Essex Potholes May Not Got Fixed Sooner

1 September 2014, 07:26

The new man in charge of fixing Essex's roads has told Heart he cannot guarantee potholes will be repaired any quicker.

County Councillor Eddie Johnson takes on the new Highways Maintenance and Small Schemes portfolio from today and has already been dubbed the council's "Mr Potholes".

The portfolio is a new one having previously been part of the Highways and Transportation portfolio currently under the control of Councillor Rodney Bass.

Despite this new focus, Councillor Johnson says roads may not repaired quicker than they do at the moment: "Potholes will get fixed in a managed way.

"We have a criteria that denotes whether a pothole gets fixed in 48 hours, a week or two weeks. That won't change.

"Dangerous potholes get fixed immediately and other potholes get programmed."

He insists the council is committed to keeping Essex moving though: "This year we have spent £53 million pounds. That's tens of millions of pounds on our roads and we are making a great improvement.

"We are going to be fixing the 700 worst roads in Essex but it won't stop there we'll be fixing more roads after that.

"We will get to you, we will fix your roads."

Councillor Johnson had previously been Essex County Council's Deputy Cabinet Member Highways and Transportation.