Buckinghamshire County Council publish video answering the question: ‘If you came here to fix this pothole, why couldn’t you fix the one next to it while you were at it?’.
Buckinghamshire County Council’s cabinet member for transport, Mark Shaw, has lent his voice to a YouTube video answering a familiar question: ‘If you came here to fix this pothole, why couldn’t you fix the one next to it while you were at it?‘.
Mark Shaw said the video informs residents about the work of Transport for Buckinghamshire in an accessible and simple way.
He said: ‘This is a question which is asked really frequently, and we know it frustrates a lot of people. I’m a big fan of speaking plain English, and trying to get information to Buckinghamshire’s residents in a way that everyone can understand, so I was more than happy to hop into the recording booth to lend a hand!‘
The answer to the question is simple – TfB has a finite amount of finance and therefore workforce required to fill the potholes and we have to use them effectively to ensure those requiring urgent repair are fixed first.
If TfB was to use up resources filling a smaller pothole, it may leave a larger pot hole further up the road un-repaired. Safety is the first concern, so urgent fixes must be done first.
However, there is good news for Buckinghamshire’s road users. In April 2016 the Department for Transport announced a new pothole fund of £50 million nationwide and Buckinghamshire was awarded £546,000 as its share, which is estimated to stretch to around 10,000 additional repairs.
What’s more pot holes fixed with the Velocity jet patcher, which is used on rural roads, come with a 12 month repair guarantee.
These repairs are quicker, more efficient, long lasting, low carbon emitting, and applied cold so they are ready to drive on immediately.
Potholes can be reported on the County Council’s website at www.buckscc.gov.uk/transport/tell-tfb. The Report It tool allows members of the public to pinpoint the location of the pothole on a map, add photos to support the report if they wish, and then receive a customer reference number which they can use to track the progress of their report.
Once a report has been received highways inspectors will assess the potholes and determine the appropriate response. This will vary, depending on criteria, from a two hour response through to a 28 day repair.
Each month around 2,000 potholes are repaired and the roads are inspected regularly according to a schedule so a lot of potholes will be picked up by these inspections and programmed for repair.
The video, included above, can also be viewed on the Buckinghamshire County Council website at www.buckscc.gov.uk/transport/were-working-on-it/highways-maintenance/potholes.
