Medway Council calling for £50m from government to get potholes repaired

KentOnline / KMTV

The authority that looks after roads in Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham, and Rainham says they simply don't have the money to deal with the growing number of potholes across the area.

Transcript

00:00Medway drivers say this is becoming more and more common.

00:05Potholes aren't unique to Medway, but according to the council, it's home to 2,000 of them,

00:11although some residents think there's even more than that.

00:14I think there's probably 2,000 in this stretch of road, to be honest.

00:17There's no way that the council could fill them all in, to be honest.

00:21Every road, and they're throwing stones in them and they're coming out and all down the sides of the roads

00:26and they're flicking up and they're dangerous.

00:29I've seen potholes marked with white paint, the white paint's washed away and nothing's been done.

00:35Down there, we have this in the middle, so most of the time you try to avoid it,

00:40so that you don't get the bottom of your car a little bit dented.

00:44And one Gillingham garage says they've been inundated with drivers furious at broken springs or flat tyres,

00:51often due to potholes.

00:53If a coil spring is broken, you're probably looking at about £40 for the spring

00:57and £80-odd for the labour.

00:59Before you know it, it's £120, you know, if there isn't any other damage.

01:04So, yeah, it can be quite costly, really.

01:07And now the council wants an extra £50 million to fix them.

01:11Bosses have written to the Minister for Roads saying the condition of the roads is compromising safety.

01:17They've invited Guy Opperman to Medway to discuss this further.

01:21Residents in Medway have been saying to us that the state of roads in Medway

01:25are at a position where they feel unsafe.

01:27That's something we're reacting to as best as we can.

01:30And if he turns around and says, I can't afford that, what are you going to do?

01:33Because clearly the council also can't afford to fix all those potholes.

01:36Look, we will do whatever we can within the budget we currently have.

01:40We'll continue to lobby if he doesn't give us a positive outcome.

01:43The Department for Transport says it's already given Medway £3.5 million

01:48over the next two years for its roads

01:51and an additional £400,000 from reallocated HS2 funding.

01:56They say they've not yet received the letter but will reply once they do.

02:00This is the road that's set to get the most of the pot of money.

02:03It's set to get more than £100,000.

02:06So that's more than a quarter of the money is going into this road, City Way.

02:09It's the main road into Rochester.

02:11So it's a pretty busy road and prone to damage on the surface.

02:15Ten other roads in Rochester, Gillingham and Chatham have also been earmarked for repairs.

02:20But one part of Medway feels forgotten about.

02:23A Lib Dem in Raynham says their roads are just as bad

02:27but they don't seem to be getting a share of this pot of money.

02:30The roads up and down Wickmore, Raynham are also patches that we really need even repaving.

02:37So you can see over the years Medway Council has been doing small patches of fixing

02:42and those patches have simply just been torn off and worn off

02:46and needs a lot more fixing over the years.

02:49So it seems the Council's journey into eliminating the thousands of potholes here is just beginning.

02:55But residents feel there will still be bumps in the road in the near future

02:59before they're driving safely once again.

03:02Sophia Akin for KMTV in Medway.

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