Call for urgent pothole repairs

Last week, it was announced that Calderdale was awarded a share of the £168m given to councils around the country from the Department of Transport, in a bid to repair the thousands of potholes.

The council will have to now decide what parts of Calderdale receive some of the money and road safety campaigners are calling for Brighouse to be put as a priority.

Colin Stout, a member of the Brighouse Road Safety Committee, said: “I am quite concerned about the Brighouse roads. As well as the potholes, the road lining is missing on some of the roads.

“Not only can the roads cause accidents but they can do damage to cars and bikes.

“To give us part of the £820,000 would be a drop in the sea, when we need £5m to increase road safety and improve road lining.”

There is concern about particular roads, such as Brookfoot Lane, Halifax Road and Bradford Road, Wakefield Road and several roads in Rastrick.

Brighouse Cllr Scott Benton, said: “Firstly, it is good that the government clearly recognises that the potholes are a problem.

“In terms of potholes in our area, the roads of Brighouse are in need of repairing. In particular, Elland Road and Brookfoot Lane where the road surface is breaking up and needs repairing.”

Calderdale Council’s Cabinet Member for Economy and Environment, Cllr Barry Collins, said: “We are delighted with this extra funding. We’ve been awarded the third most successful bid out of 115 English authorities.

“This is down to the hard work of our staff who continually look in detail at our roads to determine necessary repairs and maintenance. The Council itself has already allocated major extra funding for the next three years, so we now have a real opportunity to continue to bring Calderdale’s roads up to scratch.

“We hope to develop a detailed work programme over the next few weeks. The money will be spent throughout the borough, and be used to make the necessary repairs and maintenance to Calderdale roads.”

Earlier this year, Calderdale Council was allocated £380,000 by the Department for Transport for road repairs and £300,000 was spent on repairing roads on the Tour de France route.