Council criticised for applying surface dressing which it claims will make Milton Keynes roads last longer
Milton Keynes City Council has been criticised for applying surface dressing to roads across the city during the current hot spell of weather.
The authority claims the practice ‘helps to prolong the life of the road and stop some potholes forming.’
However, comments on the council’s Facebook post claim the surface dressing practice is ‘dangerous’, and ‘does not do a proper job.’
Concerns have also been expressed that it does not work in the heat, with Buckinghamshire Council’s Highways department reporting that some roads in the county that have recently been surface dressed have been affected by the warm weather.
The authority has introduced temporary speed reductions on the A413 between Winslow and Buckingham, the A413 between Buckingham and the county boundary towards Lillingstone Lovell, and the road between Nash and Beachampton.
The news of the temporary speed reductions came after Milton Keynes City Council posted on social media: “We’re applying surface dressing, which has a strong core of stone chippings to some rural and residential roads around Milton Keynes, as well as to parts of the V4 and H8.
“This preventative treatment is best done in warm, dry weather and it can help to prolong the life of the road and stop some potholes forming.
“You might hear and feel a difference when you first drive on a newly dressed road, but that’s only while the material beds in.”
Commenters on the council’s Facebook page were not impressed at the news with one writing: “It's a bodge job and dangerous for motorcyclists - you should be doing the job properly.”
Another wrote: “It's a cheap and nasty way to do the job. Chippings impact your paintwork, stick in your tyres and to your underbody and crack your windscreen if you're unlucky - nor do they mend established potholes which quickly open up again.”
A third comment wrote: “Hopefully surface dressing using granite chips will soon be consigned to history.
“As recent experience across the country has shown our climate is now too warm for this procedure to work.”
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