​Empty roads means filled potholes!

Highways crews have filled more than 1,700 potholes across Bury since the coronavirus lockdown began.

The teams are also continuing to carry out repairs to the borough’s roads and replace broken flagstones which are dangerous.

Councillor Alan Quinn, cabinet member for the environment, said: “Many council services are continuing to operate despite the Covid-19 pandemic, with all our efforts focused on keeping top priority services going.

“There are 650km of roads in Bury, and the reduced traffic we see since the lockdown allows us to carry out a huge amount of maintenance work with little disruption.

“These works allow other key workers, including our bin men, health and social care staff, to travel to and from work safely – and will be appreciated by all drivers when thing return to normal.”

Cllr Quinn added: “Bury should receive around £6-7m per year from the Government to maintain our 650km of roads; however, since 2010, we have actually received around £2m. This is why we took advantage of low interest rates to borrow and invest an extra £20 million into our highways network in the last two budgets, and will continue to maintain and repair our roads as much as we can, given the many years of austerity we have endured.”

ENDS

Press release issued: 7 May 2020.

Picture: Highways inspectors and some of the repair crews at our depot in Bradley Fold.