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Page 14
TAKE ONE
Suffering from the pothole plague as roads deteriorate By Owen Hughes POTHOLE busters have been mobilised to fix Hampshire’s crumbling roads after the recent cold snap. Hampshire Highways will send out extra pothole buster gangs to tackle the worst of the damage on the roads following a bitterly cold winter which caused massive potholes to appear across the county. Councillor Rob Humby, executive member for environment and transport at Hampshire County Council, said: “We’ve got a massive challenge on our hands. “The damage infl icted by snow and ice countywide on Hampshire’s roads is severe. “With a multi-million pound repair bill on our hands, we’ve mobilised extra pothole buster gangs to go out immediately to make interim repairs and, with our budgets already under pressure, have had to re-programme planned maintenance work.” Basingstoke and Deane Liberal Democrats have heaped pressure on Hampshire County Council to address the town’s pothole problem. Cllr Andy Konieczko said: “Basingstoke’s roads are being left to deteriorate and we’re all suffering from the resulting pothole plague. “Large potholes in Bliss Close were marked out by the council in white paint more than 12 months ago but the council hasn’t fi xed them yet and the markings are now beginning to fade. That’s not acceptable.
“Major defects on Sullivan Road haven’t been touched since they were reported and marked out back in January.” Cllr Humby added that without significant extra national funding to repair the roads around Hampshire, it is “likely to take around 12 months” to get the road network to the same condition it was in before winter. “Reports of the RAC’s ‘fears’ that the cold snap will result in more potholes are absolutely correct,” he said. “Highways maintenance has been underfunded by the Government for years, leaving the local road network in a state of decline, even before the snow.” Amanda Stretton, motoring editor at Confused.com, said: “It’s alarming that pothole related breakdowns have doubled since the recent bad weather. “Drivers are already fed up with having a bumpy ride because of potholes.” In 2016, potholes caused £3.1million worth of damage to vehicles in the UK, according to research by the insurance comparison site. The combined depth of potholes across the south east is almost 30 times as deep as the English Channel. Cllr Humby said: “The stark fact is that local councils are woefully under resourced for this vital part of infrastructure.” Hampshire residents are urged to report potholes and road defects direct to the county council at: http:// bit.ly/2HkEVdV
Hose about having a go? Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service asked a group of female support staff to don firefighters’ uniforms for International Women’s Day last week to encourage more women to consider a career in the fire service. The nine HFRS office staff ran hoses, carried out ladder lifts and conducted searches while wearing full breathing apparatus. The tasks were designed to give the women an insight into the tasks performed by HFRS crews, with some of the participants now considering applying to become on-call firefighters. Turn to page three for more.
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