Over the next six weeks, Milton Keynes Council staff are planning to fill the majority of the potholes as part of its compreheinsive resurfacing and improvements works.
The council has created a special task force of ten two-person Pothole Patrol crews who will tackle the large numbers of potholes that have appeared on the roads after the prolonged cold weather.
The work is part of a £50 million programme of projects to improve the roads surfaces, street lighting, underpasses, bridges, redways and footpaths.
Some of this work has already started in Milton Keynes including some grid road roundabouts – Hospital Roundabout, South Grafton, Downs Barn, Walton Park and Campbell Park Roundabouts – and on other minor and estate roads across the borough.
Council leader Cllr Andrew Geary said “We know that potholes are a real issue for people across the borough which is why we are doing this intensive and targeted repair programme to get the problems sorted quickly.
“We would like to have started this campaign sooner but unfortunately the weather was against us and it would have wasted time and money filling in potholes just to see them re-appear a few weeks later.”
The council has received a number of reports from the public in relation to potholes and has used this information, in addition to inspections carried out by officers, to devise a route of repairs listed in order of priority. The list includes residential areas, grid roads and rural roads, said a council spokesman.
The normal pothole repair programme will continue at the end of the six weeks, he added.
An average of 20,000 potholes are repaired every year by the Highways team as a result of reports received from the public and routine inspections.
