Backlog of road repairs finally starting to be cleared after nine years as council hails 'Pothole Pro' machine

According to a Gateshead Council report, the backlog in unclassified roads in need of restoration is finally starting to clear for the first time since 2017. Now, there is currently 123km of such roads officially noted as “of concern” out of a total of 682km.

Unclassified are local roads intended for local traffic, making up 60% of total roads within the UK.

The report states: “As our neighbouring authorities have similar backlog issues on their unclassified roads the issue of historic underfunding in this area has been raised with North East Combined Authority and is flagged up in the regional Transport Asset Management Plan.

“We continue to target the unclassified network…with almost 60 % of spend in that area but this is still less than 10 km of the 123 km backlog.”

Out of a total planned maintenance budget of £2,934, 297 last year over £1.7m was spend on the local unclassified roads.

The percentage of unclassified roads in need of repair in Gateshead since 2017 is as follows:

• 2017/18: 18%
• 2018/19: 20%
• 2019/20: 19%
• 2020/21: 20%
• 2021/22: 24%
• 2022/23: 21%
• 2023/24: 21%
• 2024/25: 18%

By contrast, the percentage of Gateshead’s A, B, and C roads in need of repair has remained consistently at 1% since 2017.

Late last month, Gateshead Council hailed the arrival of its new ‘Pothole Pro’, a £230,000 piece of equipment designed ro prevent the occurrence of damage on the highway. The high-profile purchase formed part of the council’s £7.7m five-year investment plan into local road conditions.

Councillors were also recently informed the machine had resurfaced 3,000sqm of preventative patching on local roads in just three months. Previous patching effort by the local authority totalled 2,000sqm in the whole of the previous financial year.