POTHOLES were once again a hot topic at the Launceston Community Network Panel held in the Town Hall last Thursday, writes Zoë Uglow.

Cornwall councillor Geoff Brown, who is the portfolio holder for transport, and Oliver Jones, CORMAC’S area highway and environment manager, attended the meeting to answer questions and provide the public with more information about the highway maintenance team’s service standards and how repairs are prioritised.

They also demonstrated the new method of reporting a pothole, which they advised was ‘not fully operational’ yet.

Cllr Brown began by explaining the new system Cornwall Council has in place to improve how data is collated in relation to road defects/potholes.

He said: “You can now report a defect through our new online service and we aim to get to the defect within 24 hours — however, we are not doing that yet.

“As you can imagine CORMAC are very busy and the recent snow and rain we have had is not ideal weather conditions for pothole repairs. It has really been causing havoc and CORMAC are working hard to get through a backlog of work and all non-urgent work has been suspended in order to carry out emergency repairs.”

However, there was some good news. Cllr Brown said a network highways budget was to be implemented in the next four years, which would offer each network around £50,000 per year, to be used for anything from kerbing to zebra crossings.

Cllr Brown explained: “£1-million a year will be made available across the networks and each network will be given a fair share of this money — I think it’s about £50,000. This can be rolled over to the next year if you want to perhaps put the money towards a larger project.”

He added that although this scheme was for local improvements, double yellow lines need not be considered as Cornwall Council will be funding one traffic regulation order per year for each network at a cost of £3,500 in order to reduce the impact on the community network budget.

Mr Jones then gave some more information about the new way in which people can report road defects and the benefits of the new system.

He said: “Just to give you some context, I cover an area with 64 parishes, five towns and 17 Cornwall councillors. In my team I have two highway stewards and two safety officers. We receive approximately 2,500 email and 750 calls a week regarding safety defects and the biggest issue we face is being able to manage people’s expectations with a dwindling budget.

“So, back in January we launched the online defect reporting system. Our biggest issue is that we have so many areas trying to contact us through different means, we find it difficult to collect and consolidate the data we have in order to prioritise areas — hopefully this new system will enable us to do that.”

He said the system is ‘map based’ and will enable people to tag a road defect. They will then receive updates on progress via text, email or by phone. This system will also allow the public to see whether a defect has already been reported and they too can receive notifications of its progress.

Mr Jones said: “The report is passed on to our safety officers who will then assess the defect and the information they collect at each stage, from validation to completion, will be sent to the public via text, email or this can still be done over the phone for those who are not au fait with the internet.”

The hope is that the new system will enable the CORMAC team to make better use of its resources and ‘not be so reactive’ but prioritise effectively.

Mr Jones added: “We hope this system will go live and be publicised in the coming weeks.”

Cornwall Council leader Adam Paynter endorsed the new system and said he was ‘happy to promote it’, adding: “At a St Thomas Parish Council meeting we got the new system up on a laptop and it proved very easy to use. It is a good service and if we can move towards that and encourage more parish clerks to report potholes online it would make things quicker and easier for both parties.”

Community Network Panel chair Cllr Neil Burden thanked Cllr Brown and Mr Jones for their informative presentations and opened the floor up for public questions.

Les Whaley, a Stourscombe resident, was first to raise concerns over the state of the A388 Tavistock road, which runs adjacent to the new Withnoe and Gwel An Hay estates. He said: “Over the last nine months there have been massive hold ups on Tavistock Road whilst utility suppliers carry out work and it is worrying that no sign has been put up to give an indication of when that work will end.

“But my question is; we have potholes which have now been elongated by the volume of traffic. Before the utilities company move off site what can we look forward to — will our roads be fixed?”

Mr Jones said they are aware of the issue with the road surface and his team is working to consolidate the issue by liaising with the site manager. The public was advised that more information about roadworks in the Launceston area can be found on the website roadworks.org

Town councillor John Conway raised his concerns over how effective any promised road repairs would be.

He said: “It seems to me that the standard of tarmac used these days is not what it used to be. Three years ago you resurfaced Newport roundabout, the tarmac was obviously not sealed off properly and now the whole lot is in need of repair again. Twenty years ago you would put tarmac down and it would last for ten or 15 years, but that seems to no longer be the case — it is not acceptable.”

Mr Jones explained that there have been many changes over the years to the components of tarmac as environmental factors have become more prevalent. He said CORMAC find it difficult to balance cost, delivery and environmental impact. Originally tarmac was made with asphalt and contained high levels of bitumen, which was proven to be damaging to the environment. Now a water based mixture is used, which, although more environmentally friendly, is not as long lasting as its predecessor.

Mr Jones agreed to take on the comments of the panel and report back to his team to find a better solution for repairs.