Kent election candidates debate county's potholes
Getty ImagesLocal election candidates have voiced their opinions on fixing Kent's potholes ahead of elections in May.
Speaking to BBC Radio Kent at a hustings debate, Conservative, Labour, Reform UK, Liberal Democrat and Green candidates detailed how they would fix the county's 5,400 miles of road in response to questions from the public.
It comes after Kent motorists told the BBC they had spent hundreds of pounds repairing damage after driving over potholes, with some unable to reclaim the costs.
A report previously found there was a £2.5bn backlog of repairs to "pothole-plagued" roads in south east England.
Polls will open in the Kent County Council (KCC) election on 1 May.
The local authority looks after the largest population in the UK, with more than 1.6 million residents.
Conservative: Roger Gough
Conservative leader of KCC, Roger Gough, said Kent's pothole problem – which he described as nation-wide – was that government funding and available council money were "simply not enough".
He said "large-scale, multi-year" financial settlements were needed to do the required work, such as major resurfacing, rather than responding to potholes.
Gough called for a pothole "blitz" in the short run to set things up for the "next eight years".
He urged central government to recalculate how funding was allocated to councils to better reflect road usage.
Labour: Alister Brady
Alister Brady, leader of the Labour group at KCC, said faults with the county's roads "completely lie at the Conservatives' doorstep".
"In Kent, we call them Tory potholes," he said, detailing that the party had been in power in the county for decades.
He pointed to an announcement by the Labour Party that councils across the South East would receive £297m to repair roads – an equivalent to fixing seven million extra potholes next year, according to Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander.
"People are frustrated," Brady said, adding that Labour wanted to make road maintenance contracts more competitive and encourage local providers.
Reform UK: Dirk Ross
Acting leader of Reform UK in Kent Dirk Ross said councils could invest in "better technology" to fix potholes.
He said one issue was that potholes were often fixed by the local authority on an individual basis when multiple could be in close proximity to one another.
"They need to do the work and they need to do the job properly," he continued.
He added road maintenance contracts weren't "worth the mustard" and needed to be changed.
Liberal Democrat: Antony Hook
Antony Hook, leader of KCC's Liberal Democrat group, said potholes were "incredibly dangerous" to cyclists and pedestrians, alongside motorists.
"We sometimes have shocking holes on our pavements," he said. "It is important that in our communities people can walk about safely."
He called for a review of methods and materials being used to fix roads as new technology was coming out all the time.
Hook said one solution was "soft-landscaping", such as planting trees or creating places where water could run off, as many potholes were caused by drainage issues that can lead to pooling and freezing water blowing "great big holes" in the roads.
He urged people to report potholes to the council online.
"Don't just go on social media and moan about it," he added. "It has got to be reported in the right place."
Green: Mark Hood
Deputy group leader of the Green Party at KCC Mark Hood said the "underlying problem" was over a decade of underfunding.
He described highway maintenance as a "managed decline" under the last government.
He said the government funding model needed to be reconfigured to take account of road usage as Kent was the "gateway of Europe".
"It is not going to be fixed overnight," he said.
"To pretend there is a magic wand is unrealistic."
Mr Hood added that "meaningful sums of money from the government" were needed to fix potholes.
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