Pothole repairs described as a "dog’s dinner"

A series of patchwork pothole repairs in a Derbyshire street have been dubbed a “dog’s dinner” with the authority’s leader saying that workers had not done a “particularly good job”.

Cllr Simon Mabbott, Reform councillor for Ilkeston South and Kirk Hallam on Derbyshire County Council, raised concerns about road repairs carried out in Amilda Avenue, Ilkeston.

In a post on Facebook, he dubbed the repairs a “dog’s dinner”, saying he used the term “repair” “loosely”.

This followed two different sets of repairs to the street at its junction with Park Road, with a set of spray paint marks forecasting a third batch of patches.

Cllr Mabbott said he was on a “pothole mission” and has so far received 20 tip-offs about problem areas in his division from residents.

In a video on his Facebook page he also highlighted potholes which had gathered water in Queens Avenue, Lime Tree Rise and Buckminster Road, Braefield Close – all in Ilkeston – and urged residents to continue reporting issues to the council.

This comes after the council detailed that it would cost £1.5 billion to bring the county’s roads up to a sufficient standard – 185 times its current annual funding level.

Cllr Mabbott, who was elected in May, said: “Well, they don’t look particularly great, do they?

“On the main roads you don’t really see this, but you do on the side roads.

“I have had a few emails from highways and not had a great response like ‘we will get on with that’ and I thought, I am here to represent the people of Ilkeston and Kirk Hallam and you have only got to take one look at it to see it is not fantastic, though it is not finished.

“I want to try and get on top of some of these repairs and you can’t repair what you don’t know is there.

“I know the county council have been out in the area repairing potholes since my post and I guess sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette.

“On face value, I think everyone agreed, it didn’t look particularly great.” 

Cllr Alan Graves, Reform leader of the county council, said: “It seems like the council haven’t been doing a particularly good job on that junction and we will be making sure that this sort of thing gets ironed out.

“To me, the biggest concern is that they kept going back to it and that is a cost. I don’t understand why highways officers thought that was acceptable or how this situation arose but they are very much aware that we need them to be better than that and they have taken that on board.”

Asked about the issue of pothole repairs often being carried out but others a matter of yards away being left for future jobs, Cllr Graves said: “Our cabinet member for highways is very much well aware of that and she wants to give the people doing the roadworks the autonomy to say ‘actually we need to do that other little bit as well’ to resolve that issue and that is slowly getting through.”

Cllr Graves said that communication around areas where short-term repairs are carried out ahead of bigger patches could be improved.