Bury Council has spent just a tiny fraction of its budget to fix potholes over the past year as road workers were diverted to cover staff shortages on bin collection rounds.
For the 2021/22 year, the council’s revised budget at the end of December showed that £2,955,000 had been earmarked for fixing potholes.
However, figures show that the council is forecasting a spend of just £146,000 from its ‘potholes fund’ in the 12 months up to the end of March, 2022.
Bury’s council leader Eamonn O’Brien said part of the issue was that team members normally assigned to fix potholes had been diverted in recent months to help with staff shortages on bin collection services.
Speaking at a scrutiny meeting about council budget matters Radcliffe First councillor Carol Birchmore the leader about why less than five per cent
of the money to fix road imperfections had been spent.
She, said: “You’ve underspent on potholes by £2.8M.
“That’s a lot of potholes and a lot of very upset residents who would love to see them repaired.
“I can’t help wondering why is this the case?”
Council leader Eamonn O’Brien said several issues had led to the underspend but the money allocated to fix potholes would be rolled over to the next financial year.
He said: “There is an underspend but that’s not because there’s a lack of potholes.
“It’s related to the fact that the team has been under pressure and has been impacted by Covid.
“I have got reassurance from the team that in the last month they’ve managed to spend another £250,000 on repairing potholes.
“We are getting back into the that cycle now of spending that money, of fixing potholes and we’re set to fix more potholes than ever before because of that
investment.
“It is happening, it is a frustration that it is not happening as quickly as we’d like but under the circumstances I understand why the teams have been pushed and put under pressure.
“Some of them were diverted to help with waste collection issues and when there were absences there.
“We are now getting back into a sense of normality and we will spend that money filling the potholes.
“It’s good that the money can roll over into the next financial year and allow to get even more done as we get into the better period to fix the roads and keep them fixed.”
The December finance report also revealed a a predicted £10M underspend this year on the whole of the highways capital budget.
Coun O’Brien, added: “A lot of the underspend is around delays in the capacity of the services.
“Covid has put pressure on services in terms of absences, redeployment of staff and supply delays.
“It’s becoming harder to get the resources we need to deliver our capital programme.
“We’ve also received external funding which meant that money we put aside in effect has been surplus to requirements this year so needs to be re-profiled into future years.”
