This week: great news. I have no doubt that anyone who regularly drives around the area will be delighted to hear that our Transport Secretary Chris Grayling is making another £100 million available to help repair potholes.
With the recent freeze adding to the pressure on our well used tarmac, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of fearsome potholes making local driving and cycling uncomfortable and, sometimes, dangerous.
Essex County Council, which has responsibility for repairing our roads, will get £2,602,886 of this new money, which it will add to its share of the £75m Pothole Action Fund (a four year fund announced in the 2016 Budget) and its part of the pre-Christmas £46m additional handout from the Government for road repairs.
Although our roads are not as bad as in some parts of the country – in Devon the A379 was partially washed away by Storm Emma – our local surfaces, which often consist of a layer of clay topped by a layer of gravel, can mean deep potholes form very quickly on our highways in winter weather. At this time of year Essex Highways crews are playing catch-up, but this additional funding should mean there are more crews around to fix more holes more quickly.
The trouble is, this cycle of hole repair is endless. Until now. The government is also investing more than £900,000 in innovations using high tech vehicles to help councils monitor road wear and tear and so better manage and plan maintenance works. These vehicles can detect where the road surface is weakening and so enable councils to strengthen roads before large potholes appear.
Essex County Council has been given £61,500 for the snappily-titled “Vehicle Informed Asset Management” which will see it working with Daimler on trials looking at data collected by vehicles about road conditions, from temperature and traction to unexpected vibrations. The data should, when they work out the parameters, enable the Council to identify weaknesses in the road structure before potholes form and manage them accordingly. And, hopefully, this will prevent further potholes and other road defects occurring over time.
The condition of our roads is an issue which a huge number of you have mentioned to me since I was elected last year - and it’s one I’ve raised repeatedly with ministers in Westminster; I’m delighted to be able to tell you that that pressure is now paying off.