20,000 potholes will be fixed at extra cost of £200,000. Peter Marland says: ''Tories live in a fantasy world and have disengaged with reality.''
The war of words continues today, with Labour, Conservatives and Lib Dems all releasing statements regarding the pothole situation in Milton Keynes.
The Milton Keynes Liberal Democrats are calling for the 'pothole intervention level', the required depth of a pothole before action is taken, to be lowered or scrapped by Milton Keynes Council.
At present, a pothole in Milton Keynes needs to be at least 50mm deep before action is taken, with any 'shallower' potholes being rejected for work to take place.
Lib Dem Group Leader, Cllr Douglas McCall, said: “While the other two parties try and outdo each other with promises of the thousands of potholes they are going to repair, the Council says that at the end of March there were only 270 potholes on the system awaiting repair. That is because the Council is going out and measuring potholes and if they are not at least 50mm deep, not only are they not repairing them they are not even recording them as a pothole.”
He continued: “We believe that the intervention policy is wrong and needs to be scrapped or at the very least lowered to 30mm. Currently, there are thousands of potholes that the Council doesn’t even accept are potholes, so how are they ever going to get fixed?"
Meanwhile the Conservatives pledge to lower depth requirement for pothole repairs. They promised to review the depth for pothole repairs should they win the local elections on 3rd May.
Alex Walker, leader of the Conservitives in Milton Keynes said: ''The Labour/Lib Dem Council has been under pressure on its record for fixing potholes. In February it emerged that the Council had failed to spend £450k of ring-fenced Government funding through the pothole action fund. Furthermore, both parties voted to scrap the 28-day repair timeframe for potholes leaving them on the roads indefinitely.''
He continued: “It has become clear that the state of the roads is such a big issue for residents. Every door we go to it is the same story. It is time for change and it is time to do things differently. We will review the depth that defines a pothole.A serious option is looking at 40mm, it will stop potholes getting to a size to damage cars and it is cost effective in the long-term.”
Conservative Spokesperson for Transport and Highways Cllr John Bint said: “Labour and the Lib-dems have allowed our roads to fall into the worst state they have ever been. They have been complacent, voting to scrap the 28-day repair timeframe was misguided and will lead to more, larger potholes on our roads for longer. Lowering the depth for repairing potholes has been something I have wanted to do for a long time and I am pleased we can go into the election with this pledge to change the way things are done."
Peter Marland, the leader of the labour lead council said: “While the Tories seem endlessly fascinated by talking about potholes, we’re getting on with doing 20,000 more repairs. A few months ago we already took the decision to trial a scheme to fix more smaller potholes on estates, ironically using the money they now claim isn’t being spent. It’s already happening. It’s being done.''
He continues: ''We’ve also invested £200k extra to fix even more potholes using new technology. They will also find it very hard to re-instate the 28 day trigger given it hasn’t been scrapped. The only place it’s been scrapped is in Tory leaflets. They live in a fantasy world and have disengaged with reality. They literally have nothing else to say about the 250 other services MK Council delivers, the £144m cuts their Government have made or how they’d deal with £40m more cuts coming down the line. They deal with the truth like it’s an optional extra. They are not fit to lead this City at all.”
