Pothole repairs pouring money into a black hole

HEADLINES over road repairs raise a huge question mark yet again over our Conservative council’s ability to spend our money wisely.

Judging by the quality of the pothole repairs carried out to date by contractor Balfour Beatty, this will be £3.5 million worth of tarmac washed away by the next lot of torrential rain.

From repairs carried out on Hoarwithy Road, Winstone Road and on the Haywood to Callow road, the evidence is that all the tarmac dabbed into these potholes has lasted less than two to three weeks.

Is Balfour Beatty actually getting paid by Herefordshire council for this?

Is there anyone left on the staff with the ability or the time to check these repairs?

Surely after 12 years of talking about a scheduled programme for properly resurfacing our roads, one by one, our Conservative council could have initiated such a scheme.

And should it not also, after 12 years of allowing Jarvis, Amey and now Balfour Beatty to throw tarmac into potholes, have, by now, worked out a quality tested and agreed method for repairing the county’s roads?

Or are our potholes to remain “black holes” forever, draining away millions of pounds of our money into the hands of large scale public companies?

Councillor Aubrey Oliver (St Martins and Hinton Ward) Hoarwithy Road, Hereford