Thaw brings relief and repairs

By lbishop

The severe weather has caused £1 million-worth of damage to Surrey's roads, according to the county council.

Ice, snow and frost over the last month has lead to some 8,000 potholes in the county's roads that need fixing.

To deal with the problem the county council has now pledged an additional £500,000 to deal with potholes.

Dr Andrew Povey, the leader of the council, said: "For the past week our highways teams have been working around the clock tackling the snow. Now that most of the snow has cleared, our top priority is to tackle as a matter of urgency the potholes that have been forming all over the county.

"We are aiming to fix at least 200 potholes a day until the job is done. This extra money is on top of the annual budget for pothole repairs."

According to the council it has 25 repair teams out carrying out the repairs and, if necessary, will bring in extra contractors.

It will focus on A roads first, as they carry the most traffic. After repairing these roads it will focus on others.

Alec Garnham, of Dowlans Road, Bookham, says he has seen some very deep potholes around the county following the thaw.

He believes that potholes will continue to be a problem as long as the county council continues to use the same methods of filling them.

"The biggest problem is the fact that the manner in which they repair these holes has changed in the last 20 years, going away from using tar. They have now gone over to a composite bitumen which has less adhesion than tar used to have.

"When they do the repair they put a dollop of it into the hole, give it a compacting with the lorry, but a little bit of frost underneath it will make it all come out again," he said.

North Holmwood resident Lawrence Pope says that potholes in the Dorking area are also bad.

Mr Pope, of Lake View, said: "Everywhere you go you have potholes. I went to Crawley, driving down Blackbrook Road, and that is terrible.

"You have to watch how you drive and avoid them but I drove back in the dark and you can't see them."

Peter Frewer lives by the A25 at Westcott Road, Dorking.

He said: "I have got a little sports car that has not been very happy going over potholes.

"Some of them look like they are up to six inches deep."

But he added that the council had started to patch up some of the holes on the road.

The council will also be asking the Department for Transport for extra funding to carry out road repairs.

Dr Povey continued: "We will be asking the DfT to consider Surrey's financial shortfall following the extreme weather.

"But it's important that we as a council do our bit and find the money needed to help address the immediate problem of particular concern to local residents."