Council receive complaints over pothole-fixing scheme

Thursday, 27 September 2012

LOOSE: Councillor Alf Partridge with a handful of loose stones from a pothole repair in Underhill Road, Benfleet. Picture by Mark Cleveland

COMPLAINT: Phil Pattle with the potholes in Great Gregorie, Basildon. Picture by Mark Cleveland

By Charles Thomson

BENFLEET residents have complained that Essex County Council’s £11million pothole-fixing scheme is causing a hazard on the roads.
Complaints centred on loose stones which had been left in the road, bouncing and spraying from the surface when cars passed by.
Kevin Terry of Underhill Road said he had telephoned the Council to complain.
He said: “I phoned last Wednesday to complain about the state of our roads in our area.
“The company who is patching up all the holes is leaving loose stones. They are everywhere – in our drive, we are treading them into our house.
“Also, I am sure that the stones are chipping the paint off our new car.”
Benfleet councillor Alf Partridge, a former chairman of the highways, visited Underhill Road with a YA photographer, where he was able to bend down and scoop up two handfuls of loose stones from the road’s edge.
He said he had noticed similar problems on Green Road.
He commented: “They seem to be putting down loose grit with a bit of bitumen and hoping it stays there. It’s a bit of a bodge job really.
“In Green Road you can hear them hitting the underside of the car. They could damage the paintwork. They’re also going down the drains and we have enough problems with those already.”
Basildon driving instructor Phil Pattle described the works as ‘highway scabs popping up all over the county like an infection’.
He complained that in his road, Great Gregorie, the spots where the potholes had been covered were already sinking again.
He said: “You can see the surface is undulating. The road looks like the sands have shifted. There are just as many lumps and bumps as there were before.”
An Essex County Council spokesperson said: “Essex Highways uses a high pressure jet-patching machine to allow repairs to be carried out quickly whist also keeping traffic disruption to a minimum.
“However, the nature of the treatment means there will be loose chippings on the road surface until it beds down. We will return to the road to sweep up any chippings that have not embedded and road markings will be added, as appropriate.
“This system is not suitable for all potholes, so sometimes we will need to return to a road to repair a pothole with more traditional methods, which may be the case with Great Gregorie.
“We would encourage residents to report any issues to us by visiting the Essex County Council website www.essex.gov.uk or calling 0845 603 7631.”

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