Response from District Lead Officer at LCC concerning Kelbrook and Sough highways issues raised by West Craven Committee January 2024

2nd of February, 2024

Mid-winter is always the worst time of the year for potholes, as they're caused by wet and cold weather, and the particularly wet end to 2023, followed by this week's cold snap, means that our roads have suffered a lot of damage in recent weeks. We are continuing to carry out our regular inspections to ensure as far as possible that we identify and repair any issues promptly before they become a risk, however potholes can go from being a small defect to becoming a much bigger one very quickly in the current conditions and I'd ask people to help us by reporting them. We prioritise repairs according to risk, with some being repaired within 4 hours, and others within target times up to 20 working days, and have a good record of meeting these timescales, with over 94% being repaired on time in November 2023, the last month we have complete figures for. A big focus of our annual maintenance programme is making the right treatment at the right time in the lifecycle of a road before more expensive repairs are needed, however part of it does involve replacing worn-out surfaces. All of this is decided based on survey data which we use to prioritise which roads most need investment in a particular year. An increasingly important part of our highway's maintenance strategy is to tackle localised areas where the road surface is deteriorating, leading to repeated pothole repairs, by carrying out mini-resurfacing schemes to ensure these problems are resolved.

Waterloo Road, Kelbrook

We carried out some repairs on Waterloo Road earlier this month and we have just returned to complete them. A mini-resurfacing scheme as part of our Local Deterioration Fund to target areas where potholes are appearing repeatedly is planned for this spring to resolve some of these problems more permanently.

Flooding on bend, Colne Road, Sough

After attending to cleanse the gullies, we found that it was not running free. Therefore, further exploratory works are planned to find the cause of the blockage and we will attend at our earliest opportunity.

Gritting and replenish grit bins

We do everything we can to keep traffic moving on priority roads during the winter months, which for us runs between mid-October and early April. We monitor weather conditions throughout this period using a special forecasting service. This provides detailed local information in advance about the likelihood of snow and freezing road temperatures. When snow or ice is forecast, we aim to spread salt onto the priority road network before any frost forms. This is known as precautionary salting. The salt we spread helps prevent any moisture from freezing, but it does not make snow and ice instantly disappear. Our priority road network comprises around 1,800 miles of the 4,600 miles of roads that we maintain. It includes any non-trunk motorways and 'A' class roads which form the key routes across the county. These are identifiable by direction signs with a green background. We also treat main urban traffic routes, major bus routes (with at least one bus every ten minutes), and routes serving main emergency service sites. This list is not exhaustive, and you can find out more details online at: Winter in Lancashire - Lancashire County Council. To have the greatest effect, we usually deploy our gritters during the evening, or in the early hours of the morning. As a result, highway users may not necessarily see our gritters whilst they are active. This can give the mistaken impression that we have not treated certain roads when we have. Our gritting crews are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the winter months. However, we sometimes cannot grit as often as we would like. It can take anything up to four hours to grit one route, or longer in severe weather conditions. You can view all our gritting routes online at: https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/winter/gritting/. This page also includes regular gritting updates. You can also get these by searching for #LancsWinter on X formerly known as Twitter.

We also have farmers and contractors on standby right across the county who can clear snow on more remote rural roads if we deem it necessary. This can be particularly helpful during prolonged and severe winter weather. Despite our efforts, winter weather can still make roads treacherous at times. This is why we ask residents to take steps to make sure that they are prepared, and able to manage, when severe winter weather strikes. Road users should also drive according to the conditions and allow enough time to react safely to icy roads. The county council currently has over 2,300 grit bins/heaps and has stockpiled salt to fill and maintain these bins/heaps. We will only re-fill those grit bins with a 'Highway Use Only' label attached, and that had an identifiable unique reference number. The county council will monitor the use of material and restock as required, but we cannot guarantee to always maintain supplies of material to all grit bins as this will depend on the continuing availability of material.