Stafford councillor’s call to declare 'emergency' over state of county's roads is voted down
A newly-elected county councillor has spoken out after his call to declare Staffordshire is facing a “roads emergency” was voted down by fellow members.
Jack Rose became the authority’s sole Green Party member after being elected to serve the Stafford West and Rural division at May’s election – and he presented his motion raising concerns about the state of the county’s roads at his first full council meeting.
He said: “The state of our county highways is now at breaking point – road users risk damage to their vehicles and injury to themselves travelling on our roads and it is unacceptable. It is time now for us all to hold Highways and their contractor Amey to account and demand that proactive action is taken.”
Councillor Rose urged fellow members to formally declare that Staffordshire faces a roads emergency and asked for a debate on the state of the county’s highways, providing a “clear plan of action to tackle the issue, in a cost-effective and logical manner”.
He also called for the county council to establish joint committees with each district and borough authority to discuss road maintenance and improvements, as well as requesting the council leader and chief executive to write to the Secretary of State for Transport, calling on central government to provide an additional one-off lump sum to enable councils to provide a start on clearing the backlog of repairs.
Labour member Syed Hussain, who congratulated Councillor Rose on his motion, said potholes were "probably" the most-discussed issue on the doorstep during the election period. He added: “It is clear that action is needed now.
“While we have challenges, we have also had significant achievements. Since I was elected, in my [Burton] constituency of Anglesey and Stapenhill, we have resurfaced over 70 roads and that’s no small feat.
“As much as we have achieved, there is still work to do. We must use funds wisely and the Government is clear they will hold back 25 per cent of uplift until we show results.
“It’s up to us to ensure funds make a real difference. Let’s fix the roads and keep working together to improve our roads, support local businesses and make life better for all who live in Staffordshire or travel to Staffordshire.”
The motion failed to gain enough support from other councillors however. Fellow Stafford representative, Conservative councillor Ann Edgeller, was one of the members who spoke against it.
She said: “Highways and potholes are a county issue, not a borough problem. As you are a Stafford Borough councillor, and I am also, I don’t believe in the borough delving into county remit.
“Leave well alone and let the county get on with doing the job – that is why I cannot support this motion. In Stafford alone we have spent £1.5m on the A34 Stone Road, Stafford Western Access Route £65m, Levelling Up fund for the A34 £8m, not to mention the Stafford Gateway.”
Fellow Conservative Councillor Philip White, now the authority’s opposition group leader, said: “This is one of our big challenges as a country, the condition of our roads. I don’t think there’s anybody who travels on the roads who would not say the roads in this country need sorting out.
“We are seeing the effects of many years of underinvestment in our roads under both Labour and Conservative governments. We have called for many years as Conservatives for proper funding for our highways – it’s the universal service all of our residents use and we need that problem resolved.
“We support the sentiment of this motion. But unfortunately we can’t support the detail in it – the proposals in the motion, if they were enacted, would make the situation worse, not better.”
Reform UK is now in charge of the council after the party won 49 out of 62 seats in the May elections. The previous Conservative majority on the authority was cut to just 10 members.
Newly elected council leader Ian Cooper said at the full meeting: “We have looked at what Councillor Rose has said and we share the sentiment as well. The state of the roads across the county, and the UK in general, is pretty shocking.
“We do support the sentiment. But I’m afraid we cannot support this motion.”
Speaking after the meeting, Councillor Rose said: “Staffordshire’s roads are full of potholes and it was the number one issue on the doorstep before the election. I proposed a motion to get something done.
“Did my motion seek to tie the council into spending millions it doesn’t have, or perhaps borrow an unaffordable sum to pay for the repairs? No – it simply called for council members to have a debate about what could be done, to work with borough councils across the county to prioritise road maintenance and to write to the Government to ask for a one-off lump sum to go towards fixing the potholes.
“I’m pretty sure people who voted Reform wanted them to take action. But now we know, when it comes to fixing potholes, Reform doesn’t even want to talk about it.”
