Your Voice Your Vote: 'Our roads are appalling'

In the run-up to the local election the BBC is looking at the issues that matter the most to you, as part of Your Voice, Your Vote.

County councils and other authorities hold elections on 1 May.

Gerard Duffy said he was "embarrassed" about the state of the roads, both in his home town of Shrewsbury and in the county of Shropshire.

The appearance of roads, quality of road repairs, and clarity around how much is spent on them was his biggest concern.

"Driving around Shrewsbury, as we do, as people that live in Shrewsbury, it's disgraceful, you're going from rut to pothole to temporary patches, which never seem to be temporary, and the state of the roads is just appalling," he told the BBC.

He visits Wales often and said: "You can actually tell when you go over the border from Wales to England that you're now in Shropshire by the state of the roads, which is sad."

He lives in a new build estate called the Spinney, just off Oteley Road. He described the roads as "appalling".

"The developers will have paid millions of pounds in community infrastructure levy, and if you look at the state of Oteley Road, it is appalling yet the developers must have spent lots of money."

He said he wanted to know how much community investment levy was paid by developers, but could not find an answer.

He said he had also contacted his local councillor, Philip Gillam, for clarity on the issue and about when repairs would take place on the road.

Mr Gillam told the BBC that plans to resurface the road had been shelved, but he hoped the scheme could be revived.

Mr Duffy said it made him question whether it would be worth casting his vote in the local elections.

"From an emotional perspective I'm embarrassed about it, from a council tax payer... I'm aggrieved about it, because I don't believe that my money, be it road fund license or council tax, is being spent on the things that matter to people who live in Shrewsbury."

"There doesn't seem to be any investment into our road network and so they're just patching to get away from doing the roads properly.

"So you'll continue to get patch, upon patch, upon patch, and those degrade over time because the quality of the road that it's going on is worn out."

Conservative-run Shropshire Council said it had a statutory duty to repair dangerous defects, or potholes, within five or 28 days, depending on its severity.

Defects that are not deemed to be an immediate danger are repaired in a "more planned and cost-effective way" at a later date.

As for road resurfacing and surface dressing, the authority conducts routine condition surveys, where lengths of roads are graded from one to five depending on their condition.

It also looks at roads' maintenance history, regular inspections, reports from councillors, parish councils and community groups, and reports from residents.

The council's entire network is made up of about 3,200 mikes (5,150km) of roads.

The BBC contacted all of the local councillor candidates in Mr Duffy's ward - Oteley & Reabrook - to find out their party's promises around the issue.

Liberal Democrat candidate Victoria Moore said potholes were a known issue in Mr Duffy's ward, as well as illegal and street parking and speeding.

The party wants to deal with potholes as part of the Shropshire Partnership to get them fixed faster and cheaper, and wants to review how the community and infrastructure levy from developers has been spent, ensuring that it is spent on areas like roads.

It wants to commit to spending a higher proportion of the highways budget on walking and cycling routes, including resurfacing and upgrading existing routes.

Tom Wust, on behalf of the the Conservative Party, said 2023 Shropshire Council repaired 41,629 potholes, with 50% carried out within five days, which he said was a 46% increase on the previous year and at no additional cost.

He added that a significant amount of carriageway resurfacing work had been carried out in Shrewsbury, and further sites had been identified for inclusion in the future capital programme.

Julian Dean, on behalf of the Green Party, said there was "no question" that Shropshire's roads were "a disgrace".

The party's published manifesto calls for 10% of the council's highways budget to be invested in better provision for walking, wheeling and cycling. It also expresses that new ways to raise funds to repair damage from heavier vehicles.

It says government money and developer contributions must be used to maintain and improve the existing road network, rather than building more new roads.

Philip Gillam from the Labour Party said Labour would review all council services, looking for better value for taxpayers' money, and would guarantee the first service to undergo this could be highways.

He said their manifesto included improving road surfaces and road drainage around the county, with locally-delivered maintenance, improved traffic safety and other traffic control measures.

He added the party would ensure that community infrastructure levy would be allocated to projects that support facilities in areas where new homes had been built.

Richard Leppington, on behalf of Reform UK, said the party would launch an "immediate pothole blitz".

Short term, he said they would allocate extra funding to highway maintenance, and crews would be scheduled for rapid pothole filling.

Long term, Reform would look to potentially purchase a number of specialist pothole machines from JCB.

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