Villiers sets up pothole campaign

The Chipping Barnet MP is asking constituents to let her know about the worst potholes they spot reports David Floyd

Close up of a pothole in Wood Street in Barnet — A pothole in Wood Street – (Credit – Office of Theresa Villiers MP)

Theresa Villiers is starting a new campaign to tackle potholes on Barnet’s roads.

The Chipping Barnet MP is asking constituents to use her website to report examples of the worst local potholes they have seen.

Villiers claims that she is taking action because Barnet Council has not been listening to her calls to tackle the issue. She said “The potholes are worse than I have known them in the 20 years I have lived in Barnet. I’ve been knocking on many doors during the Easter period and this issue came up again and again.”

“Many Barnet residents are really fed up about the state of the roads, including me.”

“The government has offered Barnet Council £368,000 of extra funding this year to fix our roads. They need to get on and use that to do something about the epidemic of potholes that we have seen in recent weeks.”

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“I’m finding it more and more difficult to get the council to listen to me and respond to complaints about potholes, but I will keep up the pressure on them to take this problem seriously.”

“They have raised council tax, parking charges have increased by 22%, and garden waste collection is going up by 40%. With those tax and charge increases, why are the potholes worse than ever? This shows that with Labour you pay more for worse services.”

Barnet Council announced plans last year to spend £8million on road maintenance over a two-year period with a particular focus on potholes.

Earlier this year, in response to a claim that the borough was Britiain’s worst local authority for Cllr Alan Schneiderman, the council’s cabinet member for environment & climate change told Barnet Post: “The most urgent potholes are fixed within 24 hours and all others between seven and 28 days.”

“Barnet is disproportionately affected by potholes with one of the largest road networks in London. Barnet also has amongst the highest volume of vehicle movements a day in London of which 1000 are HGVs.”

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