Middlesbrough mayor says millions are needed to repair roads

A pothole blitz across the town last year aimed to put paid to troubles on the town’s roads.

But mayor Andy Preston conceded the “purge” – which fixed more than 25,000 holes and problems during 2020 – “didn’t go well” with “zero improvement” on the borough’s roads.

Mr Preston told Wednesday’s Middlesbrough Council meeting “drastic action” was needed before facing a grilling on his past comments. 

He told the chamber roads and potholes “dominated his inbox” and that he understood the frustration and anger people felt. 

The independent mayor claimed there was more spent on roads and potholes last year than in others – adding there was a “little bit of improvement, but not enough”. 

“It’s nowhere near enough,” said Mr Preston. 

“Over 10 years, the amount of money spent on roads has gone down and down – there’s been an underfunding of roads to a frightening extent. You can do that for one year and cut your budget – but you can’t cut it for 10 without massive consequences. 

“The massive consequences we all have now, is to put them right, and where they need to be for people taking their kids to school, people visiting their friends, getting a taxi for a night out or doing anything for business, we need to spend many millions.”

An extra £750,000 to help solve pothole problems was rubber stamped by council leaders in February for the upcoming financial year ahead.

But the mayor added the next two months would be a tough challenge for council bosses to find extra cash. 

“It’s going to be painful – but we can’t delay it any longer,” said Mr Preston. 

“The roads have been underfunded for 10 years and we’re now paying the price. 

“It almost doesn’t matter what we do – we have no choice but to do something really drastic.”

Cllr Matt Storey and Mayor Andy Preston

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The mayor came under pressure from Labour last week after he conceded the pothole purge of 2020 hadn’t gone well. 

Labour group leader Cllr Matt Storey was furious – branding it a “publicity stunt” given the council had called it “pioneering” and “a success” in the past.

He questioned the mayor once again about language used about the purge last year – urging leaders to “tread more carefully” in what they said. 

Cllr Storey added: “It was going to be the greatest the council had ever done in terms of potholes and was going to deliver so much across the town.

“Unfortunately, as the mayor said publicly, that had failed and when we talk in those terms we have to be really careful we don’t raise people’s expectations to the extent they expect every pothole to be fixed.

“People only end up more disappointed and angry after the event.”

Cllr Storey agreed pothole problems were critical but he wanted any new repair programme to be deliverable so people didn’t expect too much. 

Mr Preston believed the past programme was “brilliant” but was “nowhere near enough” to deal with the scale of the damage. 

He added: “It did far more than previous years but sadly I didn’t realise it would be nowhere near enough – I’m horrified now when I see the state of the roads for the medium term.

“We’re going to have to spend a lot of money. It’s been cut and cut – you can do that for one year, but in the end you have to face the music. 

“As a town, we’re going to have to face the music and accept the fact we need to invest millions and we will be coming back with a really solid proposal.”

New tech the answer?

Councillors in neighbouring Stockton are examining what can be done about its own crumbling roads in an ongoing probe. 

Its own budget is £1.6m short of the amount needed just to stop current blemishes from getting any worse. 

Stoke-on-Trent Council has worked alongside construction giant JCB in trialling a new pothole filling machine on its streets this year. 

Middlesbrough councillor Chris Hobson, member for Marton West, was concerned about potholes being filled one day and reappearing the next.

She added: “We’ve got areas in our ward where we must have had the potholes filled in 20 times.

“It would be much better done properly in the first place.”

Mr Preston told the chamber he’d had scores of people write to him about how to fill potholes faster and cheaper.

“They’re not all right – some of them are completely wrong,” he added.

“But we do need to keep listening and challenging and we’ll ask the head of the department to give us an explanation.”

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