North London borough littered with broken roads and footpaths has extra £6m set aside to sort them
A North London council has approved plans to spend an extra £6m on resurfacing the roads and footways in the borough. The measure will include rolling out the new ‘pothole squad’ with machines to repair and refill the many holes that have become a nuisance for drivers and pedestrians quicker and make them longer lasting.
The budget was approved at a meeting of Harrow Council’s Cabinet last week (July 25), with the most urgent defects to be prioritised first. The local authority agreed a £240,000 programme earlier in the year to fix some of the worst affected roads but the additional £6m will be a ‘boost’ towards a wider resurfacing scheme.
Cabinet member for finance and highways, Cllr David Ashton, outlined the council’s aim to ‘cosmetically improve’ the look of the borough but making sure ‘the worst roads are targeted first’. He also suggested the additional funds will allow for resurfacing works to be carried out on roads which didn’t meet the criteria for pothole repairs.
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Cllr Ashton said: "One of the problems is what looks like a pothole to you and me is not a pothole because road surfaces differ - some are concrete with an overlay of tarmac and others aren’t. So, you might have what looks like a hole in the road but it doesn’t meet the so-called specifications."
It was announced in January that the council's highways contractor, JB Riney, will assemble a new 'pothole squad' to find and fix potholes quickly throughout the borough. By using the new £165,000 Pothole Pro JCB machine, repair work can be carried out in as little as eight minutes.
The council will now explore using other machinery, such as for thermal road repairs, which it claims are 'great for the environment, cost effective and get the job done quickly'. With this type of equipment there is minimal waste, the materials are recycled, and the repairs last longer.
Last year more than 1,500 potholes were repaired across the borough. The council said this new financial boost will ‘complement the additional funding and also the road resurface works which have already been planned in’. Harrow’s more than 450km of road network and 930km of footways have been assessed for ‘damage and defects’ - with this condition data set to dictate the prioritisation of repairs.
Cllr Ashton said: "Residents always tell us about the state of some of our roads. This last year we’ve done a lot to repair roads in disrepair, but we know more needs to be done. That’s why we’re investing more to permanently fix potholes and defects. Using state of the art machinery, and our dedicated pothole squad, will help to fix even more potholes and ensure long lasting repairs."
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