COUNCILLORS in the Tyne Valley area of Northumberland have called for an improved maintenance programme on the county’s roads to reduce the number of potholes.

Members of the Tynedale Local Area Committee claimed that better gully cleaning and ditch clearance would mean that less water would be trapped on roads, reducing the number of potholes when that water freezes in poor weather.

Tynedale alone has 17,800 gullies, while there are around 96,000 in all of Northumberland that are cleaned by just five vehicles.

Road gullies collect surface water from roads and transport it to watercourses via drainage systems. When they are blocked, water stands on the road rather than draining away.

READ MORE: Millions of pounds added to pothole investment plan for county

At Tuesday’s meeting (February 13) of the committee, councillors were updated on the council’s Local Transport Plan (LTP) for the coming year, which includes a multi-million-pound plan to tackle potholes. However, some members felt proper maintenance would mean this money wouldn’t have to be spent in the first place.

Stocksfield Parish Cllr Anne Dale said: “I have raised concerns about a lot of roads like the A695 and the A68. Potholes are appearing all the time.

“If the necessary work is done on the gullies, all the potholes would not have to be filled. Ditches aren’t dug out and gullies aren’t cleaned so the water just sits there and the ice forms. The staff have got too much to do.

“The land is absolutely saturated so gullies aren’t being cleaned so we’re getting more and more potholes. It’s a merry-go-round, and people are very unhappy.

“We need a lot more money if we’re going to have any impact on the highways over a short term. Maybe we need to write to the MP asking for some more, better funding from Government.”

Haydon and Hadrian ward councillor Alan Sharp added: “I see water coming down the roads because the ditches and the road maintenance isn’t getting done, including the gully cleaning. It only happens when members of the public get on to the council.

“I still don’t believe there is a programme even though I’ve been going on about it for 20 years. A lot of the potholes we battle with are because the water goes down the road because the gullies and the ditches aren’t getting cleaned.

“It’s always going to be a burden because a lot of the work we’re doing is due to bad maintenance. We need a system in place, we have got to address this issue.”

The council’s highways infrastructure manager, Robin McCartney, insisted there was a proper maintenance programme in place. He added; “We’re acutely aware of that kind of issue.

“Obviously there is a maintenance programme. It doesn’t matter how hard we try to keep to it, it’s always deterred because of storms, requests and reactive maintenance.

“There is a programme, it just takes a while to get round everything.”

Cllr John Riddle, the Conservative administration’s cabinet member for highways and county councillor for Bellingham, added: “Water is the biggest problem on the roads. We must get the water off the roads.

“We spent a lot of money on new gully cleaners, we’ve got five throughout the county. I’ve asked for a report on how much they’re used because the issue is the same staff driving those are the ones who drive the gritters, so these machines are standing in the yard.

“We have had a very positive budget consultation and one of the main things that came through was the condition of the roads. The budget is actually proposing an awful lot of money, more than we have had in highways in history.

“We have about £10 million extra plus all the extra money we have had from Government. I don’t think we have ever had more money. We can plead for more, but we have got to be grateful for what we have.”