Cheshire East Council’s approach to potholes beggars belief.

From inspecting roads and deciding they don’t need repairing, to only fixing certain potholes on a road and leaving others next to them unfilled – it is ridiculous.

And the excuse of pressures on the budget doesn’t wash. Councils have had extra money, last year, this year and will be getting extra money next year and for foreseeable years for pothole repairs and resurfacing. 

On Canute Place in Knutsford we have the ludicrous situation where only certain potholes on the roads have been filled and I have just received a letter from a council director about pot holes in Wilmslow where it is claimed the road was inspected and deemed fine – to which I replied that was nonsense and a further inspection was needed immediately.

These are just two of the many examples of either shoddy work or no work by Cheshire East Council across Tatton and Cheshire East.

What we are seeing is a lack of action and a lack of clear direction to repair the roads. It is apparent now that they do not have a proper structure in place to fix the roads and use the excuse it doesn’t fit ‘their criteria’. 

This ‘criteria’ was changed in 2019 by the Labour administration and specifies a pothole must meet a certain depth to qualify for repair.

But, because the tarmac which sits on top of the underlay is fairly thin on some of our roads, large sections of the road could be damaged but would still not meet the repair criteria.

This needs to change as does the inspection process. 

Potholes affect every area of the constituency. The road my office is on in Wilmslow, Chapel Lane, is no different.

There are large craters in the roads and it is just unbelievable the council doesn’t think it’s in need of repair. Businesses and residents on this road are deeply frustrated.

Neither they nor I can believe the state of the road fails the Cheshire East test for repair – and I have appealed this ludicrous decision on their behalf.

Government awarded Cheshire East an additional £3.35 million in recent months (on top of the expected pothole allocations) to fix our roads.

The council has a responsibility to spend that money wisely and repair as many holes as possible not waste it by being inefficient and not showing common sense. 

I’ve asked for another meeting with council bosses as it is obvious to me and others, there needs to be a better way of doing things.