Councillor calls for 'proper upgrades' to solve Cambridgeshire's pothole crisis
The county council recorded 10,000 potholes needing repair this month
Last updated 20th May 2023
A councillor believes Cambridgeshire's pothole crisis will be near impossible to solve.
As of this month, the county council recorded 10,000 potholes in need of repair, double the amount at the same time last year.
Charlie Marks, a parish and district councillor for Manea and Chatteris North, feels more improvement needs to be made if the county’s roads are to be made safer.
“We’re not seeing the budgets that are required to do proper upgrades and repairs,” he said.
“We seem to be putting sticking plasters over potholes, sending a dragon patcher out which does a job but it seems those patches fail fairly quickly thereafter.
“However, it’s better than nothing.”
"It's like painting the Forth Bridge; you'll never get to the finish"
As of this month, Cambridgeshire County Council recorded 10,000 potholes in need of repair, double the amount at the same time last year.
Cllr Alex Beckett, chair of the council’s highways and transport committee, said the authority is “doing everything we can to get on top of this.
“This is why we’re investing more money and finding more resources to tackle this issue as quickly as possible.”
He highlighted that between 1,000 and 1,200 potholes are repaired each week across Cambridgeshire.
Cllr Marks, who has been campaigning for better roads in Fenland and around the county, has called for quicker responses to smaller potholes.
However, he admits the problem can’t be permanently solved.
“Should a pothole be repaired in two or three days, there is less likelihood of it getting bigger,” Cllr Marks added.
“I think it’s like painting the Forth Bridge; you will never get to the bottom and finish all the potholes being filled in.
“I think there needs to be a big scheme to get potholes done in the first place, and then monitor them on a weekly or monthly basis where they are repaired.”