Cornwall Council vice-chairman demands action on potholes

Cornwall Council's vice-chairman says he is "fed up" with the state of the roads in the town he represents.

Conservative councillor for Bethel and Holmbush Jordan Rowse said on Facebook he had "never seen so many potholes in St Austell".

He said he had raised the issue with Cornwall's roads chief and the council's leader.

The council said it ran a "robust inspection and repair regime" and carried out regular safety inspections.

The council added that it had received an additional £5m from central government last year to tackle potholes and the authority also announced an uplift of £9.1m of capital funding for road improvements, including resurfacing, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

In his Facebook post, Mr Rowse said: "I have to say I am pretty fed up with the state of the roads in St Austell at the minute.

"I have never seen so many potholes.

"I understand the weather has been shockingly wet, which does not help; but, even so, the state of the roads is the number one issue in my inbox right now."

He urged road engineers from Cormac to "get on top of the backlog" and asked locals to tell him of any potholes so he could add them to his "ever-growing list".

A council spokesman said about £40m a year was invested in maintaining the county's 4,530 mile-long (7,250km) road network and it repaired 35,071 potholes last year, with 98% of the worst ones fixed within 48 hours.

The council said: "We operate a robust inspection and repair regime.

"We carry out safety inspections on a regular basis on our entire highway network.

"Resources are prioritised to fix potholes that have formed due to the recent very wet weather and when there is a cold snap."

The council added potholes could develop quickly and asked people to report them online when they spotted one.

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