City on right road with drive to repair potholes

I WOULD like to respond to Lib Dem leader Coun Stewart Golton’s letter relating to the council’s recently announced pothole offensive.

Firstly, contrary to the comments of Coun Golton, the money that is being diverted to “just filling in potholes” is actually being used to make proper and lasting repairs to both potholes that have already appeared and other areas of highway that could deteriorate in the very near future. The money is therefore being invested in both reactive and proactive works.

It is true that if we avoid undertaking bigger road resurfacing schemes for a prolonged period then this is simply “storing up” problems.

However, we are more than aware of the current state of the roads in Leeds and this is why we are starting this initiative now to give the roads greater resilience this coming winter and reduce inconvenience to road users.

Given the unprecedented constraints on budgets, now is the time to look again at the way in which we spend our road maintenance funds – and this is exactly what we have done.

On top of this, we have been having to deal with the effects of the severe weather experienced over the last 12 months without any additional help from the Government when we most needed it.

I would however like to reassure residents that in Leeds we have strong maintenance regimes in place to monitor road conditions.

From: William Scholfield, Horsforth, Leeds.

STILL no evidence of the pothole repairs on the A65 that Leeds Council bosses were promising back in February. When will the excuses end? It must be the most inefficient council in Britain when it comes to basic services that local residents actually pay for via the council tax.