Council draft in extra crews to deal with Bedford potholes

Bedford Borough Council has had to call in additional crews to keep on top of the number of potholes in the town.

As staff have had to deal with the sudden drop in temperature, carrying out more than 50 gritting runs this winter, it's had an impact on the roads.

In a statement from the council, a spokesman said: "Gritting or salting of the roads is vital to stop ice forming and keep motorists, cyclists and pedestrians safe. The grit is, however, bad for the road surface and the amount that the council has had to spread is partly responsible for the high number of potholes and road defects that have appeared this winter."

It added that the same highway crews responsible for gritting have to fill in the potholes too.

The spokesman added: "Because they need 'downtime' after working through the night, the council has drafted in additional pothole crews this winter, to make sure they can keep gritting and keep on top of pothole repairs."

In this year’s winter maintenance period so far (October 2019 - March 2020), the council has already filled more than 1,500 more potholes than the same period last year, from around 2,000 to more than 3,600.

Cllr Charles Royden, portfolio holder for highways, said: “It can be something of a vicious circle - we have to grit the roads, but the grit in combination with the weather causes real damage to our roads. At the same time our crews are working late at night and early in the morning to make sure we’re getting the roads gritted and safe, doing even more runs than last year, so they can’t be out doing their normal roads maintenance work.

“That is why we have drafted in extra pothole crews, to help keep on top of the spike in pothole and road defects we have seen this winter.”

The gritting crews have used about 800 more tonnes of salt than they had by this time last year, spreading nearly 4,500 tonnes of salt across Bedford's roads since October 2019.