Pothole problem? What problem? Milton Keynes judged the second BEST for repairs in the country

Roads in Milton Keynes are the second BEST in the entire country as far as potholes are concerned, a national survey has shown.
Potholes are the bane of driversPotholes are the bane of drivers
Potholes are the bane of drivers

But the same National Highways and Transport data reveals that public satisfaction in MK is low, with the city coming 42nd out of 112 councils.

In the final half of last year 10,310 potholes in MK were fixed by the council.

Cabinet member for Public Realm, Cllr Martin Gowans, said: “I am not surprised that MKC is the second best performing council in the country when it comes to potholes. However the public think we are not very good. So I want to see further improvements in performance and to try and get the public satisfaction up.”

He is now proposing to make changes in the way potholes are repaired. These include amending the current 50mm defect intervention levels on some roads to a universal 40mm level, meaning all potholes exceeding this depth will be considered for repair.

The council will also consider repairing defects greater than 300mm in width where the surface layer has split from the rest of the road.

Altering the levels for when the council intervene and fill a pothole should make a big difference to the state of MK roads, say Labour.

From now they will change the criteria for shallow defects if they are close to a larger pothole.

Instead of the smaller pothole not deemed serious enough for repair, it will now be filled at the same time as a more serious neighbouring hole.

Councillor Gowans said: “The revised service leads to a longer term planned maintenance approach funded by capital spending, rather than a simple repairs service that costs more per pothole.”

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