Council’s £60m roads backlog

IT will cost £60m to deal with the backlog of road surfacing work in Kirklees.

The figure was given to us by the council this week after we put to it a list of roads readers thought were in need of repair work.

Last week the Asphalt Industry Alliance published a report which estimated that local authorities across England and Wales spent £90m repairing potholes last year.

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The report said: “This year’s survey reveals the sorry legacy of historic underfunding of the local authority highway maintenance service after three successive periods of severe winter weather.

“The number of complaints received from the general public increased by 10 per cent over the last year, amounting to an average of over 12,500 received by each authority in England, excluding London.”

We asked you to let us know which roads drove you mad in North Kirklees, so we could ask the council what it was doing about them.

Top of your list of pothole-riddled roads was High Street in Westtown, but Kirklees Council has no immediate plans to fix it.

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A spokeswoman said it would be put forward for consideration for 2012/13.

Other roads you’re not happy with were, Crossley Lane, Mirfield; Healds Road, near Dewsbury and District Hospital; Burghmill Lane in Ravensthorpe; Old Bank Road, Earlsheaton; Calder Road, Ravensthorpe; High Street, Thornhill; Tinsel Road, Dewsbury; Wellington Street, Dewsbury; Chapel fold just off Grange Street, Staincliffe and Dale Lane and Raikes Lane in Birstall.

The council spokeswoman said from the list only Calder Road was due to be resurfaced and that work was ongoing. But she said that work at Edge Avenue and Overthorpe Avenue, in Thornhill, and Solway Road, in Soothill, was being done.

She added: “There are many streets that could be resurfaced if budgets were not so constrained but relatively few can be surfaced in 2012/13.”

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External surveyors rate the state of roads and the worst roads are identified for work. However, priority is given to busier roads.

The spokeswoman added: “Whilst there is a list for repair, funding restricts what can be achieved and this leads to a maintenance backlog.”

The council said that the backlog for road surfacing works in Kirklees was currently estimated at £60m.

l What do you think? Write to us using the details on page 2.