Oldham pothole repair spend a mystery despite reports fall

A Freedom of Information request by The Oldham Times found that there were 1,807 pothole enquiries made last year, less than both 2020 (1,911) and 2019 (2,247).

We did ask for the 10 roads in the borough with the most pothole reports in the last three years but the council said "this information is exempt from disclosure under Regulation 12(5)(b) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 as its disclosure would adversely affect the course of justice".

"If this information was released into the public domain it could be used to make fraudulent claims against Oldham Council", the local authority added.

We also asked the council what the total money spent on repairing potholes was in 2019, 2020 and 2021 and the budget available for fixing them during the same periods.

But the local authority said it not have the information about the money spent on repairing the defects because the "maintenance budget is not recorded against individual pieces of work so it is not possible to provide figures for the amount spent repairing potholes".

It also said it does not have a specific potholes budget.

The "budget that pothole repairs are funded from is a general fund for all highway maintenance activities", the council said, and "there is no budget specific to repairing potholes".

Royton North Conservative councillor Dave Arnott, who has recently spoken out about the state of Lime Grove in Royton, which is littered with road defects, has been left baffled by the lack of information provided.

Lime Grove in Royton

Lime Grove in Royton

He points to an £84m North West government scheme, with nearly £21m given to Greater Manchester, to repair potholes and thinks the amount of money spent on them in the borough should be publicly available.

Cllr Arnott said “I am surprised and disappointed that the council is unable to provide detailed information regarding the number of potholes repaired, and the budget that is allocated to this essential work.

"Potholes that blight our roads across the borough, and present a real safety risk, are very high on the list of taxpayers priorities and concerns.

"Fill that Hole (a website) publishes the places that top the list of complaints from the public about crater-riddled roads, with Oldham coming in at number 51.

"The government announced £84m worth of funding in 2020/2021, to fix 1.5m potholes in the North West, with almost £21m allocated to Greater Manchester.

"Given that the matter is so high profile and expensive, it concerns me that we cannot be sure that hazardous potholes reported by the public are repaired promptly, and at what cost, as that data appears not to exist.

"It is extraordinary that the council does not know how much it is spending on each job.

"This can't be correct, as presumably they will have a job or invoice that should reconcile to the work carried out."

In response, Cllr Amanda Chadderton, cabinet member for neighbourhoods at the council, said: “The council holds a highways maintenance revenue budget of £2m which is used to collectively manage the safety and upkeep of our highway infrastructure.

“This includes repair works to things like potholes, gullies and street signage.

“No specific allocation is given to certain areas of repair within this budget, as all repair works are allocated resources based on their priority and level of risk.

“Improving our roads has always been a priority for the council as we know residents feel strongly about them.

"That’s why over the last three years we have invested £12m repairing and resurfacing them.

"By the end of March we will have improved more than 170 roads across Oldham as part of our works programme

“This investment shows we want to get the basics right and ensure that our roads are safe and are in a good condition for pedestrians and drivers to use.”