Potholes 'endangering lives' - but bid to divert £5m to fix them quashed

Impassioned councillors made a bid to shift some money around to try to fix a Buckinghamshire-wide pothole problem at a council meeting this week.

Multiple councils joined in a chorus of voices saying, ‘this cannot go on’ – citing ‘obstacle courses’ formed by potholes, with cars ‘swerving’ and cyclists ‘endangering their lives’ regularly.

At a full council meeting of more than 90 councillors on Wednesday, they discussed Buckinghamshire’s medium term financial plan (2026-29) and its plan for long-term, larger projects, known as its capital programme, running up to 2030.

A big concern for councillors was how to tackle potholes, with many saying residents have expressed much frustration and disappointment about the scale of the problem.

Cllr Stuart Wilson (IMPACT Alliance, Flackwell Heath & The Wooburns) said that the proposed £120million capital programme ‘will never be enough’ to address the problems caused by challenging weather.

He proposed an amendment to take £5million out of a pot of money set aside for mitigating future financial risk and instead spend it on road maintenance in 2026/2027.

There was much support for this across the chamber.

Cllr Kelly Thornton (Lib Dem, Amersham & Chesham Bois) said the cost of vehicle repairs after pothole damage amounts to ‘a regressive tax on our residents’. As such, this is ‘a common sense’ ammendment of ‘fairness’.

She said: “The measure of our council’s success isn’t in spreadsheets, but in the state of the tarmac outside their front doors.

“To my residents, a ‘risk’ isn’t a future abstraction – it’s the very real danger of the pothole they hit this morning.”

By committing some money to the problem, the council shows it is choosing proactive maintenance over ‘the wasteful reactive pattern of the past’, Cllr Thornton added.

Fellow Lib Dem Cllr Anja Schaefer (Buckingham) said that, though she was ‘entirely cognisant’ of the council’s financial challenges, the pothole problem could not go on – two-wheeled vehicle users ‘endanger their lives on a regular basis,’ she said.

New ideas were needed on how to solve the problem – and though £5million won’t solve it, such money will ‘fill quite a lot of potholes’, she said.

“Ideally [it will] even fill them in such a way that they don’t open up again two weeks later,” said Cllr Schaefer.

However, not all councillors were in favour, with the chamber split broadly along party lines.

Cllr Chris Poll (Con, Ivinghoe) urged caution on throwing out the carefully calculated figures in the budget for the sake of ‘an opportunistic stunt.’

Fellow Tory Cllr Simon Rouse (Chalfont St Giles & Little Chalfont) echoed this – and said that if councillors wanted to change, they should vote for the administration’s proposed budget.

Cllr Thomas Broom (Con, Gerrards Cross & Denham) further called the amendment ‘political opportunism’ and said the opposition had shown ‘no proper understanding of what the needs are’ and how they had changed over time.

Leader of the council Steven Broadbent said that the council has put in ‘more money every year’ into preventative work and its approach is ‘resilient’.

Ultimately, the amendment fell, 48 against to 42 for, and one abstention.

As for the budget itself, it was approved – including a raise in council tax of 4.99 per cent from April 1.