Extra resources needed to deal with Kirklees pothole crisis as winter causes surge road damage

Sub-zero temperatures along with snow and rain create the perfect mix of conditions for an increase in potholes.

Kirklees Council said the weather conditions over the last month has meant that new potholes have appeared in higher numbers than in past winters.

Extra resources are now needed to repair the worst potholes within the next few weeks, with eight teams currently tasked with the job.

The potholes will be repaired according to the date they were reported and grouped into areas to ensure efficiency.

Unfortunately, isolated pothole repairs do not make the road surface immune to more damage from water or ice and potholes can reappear on previously repaired roads.

This is why the Kirklees Council Cabinet have recently approved an £11.8million programme that will resurface over 120 unclassified roads, providing a permanent repair to some of the roads most in need of it.

Councillor Naheed Mather, Cabinet Member for Environment said, “Potholes are an issue that we face all year round but in winter they appear more frequently. Unfortunately, the nature of them means we are not able to deal with them until after they appear. We understand that this is an issue that is important to all those that use our roads and that is why we have allocated extra resources to address the problem.”

This latest investment of time and money follows the £3.2 million investment in repairing hotspots on unclassified roads during the summer and autumn months last year to provide some protection for the road network before the winter season.