Action plan on Staffordshire potholes

A ten-week blitz will be carried out on Staffordshire's potholed roads after £4million was found to repair the damage caused by the coldest December on record.

More than 600 potholes were reported following the winter's freezing conditions, and Councillor Mike Maryon, the county's cabinet member for highways and transport, has called for "immediate action".

He said the funding would also be used to speed up the road reconstruction programmes which have already had a a £30m injection over three years.

He said: "I have asked the highways team for immediate action. We have gone through the highways' budget with a fine tooth-comb and by rephasing other works programmes we have identified a way to boost our investment in the roads by another £4m."

There are two parts to the recovery plan.

From next week, 10 extra road construction teams will be drafted in to carry out work on some of the worst-affected roads, working alongside Staffordshire's existing highways crews.

They will use equipment to permanently patch large defective areas of road.

"Pothole repairs are cheaper but much less resilient than complete resurfacing," Councillor Mike Maryon added.

"So instead of repairing individual potholes, wherever possible, we will be grouping them together to repair in large areas that have been planed out and resurfaced. This makes sure we get the maximum value for money.

"But where roads have reached the end of their life, even this sort of patching does not provide a lasting solution. This is where the second part of the plan comes in."

The county council has agreed to enhance road reconstruction programmes, and an extra 62 miles of road have been replaced in the past 18 months.

A large chunk of the extra £4m will be used to speed up these programmes.