Potholes wiped out - in council's staff car park

BY CHRIS GILL

Bedford Borough Council has come under fire for spending nearly £37,000 on resurfacing a staff car park – while many of the town’s roads remain riddled with thousands of potholes.

Contractors turned up at Borough Hall last Saturday morning and set to work on giving the parking area a new top coat.

Passing motorists say they could hardly believe their eyes.

Sheila Cole, of Alexander Close, Stewartby, said: “My husband and I were driving past on Saturday when we saw about ten men and lorry loads of tarmac. We were incensed, it is absolutely disgusting when the public roads are so bad.

“I had to travel home through Bedford and Kempston trying to avoid the many craters and potholes on the public highway, there is a huge one on Bunyan Road. They are everywhere and you cannot always avoid them.

“It’s about time that the council got their priorities right in how they spend our council tax.”

Brian Aspinwall, from Bedford, said: “I thought I was hallucinating when I saw what was going on.

“Why is it that the roads around Bedford have the worst potholes I have ever seen, but the car park at Borough Hall is having its surface re-laid – and all this on the weekend?

“If they are worried about an employee’s car wheel hitting a pothole at walking pace then they should shut the car park and send them all to the Park and Ride, where they should be.

"They should be sent to the Park and Ride via Spring Road, Kempston where they can enjoy the numerous potholes and participate in the Spring Road chicken run.”

A spokesman for the borough council said: “Months prior to the recent bad weather, plans were made to resurface parts of Borough Hall Car Park. This work has now taken place.

“The borough inherited a building that had not been properly maintained for many years and we are having to undertake work to address this legacy for the safety of all users.

“The disruption that would have been caused by carrying out the operation during the week (in relation to noise, dust and staff being unable to park) made Saturday working the most effective choice.

“The cost of the work is £36,800, which has been sourced from the Building Maintenance Fund. This is totally separate from the Highways Winter Maintenance Fund. We are putting an extra £200,000 into dealing with the effects of bad weather on our roads.

“Last week we filled 468 potholes, in addition we have started patching larger areas of road to repair multiple potholes, rather than filling the individual potholes, that would quickly deteriorate again.

“In the past week, we repaired 54 of these large area patches across the towns and rural villages. All this equates to repairing around 800 potholes per week. We encourage people to report potholes by contacting the pothole repair hotline on 01234 22866.”