Derbyshire’s roads will be noticeably better within a year, Reform’s new leadership has claimed
Yesterday (May 21), was Reform UK’s first meeting in charge of Derbyshire County Council and they faced early questions on what the public can expect to see in terms of road repairs.
“Potholes, potholes, potholes” was one of the key topics of debate during this year’s local election cycle, but Reform UK did not have a manifesto pledge on how to deal with this issue.
However, Cllr Charlotte Hill, new Reform cabinet member for potholes, highways and transport – who works at National Highways – said the administration would seek to immediately “accelerate the quantity and improve the quality of the works they are currently doing”.
Her role, overseeing the county’s roads, now includes a specific reference to potholes, unlike all previous administrations, in a bid from Reform to highlight leadership roles linked to their key priorities.
Cllr Hill, who represents the Melbourne & Woodville division, said: “We will be setting out detailed plans to fix the county’s potholes once we have had the opportunity to look at the state of our roads, current plans and available funding.
“I fully recognise the need to improve both the quality and quantity of highways repairs.
“We will be engaging with residents and councillors throughout the period of this administration to understand how we can make these improvements and work with the highways service to implement them.”
Asked about planned repairs to the junction of Station Road and the A6 in Furness Vale and Chapel Road in Whaley Bridge near the A5004 junction, by Whaley Bridge division councillor Ruth George, Cllr Hill said: “You will understand that in the first days of the new administration, I have not had the opportunity to examine the detailed plans for resurfacing work across the county.”
She said tendering was under way and an update would be provided “once we have had an opportunity to discuss priorities with the highways service”.
Cllr Hill claimed there were currently 22 potholes per mile of Derbyshire roads and that the efficiency and tender process of highways contracts would be reviewed.
The county council oversees 3,000 miles of roads, which would mean there are 66,000 potholes to be filled across Derbyshire.
Cllr Alan Graves, Reform’s new council leader, who is also a Derby city councillor, pledged before the meeting: “Within a year there will be better roads (in Derbyshire).”
Opposition political groups have claimed that Derbyshire is the pothole capital of England, with RAC data claiming that just 1.1 per cent of the county’s minor roads and 4.9 per cent of its major A roads received maintenance in 2023.
In 2024, the previous Conservative administration said the authority’s crews were filling 1,500 potholes a week and had repaired 90,000 in 2023.
However, the council detailed in an Freedom of Information request response to the Local Democracy Reporting Service in 2023 that it does not record when it is carrying out re-repairs on potholes that have already previously been patched.
This means that a number of the pothole repairs could be repeat jobs on the same damaged areas.
In December, the county council said in a further FOI response to the LDRS that in the past year (January to October 2024), residents had filed claims totalling more than £2 million for pothole compensation.
This was a total of 3,240 separate claims and was more than triple the number filed in the previous year (1,020) and double the amount requested (£976,554).
The more recent claims came in a year which saw numerous storms batter the UK with wind, rain and subsequent flooding.
Meanwhile, the council’s phoneline for pothole compensation claimants began carrying an automated message telling people not to call due to high levels of demand caused by “unprecedented storms and very heavy rainfall”
