£35m to fix Medways' Roads

The issue of potholes and the state of Medway roads has once again reared its head.

The issue of potholes formed a major issue in the recent local election where many in the public have a perception, and correctly so, that the current Tory administration has spent the last decade concentrating on large-scale road schemes instead of residential streets. Coupled with two unusually cold winter snaps leading to greater deterioration and you end up where we are now.

This blog revealed two weeks ago the road resurfacing list for the Medway towns for 2011/12, and what is clear is that it is woefully inadequate, with some wards not even getting one road resurfaced.

There are significant number of roads across Medway which are in a very poor state yet the Tories are in abject denial about the true scale of the problem.

Medway motorists are not going to be hoodwinked by Tories in denial.

This week Shadow Minister for Transport, the ever affable (he really is), John Woodcock MP attacked the Medway Conservative administration for having its head in the proverbial pot hole whilst the roads suffer and motorists pay.

Although Mr. Woodcock has only been an MP for six months, his political career has seen him as an aide to John Hutton from 2005 to 2008, and a special advisor to Gordon Brown before being elected as MP for Barrow and Furness. He is a very appealing prospect for the next generation of Labour.

Mr Woodcock called for the Tories to get a grip and introduce a strategic plan to repair the increasingly scarred Medway roads because

"it could sace taxpayers a fortune in the longterm. The new figures reveal the worsening state of roads in Medway as a result of the government's cuts"

Labour have calculated that because of years of starved investment and skewed funding it will cost £35m to repair them all.

A staggering sum of neglect which will cost you, the tax payer, even more unless the issue is gripped and now.

The Tories have claimed to fix 10,000 potholes in one year. I ask you to walk outside onto your street and ask yourself the question.

Have Medway roads got better or worse?