's roads are a disgrace."

In January we stated that Medway’s roads were at Breaking Point, with 9 times more potholes reported. Medway Council’s own data on how many potholes have been reported has shown just how dramatic their increase has been over the few years. In January 2023 Medway Council had 1097 reported potholes, whilst in January 2022 they only had 123. That’s nearly an 800% increase, and shows how Medway’s roads have deteriorated over the last few years’ underfunding by Medway Council.

The run down state of Medway's roads is causing damage to vehicles every day. Your vehicles. Who pays for the new tyres and tracking to be realigned? Will the council be the ones responsible for any accident that might have been caused by a driver swerving to avoid a pothole?

Medway Liberal Democrats are calling on Medway Council to get a grip with Medway’s roads before they become completely unusable. Instead of spending their time on photo-ops and promotional videos, they should be concentrating on developing a robust investment programme in our roads and ensure all repairs are made to high standard so they don’t fail a month later. Their current road maintenance is not good enough.

As we approach the local elections, Medway deserves better.

ENDS

Notes for Editors:

Responding to the plague of potholes, Liberal Democrat Local Government spokesperson Helen Morgan said:
“Potholes have become a plague on our roads. Motorists should not have to spend their journeys choosing between hitting potholes or dangerously swerving around an obstacle course of tarmac craters. Hard working people are paying huge bills to repair damage from potholes, while this Conservative Government takes away the money local councils need to repair our roads.

It is not fair for local residents in some areas of the country to be waiting over a year for road repairs because their council cannot afford it. The pothole postcode lottery needs to end. That’s why the Liberal Democrats are demanding that the Government reverses its cuts to councils’ road maintenance budgets in full, so they can get on with fixing our roads.”

Medway Council have also been very vocal on how many potholes they have repaired last winter, with their data showing that they have repaired 2428 potholes in January 2023. We are pleased to see this flurry of action, yet their data doesn’t tell the public whether these were permanent repairs or just quick temporary ones to make the road safe for road users. Since many residents are now reporting these temporary repairs as now failing, there are big questions about how much money Medway Council are wasting on quick-fix solutions.