Calderdale councillor says some of the borough's potholes so deep 'you might lose a small child in them'

Coun Dot Foster (Lab, Sowerby Bridge) said she has seen some potholes so bad “you might lose a small child in them” if they get any deeper.

She was speaking a meeting of the council’s place scrutiny board who were told when patching potholes becomes more an issue of full route repair, the amount of budget available to undertake the task comes into play.

Currently, Calderdale’s carriageway maintenance programme represents approximately £3.2m of currently available capital funding in a year.

The council also has £780,000 in fund earmarked for repairing potholes.

However, based on current condition data – red, meaning failing, and amber, meaning approaching a fail and needing repair – the backlog of maintenance work on classified and unclassified roads is estimated to cost £28m and a whopping £248m respectively.

Only three per cent of Calderdale A roads are rated red, though 33 per cent of A, B and C roads are rated amber.

The council is responsible for 1,300 km (more than 800 miles) of roads.

Councillors asked officers if different techniques, equipment and materials were being looked into to improve pothole repairs.

Coun Foster said she had reported six or seven roads together recently and thanked repair gangs for doing their best with the available budgets.

“There are some where there are potholes the size of dinner plates – there’s a couple where you might lose a small child in them if they get any deeper,” she said.

“It’s incredibly frustrating that we don’t have enough budget to resurface all the roads that desperately need it and all we can do is keep applying sticking plasters – I’m grateful for what you do.”

Coun Katie Kimber (Lab, Luddenden Foot) and highlighted instances where single carriageway roads suffering from a lot of water run off in rural parts had potholes repaired quickly but showed more damage just a week later.

“What are products are we using and what is the system we’ve got – could we save money in the long run by using something else?" she asked.

Officers said alternatives including jetpatching had been trialled in Calderdale and it was great for big rural shires but not a good solution for more populated areas.

The underlying problem was, where potholes appeared and then new ones appeared soon after one on the same stretch had been repaired, that indicated the road was nearing the end of its life and requiring major work, which was subject to available budget.

Many Calderdale roads were originally constructed in the era of horses and carts and were now subject to modern heavy traffic which affects them.

The “pack and whack” pothole repair technique using hot tar works.

But once a road starts opening up and unravelling it is on its way out and others would appear, said officers.

“All budget lines are under significant pressure partly because of inflation but also because of the condition of the network, which is just becoming increasingly challenging to maintain,” said assistant director of strategic infrastructure, Adrian Gill.