At last! Potholes are to be repaired

Essex County Council has unveiled a hit-list of 5,057 potholes it will fix around the county in the next year.

The highways teams has spent the four weeks planning the works for the £11million investment into pothole repair.

There are 479 in Colchester, including in Hawthorn Avenue, Dilbridge Road East, Hythe Station Road, Hickory Avenue, and Prince Philip Road.

However, the repairs equate to just a fifth of the 2,137 faults reported for the town in the first six months of this year.

Dave Harris, borough councillor for Colchester Council ’s Berechurch ward, who has campaigned for pothole repairs, said: “It is mixed news. I’m pleased there is a dated plan, but in my view some of these are so bad they are dangerous now.

“I have been to a site today on a bus route popular with cyclists where there are six in a row and they are ankle deep. These are Third World roads.

“Residents are angry. They know they are paying for it in road tax and council tax and they are not seeing the benefit of it.”

Wivenhoe Town Council is to investigate the possibility of repairing its own potholes after councillors said they were fed up of waiting.

At a meeting on Monday councillors agreed to contact local contractors to see how much a repair service might cost.

The town council called a protest march through its worst-affected streets earlier this month, which was called off at the eleventh hour after a number of potholes were earmarked for repairs by the county council.

Holes in Colchester Road, Anchor Hill and Woodland Way are set to be repaired by August.

Despite the lukewarm reception to Essex County Council ’s plans to repair potholes, Colchester tops the league table of County Hall’s road resurfacing scheme.

A total of 43 roads are on the list for July and August.

The schedule includes six roads in Birch, the B1028 Colchester Road, Wivenhoe and the A133 Cymbeline Way in Colchester.

The full list of potholes to be repaired can be seen at essexhighways.org