“Urgent” road repairs totalling £225,000 in a bid to fix Nottinghamshire’s crumbling roads has been unveiled.
Reform-led Nottinghamshire County Council has come under fire in recent weeks due to an abundance of damaged roads and a litany of potholes being left untouched.
There have been hundreds of claims received by the authority related to damage and accidents caused by potholes in the year leading up to February 18.
Due to some deteriorated areas becoming a “potential threat” to road users, the council says there is an “increased risk” of failing in its legal duty to maintain the highway network if there are accidents.
Earlier this month, Conservative councillor Mike Adams showcased the crumbling state of the A612 Colwick Loop Road, next to the Marks and Spencer in Netherfield, in a Facebook video which gained more than 40,000 views.
Gedling’s Labour MP, Michael Payne, also took a swipe at the authority in a Facebook video, highlighting the deteriorated state of Godfrey Street and Arnold Lane and the council’s inadequate response letter to him. This video amassed more than 130,000 views.
The authority’s highways director visited the Loop Road spot on February 19 with Cllr Adams but the councillor “had not heard a thing” from the authority since the visit.
Now, the council appears to be putting some plans to action, announcing on Thursday (February 26) it will be spending £1.83 million on “urgent” road works to 35 Nottinghamshire hotspots – including £225,000 for Gedling borough.
Council leader, Mick Barton said the authority plans to start the urgent works in the week beginning March 9.
The council said “recent and prolonged” wet weather over winter has caused “rapid deterioration” to parts of the network.
“There’s £75,000 for flags that Reform spent. If that had gone into potholes it would have repaired 1,000 potholes across the county, in a not so good way – tar out of the bag – but it’s called a safety repair.” – Cllr Sam Smith
Cllr Adams said the pressure both he and residents had put on the council to fix the roads in their area was “key” to the sudden announcement.
He said: “I’m really happy they’ve responded to the urgent situation. lots of people’s cars getting damaged, the safety issues, it was really dangerous.
“But it’s still not done yet… I want to see spades in the road and this getting resolved and fixed as soon as humanly possible.”
Cllr Sam Smith (Con), who represents the Trent Valley ward alongside Cllr Adams at Gedling Borough Council, said: “I’m really delighted for the drivers right across Nottinghamshire who are having their wheels popped and their springs broken.”
However, he said the announcement was “far too late” and the Reform authority lacked winter road resilience, adding: “There’s £75,000 for flags that Reform spent. If that had gone into potholes it would have repaired 1,000 potholes across the county, in a not so good way – tar out of the bag – but it’s called a safety repair.
“The garage owners across Nottinghamshire’s profit margin would be down by a lot. That’s the Reform way – boost the economy for the car garages.”
The urgent scheme comes before a three-year programme that will start in 2026/27 that will patch, resurface or surface dress 4.5 million square metres of road – 16 per cent of the total road network.
The nearly £2 million worth of works will be funded by underspends and savings from within the council’s current highway budgets.
Recent highway network surveys show that 15.9 per cent of Nottinghamshire’s roads are in a poor condition and require urgent maintenance, while 21.7 per cent are likely to need repairs “soon”.
Speaking in the County Council’s budget meeting on Thursday, Cllr Bert Bingham (Ref) said for the three-year programme the council “will be reviewing types of materials we use, we’ll be using thicker layers of asphalt and stronger materials, hot rolled asphalt instead of stone asphalt”.
He said: “This will ensure new road surfaces last for a longer time – or a long time. That will automatically reduce the amount of temporary versions of pothole repairs.”
A full list of the locations and costs of the works are listed below…
- A612 Colwick Loop Road, Netherfield – 1,500 square metres – £75,000
- Stoke Lane, Stoke Bardolph – 1,000 square metres – £50,000
- C16 Lowdham Lane, Woodborough – 1,000 square metres – £50,000
- Coppice Road, Arnold – 1,000 square metres – £50,000
