Soaring pothole figures in Kent

Nearly 18,000 potholes have been filled in throughout Kent so far in 2019, it has been revealed.

Figures up to 20th March show that 17,570 holes have been fixed this calendar year since Kent County Council launched its pothole fixing programme.

A Kent County Council spokesman said: “Like all highway authorities across the country, Kent County Council has a duty of care to maintain its highways.

“Safety inspections are carried out to identify all defects on the highway that are likely to create danger or serious inconvenience to users of the network or wider community.

Each pothole repair costs the council a different amount of money and factors, such as whether their needs to be traffic management while repairs take place, will affect how far the budget stretches.”

“It is also important to note that these are ongoing repairs and will continue throughout the coming months.”

Over 225,000sqm of patching has taken place so far in the county, with Maidstone contributing 59,000 – over a quarter of Kent’s total amount.

Canterbury has had the most potholes fixed in this time however, with 2,673, closely followed by Swale and Maidstone with 2,354 and 2,261 respectively.

The equivalent of 33 potholes being fixed a day, the council also said that there is no reason why places like Canterbury are having more potholes fixed than any other place in the county.

They added: “Funding for pothole repairs in districts across the county is the same and no district has more money for repairs than another.

“The discrepancy between the number of fixes in different parts of Kent could be based on a number of factors.

“Each pothole repair costs the council a different amount of money and factors, such as whether their needs to be traffic management while repairs take place, will affect how far the budget stretches.”

This year’s programme looks likely to overtake the whole of 2018’s figures in the upcoming weeks, with last year seeing over 267,000sqm of resurfacing, as well as nearly 55,000 holes repaired across the county.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAt3fPcoKIY&feature=youtu.be

Ashford is another area that is due to have pothole maintenance.