By Viv Robins,Clerk to the Parish Council
In a culmination of the energetic campaign on potholes waged by this Newsletter, the Group Manager of Transportation at Bucks County Council, Mark Averill, was invited to address a meeting of The Lee Parish Council on 10th July.
Around 30 people crowded into the Parish Hall to hear Mr Averill defend the Council’s record in the face of widespread criticism of the number of potholes on roads in the Parish and the perceived reluctance to pay out compensation to drivers whose vehicles had been damaged by them.
Mr Averill pointed out that the re-surfacing of roads was paid for out of the County’s capital budget which he said had been set at an unfeasibly low level – £5m this year instead of £7.6 to £7.8m – as a result of government constraints. Furthermore much of this budget had gone towards maintaining drainage systems or had been disproportionately spent on road damage in the north of the county.
Several members of the public complained that perfectly legitimate claims for compensation for damage caused by potholes were being turned down. One estimated that his claim for £43 had probably cost the Council about £300 to resist. Mr Averill confirmed that the Council repudiated between 80% and 85% of all claims – otherwise he said it risked haemorrhaging the whole of its maintenance budget on them. And he pointed out that every time it did pay out, the cost was borne by the taxpayer.
One member of the audience who organised weekly cycle rides in the Chilterns took issue with the County Council’s definition of a pothole. He said he had broken his elbow when his bicycle hit a pothole in Potter Row but was told it didn’t meet the criteria for a hole in need of urgent repair.
Mr Averill confirmed that the Council’s definition of a dangerous defect was a hole that was 300 mm in any direction and more than 40 mm deep. A hole up to one foot wide did not qualify.
However he told the meeting that the Council was currently seeking to relax the criteria and be a bit less dogmatic.
Mr Averill dealt with a number of questions and afterwards there seemed to be a general sense of optimism that he had taken parishioners’ concerns on board.