Sheffield roads contractor Amey says it will tackle majority of potholes by this winter
Bosses at Amey made the pledge at a Sheffield City Council meeting last week
The company that has a £2.2bn contract to look after Sheffield’s roads has pledged that it will fill the majority of potholes and resurface hundreds of streets in time for this winter.
Bosses at Amey made the pledge at a Sheffield City Council meeting last week (June 19), where they faced heavy criticism from councillors on the state of city roads.
New chair of the council’s environmental services and regulation policy committee, Coun Mark Rusling, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service this week that sorting out potholes is his number one priority.
He will be joined by council leader Coun Fran Belbin and chief executive Kate Josephs at a meeting with Amey’s chief executive Andy Milner on Monday (June 22) to outline their concerns.
Peter Bamfield, who leads the Amey contract with the council, said: “I hope you’ve seen so far that we are committed to repairing and maintaining Sheffield as one of the best road networks in the country.”
He said that last winter’s weather “wasn’t the best” and caused more damage to roads than normal.
However, work is being put in place to ensure that Sheffield’s roads will have only two potholes per mile, as opposed to the government standard of six per mile, before the bad weather starts this winter.
He said the Department for Transport already rates the condition of Sheffield roads as being among the top 12 in the country.
An extra 65 roads which are starting to show the need for work have been added to the hundreds already on a resurfacing programme. They will also be “future-proofed” by an extra waterproof coating.
Coun Rusling referred to the amount of time that the PFI contract with Amey still has to run: “We’re in this marriage for 12 more years and we really need it to work.”
He added: “We want to be in the position where residents perceive we are one of the best. I don’t think we’re there at the moment but we all want to get there ultimately.
“These meetings are part of the process of restoring that.”
Committee deputy chair Coun Mary Lea said that she had campaigned all over the city for the May council elections, knocking on hundreds of doors.
She said that people complaining on the doorstep about potholes told her to “go away” and didn’t believe her when she tried to explain that a combination of freezing temperatures and heavy rain had caused more damage to city roads than usual.
“I think the perception out there is that Amey are really not really complying with their contract,” she said.
Coun Alan Hooper said councillors find it difficult to understand the issues and navigate the system to get potholes dealt with, so residents really struggle.
Category one potholes – which cause a potential danger to traffic – must be filled within 24 hours of being reported. Amey then has 28 days to make a permanent repair.
Emma Windle runs teams that deal with the category two – non-hazardous – potholes. She said they try to group all the potholes in one area together to cut travelling time to a minimum and get more work done.
Mr Bamfield explained that teams will always fill in nearby potholes they spot on roads when dealing with the reported ones.
Other councillors said that Amey need to communicate better about its work with residents, which the firm agreed with.
Residents will soon be able to check an Amey website giving real-time updates on work being done.
The Streets Ahead part of the council website already has an interactive roadworks map.
You can find it here: https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/roads-pavements/roadworks/roadworks-sheffield