A Herefordshire resident waging a decade-long campaign over the county’s potholes problem claims the same mistakes are still being made.
“I have had terrible trouble with potholes locally,” semi-retired roads engineer Stephen Forman, who lives down a single-track road near Cradley in the east of the county, said.
After a nearby resident hit a pothole outside his house earlier this month, he wrote to all 53 county councillors to highlight the wider problem, suggesting the council could face insurance issues over future pothole damage claims.
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Two days later, the potholes were repaired.
“Threats often make people pay attention,” the 77-year-old said.
In an earlier attempt to fix the potholes, contractors “had not been provided with the correct equipment, signage or full specification for the works”, he explained.
“Now they have nearly done it right. But water will get in the edges and the frost-thaw cycle will undermine the new patch. It needs a proper cut, then two layers of tarmac, then the joints sealed.”
This is only the latest salvo in a campaign he has been waging for nearly ten years.
Having observed highways maintenance work by successive county roads contractors Amey, Balfour Beatty and now M Group, Mr Forman claimed Herefordshire Council “don’t check anything”.
“I have asked for copies of the inspections, but haven’t received them,” he said. “They don’t know how to run a pothole repair contract – there is no quality control, no incentive to get it right.”
He added the problem is wider in that utilities companies will also dig up roads “then not follow the spec when they backfill”.
Back in the 1990s by contrast, Severn Trent Water would take core samples of his firm’s miles of trench reinstatement “to check we had done it right”.
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Now with increasing traffic on the county’s rural roads, and greater use of heavier electric-powered vehicles, he fears the problem is only likely to worsen.
A Herefordshire Council spokesperson said it is currently investing £37 million in the county’s roads, footways and public spaces.
“Since appointing M Group as our highways contractor in May, every carriageway defect repair is inspected to ensure it meets the required quality standard,” they said.
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