Potholes blamed on 'decades' of underinvestment

An FOI obtained by the Lib Dems said there were 310,000 recorded road defects in Essex, but some may be duplicate issues recorded multiple times

The leader of Essex County Council said there had been a "degradation of our roads over the decades" and successive governments had not funded them properly.

Conservative Kevin Bentley told councillors there would never be a pothole-free road because of underinvestment over a number of years.

His comments came after the Liberal Democrats revealed in a council meeting there were 310,000 recorded road defects in Essex as of 1 October.

However, the figure - from a freedom of information (FOI) request - stated it may include duplicate defects that have been reported multiple times.

Conservative councillors argued the authority’s figures for potholes and defects were not accurate and some went back to 2012.

Lib Dem group leader Mike Mackrory described the number of potholes as "extraordinary".

The Conservative leader welcomed the extra money for road maintenance in Labour’s first budget in 14 years but said £500m divided between all the highways authorities was not enough.

"The last government didn’t put enough into it either,” he said.

Essex County Council's leader said successive governments had not invested enough in pothole and road repairs

Mr Bentley pointed to an extra £25m that was currently being spent resurfacing roads, cutting back vegetation, cleaning drains and improving road markings in Essex.

He said: "It’s one-off money, it can’t be repeated, we do have to get the roads in the best shape we can.

"It’s not an issue that’s going to get better on its own, it needs proper investment."

The cabinet member for finance added later at the corporate scrutiny committee that the country had not invested enough in highways since World War Two.

Chris Whitbread said Essex was doing the best it could on road maintenance and there had been £37m of additional investment in highways.

The FOI obtained by the Liberal Democratsstated £87.5m was being spent on "both preventative maintenance as well as repair and replacement works across all highway assets" this year.

Originally, £39.25m was budgeted in January for road maintenance this year but more money has been announced for various ways of carrying out road and highways repairs and maintenance.