Express & Star

Repairs hope for Birmingham's "worst road"

Hope has grown that one of Birmingham’s ‘worst’ roads will be repaired after the city council’s highways boss went along to see it for himself.

Published
Councillor Alex Yip speaks to Councillor Waseem Zaffar, cabinet member for transport and highways, on Broadfields Road

Broadfields Road in Wylde Green, Sutton Coldfield, has been a casualty of the long-running dispute between Birmingham City Council and highways contractor Amey.

The route has been branded ‘dangerous’ due to the sheer number of potholes, chips and cracks.

For three years ward councillor Alex Yip (Cons) has campaigned for it to be resurfaced on behalf of residents who have also completed two petitions.

Recently he managed to get transport and environment chief Cllr Waseem Zaffar (Lab, Lozells) to take a look at the damage first-hand.

“This is one of the worst roads in the city and we will take on board the comments made by Cllr Yip on behalf of local residents,” said Cllr Zaffar.

Cllr Yip added: “I am immensely grateful to Waseem for meeting me on Broadfields Road so he can see the dangerous state of the road, the potholes, chips and patches across its surface first-hand, and feel the misery of residents.

“This long neglected road is in desperate need of resurfacing and I will not stop lobbying simply because it is the right thing to do.”

Earlier this year the council and Amey agreed to prematurely end their 25-year roads maintenance contract – after just nine years – following a number of disputes over the standard of work.

Amey, which will fork out an undisclosed multi-million pound sum to settle the disagreements, will continue to fix the roads on an interim basis until at least April 2020 or when a replacement contractor is found.

Recently it was revealed the council had paid out nearly £25,000 in two years following 104 successful claims for vehicle damage caused by potholes during the period.

Amey reimbursed the authority for the sums.