Fixing our roads will take 73 years at this rate, city councillor claims

TORIES SAY AUTHORITY FALLING SHORT OF MEETING ITS DUTIES

- By ALISON STEPHENSON Local Democracy Reporter

IT will take 73 years to resurface all of Plymouth roads if the city council continues working at its current pace, it has been claimed.

Conservative councillors said the authority was falling short of meeting its statutory responsibility to maintain the highway network and going for cheaper fixes rather than long term solutions.

At a full council meeting this week, there was unanimous support for investigating a change of approach to improve the standard of highways in the city and proactively repair more potholes.

The notice on motion was proposed by Cllr Chris Wood (Con, Eggbuckland) who said according to the council's local highways maintenance transparency report it had resurfaced just 7.5 miles of road on average each year since 2020.

"At our current rate of resurfacing it will take us 73 years to resurface all of our roads in Plymouth once and by the end of that time the ones done first will be crumbling again."

He said full resurfacing was "the gold standard" which done properly could last up to 30 years.

But instead the council was relying on surface dressing and using material like micro asphalt which would last five to ten years.