'The administration needs to get a grip of this' - Dudley councillors’ road rage over grit bins and potholes
Dudley’s politicians have been venting their road rage taking pot shots at each other about the borough’s highways.
On January 11, the authority’s Conservative-run administration collected an amber assessment for its overall performance in a new government survey on road maintenance, while the recent cold snap sparked a row over grit bins being removed or not refilled.
Dudley’s Labour opposition is keeping up pressure on the issue. Cllr Adeela Qayyum has been out touring grit bin locations in her St Thomas’s ward where she says she discovered empty or inaccessible bins along with potholes which posed a risk to road users.
Cllr Qayyum said: “From my experience of visiting over 50 grit bin locations across the ward, the story being put forward by the Conservative administration simply doesn’t stack up.
“Grit bin after grit bin was empty, with only a few containing the smallest leftovers of grit.
“At the same time, I encountered some of the deepest and most dangerous potholes I have seen.
“This reflects the publication of Dudley’s recent ‘amber’ performance rating for road maintenance, where standards are inconsistent and fall short of best practice, rather than claims that the council is on top of it.
“Residents are left dealing with empty grit bins and dangerous roads. The administration needs to get a grip of this”
Conservative councillor Simon Phipps, cabinet member for economy and infrastructure, hit back saying the council’s strategy is moving away from short-term fixes to full road resurfacing.
He said: “I find it ironic that some Labour councillors complain about the lack of preventative maintenance because that type of maintenance is mainly called Surface Dressing, where a layer of stones are put on top of the road so essentially the stones break up rather than the actual road surface underneath. It’s messy and not very appealing to motorists.
“We get complaints from those councillors when we do this, yet the same councillors complain when it’s not done.
“They’re simply grandstanding and being hypocritical to get a headline.
“Our programme of road resurfacing will focus on full road reconstructions to get our highways in a better shape.
“Not only that, but the work done to resurface our roads by contractors is now guaranteed for five years, so any issues with resurfacing will be put right at their expense, not the taxpayer’s.
“It’s another case of being quick to criticise in opposition, but when Labour were in control they left us with a severely degraded road network which we are still catching up to repair.”
With forecasters predicting a cold snap for the last week of January, Cllr Phipps has ordered a review of gritting services and empty grit bins to be refilled ‘as necessary’.
Meanwhile Labour is demanding an extraordinary meeting of the council to debate a motion calling for grit bins removed following a cost-cutting review to be replaced.
The motion also calls for an immediate halt to further bin removals and consultation with ward councillors and residents to identify where bins are needed.
