I don't know how English councils work, in Scotland many of our councils have just set their budgets which means that little bits of unspent money on other budgets suddenly becomes available. A big pot of unspent budget at this time of year is often that allocated to road gritting, which this year has been significantly underspent because our cold spells have been so short (in some years, of course, that budget pot may run out before the end of winter if there's a really prolonged spell of extreme cold and/or multiple periods of heavy snow), and because that doesn't even need to be transferred to a different department some pot hole filling is a natural thing to spend that on. What councils find difficult to find is a regular budget to spend on road maintenance, so we get a lot of patch and mend with the equivalent of loose change but very little work over the summer completely replacing large sections of road surface that keep the roads pot hole free for several years.
I could definitely buy that as the reason for the recent works here.
It’s a running joke round here that you always get loads of roadworks happening in February/March because if the department don’t spend all their funding for this financial year then they won’t get allocated as much in the next one. I guess it feels different this year because they were actually necessary roadworks.
We all know there isn't the money, because if there was money in council budgets then councils would be spending it on fixing more pot holes
Loads of potholes round here have recently been fixed, even though many of them only opened up when we had that really cold spell back in January.
I’d never thought my council was one of the rich ones before.
Heavily dependent on the local social care budget I suspect - and in addition to the budgetary reasons Alan notes I suspect they timetable their repairs for spring (once there's less risk of adverse weather)
Doubt it. It's as Alan said, we're getting towards the end of the financial year and any money not spent on gritting (we had a mild winter here) can be reallocated to running repairs. If it's not spent by the end of the year the roads department are likely to get (even) less money next year.
It would be far more efficient to resurface roads before they're so badly damaged the holes start appearing, but nobody does routine maintenance now...
Our Reform county council has been given loads of money by the East Midlands mayor to fix pot holes but claim it isn’t enough. They are also trialling a machine from JCB that they claim will sort everything out. The previous Tory administration, who also didn't appear to do much about fixing the problem, say it won't as they looked at the idea and it wasn't up to scratch. Whether or not the fact that the owner of JCB supports Reform has anything to do with the council getting the machine I couldn't possibly comment on.
They need to be truthful about their use of the word membership. No one who pays is a member of Reform. They are subscribers. They have no say in how the party is run. No vote, the party runs on the word of Nigel. He alone has the power to say what the party stands for.
As a point of information, there has been some central government funding deployed towards potholes but across the board the dearth of funding goes back to the Premiership of Boris Johnson.
Councils had to make the decision as to whether to fill in potholes or fund essential social services.
Those Reform councillors who are now complaining that there are insufficient funds are only finding out the hard way what councillors from other parties and none have been wrestling with for some considerable time.
Comments
Loads of potholes round here have recently been fixed, even though many of them only opened up when we had that really cold spell back in January.
I’d never thought my council was one of the rich ones before.
It’s a running joke round here that you always get loads of roadworks happening in February/March because if the department don’t spend all their funding for this financial year then they won’t get allocated as much in the next one. I guess it feels different this year because they were actually necessary roadworks.
Heavily dependent on the local social care budget I suspect - and in addition to the budgetary reasons Alan notes I suspect they timetable their repairs for spring (once there's less risk of adverse weather)
It would be far more efficient to resurface roads before they're so badly damaged the holes start appearing, but nobody does routine maintenance now...
https://theconversation.com/late-deciders-higher-turnout-what-the-gorton-and-denton-byelection-taught-us-about-voters-277268
About how Reform are coming unstuck in by-elections as voters mobilise successfully against them (and dont see Labour as the opposition they want)
It seems to be especially women voters who are doing this.
Councils had to make the decision as to whether to fill in potholes or fund essential social services.
Those Reform councillors who are now complaining that there are insufficient funds are only finding out the hard way what councillors from other parties and none have been wrestling with for some considerable time.
How to get a quart from a pint pot.