'Potholes are the voters' priority', say Lancashire councillors - so what are they going to do about them?

During a hustings event ahead of the Lancashire County Council elections next month, representatives of the ruling Conservative and Labour opposition groups said that was the message they got from voters.

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Labour opposition leader Matthew Tomlinson acknowledged that people were most preoccupied with those services that were integral to their lives – but stressed that, in many cases, their priority was the state of the roads.

“If you’ve got an elderly relative who needs care, then adult social care is the main thing that will attract your attention. But…for most people, when we go out and speak to them, the issue that attracts the most attention is the crumbling state of our highways and footpaths,” County Cllr Tomlinson said.

The Conservatives’ lead member for highways and active travel, Scott Smith, concurred that the roads were “the most important thing to a lot of residents across the county – it’s the thing that most people see every single day”.

There was less agreement, however, over who would do a better job of looking after them.

County Cllr Smith said it was his administration’s recognition of the roads as a major issue that had led to it committing an extra £45m in funding over the next three years, which he claimed was “more than any other party” proposed at February’s budget.

However, County Cllr Tomlinson said that suggestion was “not true” – because his party’s defeated amendment for an additional £12m in 2025/26 was on top of anything the Tories had already put in.

He was backed up by Liberal Democrat John Potter, who said the same applied to his party’s proposed extra £10m for highways in the current financial year.

Pressed on where the real difference was between Labour and the Conservatives, given that they both supported the same 15-year strategy for Lancashire’s roads, County Cllr Tomlinson said that the plan could be “flexed” differently and “funded better”.

County Cllr Smith told the audience it would take £160m to “get our roads up to the condition that we would want…and we get a guaranteed £34m a year from the government”, which he acknowledged was a similar story whoever was in power nationally.

Meanwhile, County Cllr Potter said it was important not to “trivialise” the issue as a mere annoyance, because of the dangers road defects can pose.

“My next door neighbour, in a car with her kids, hit a pothole and blew a tyre out. Luckily, she was not hurt, [but] that was extraordinarily scary and could have led to an accident.

“If you’re on a bicycle or a motorbike…[hitting a pothole] could end in your death,” he warned. “If the public rate potholes as the number one issue, then you probably need to think about whether you’re producing a good enough service.”

Reform UK’s Stephen Atkinson said every survey of public opinion showed “potholes [are] what we really care about”.

He claimed the Tories were actually planning to cut £31m from the overall highways maintenance budget in the next two years – but that his party had found £35m in the coffers that could avoid that.

Cllr Atkinson, who currently leads Ribble Valley Borough Council, said “money and productivity” were the key to securing better roads and asked the audience: “Have you seen county council employees where there’s one working [and] there’s four talking?

“We need to work harder, we need to deliver more, and we need to spend more.”

Green Party group leader Gina Dowding said she backed increased investment to clear the “huge backlog” in maintenance work and suggested potholes were regarded as such an important issue by so many because they were “symbolic”.

“It’s what they see in the public realm – it’s a little bit like litter – it reflects on us as a society,” County Cllr Dowding said.

She added that the current situation had occurred because local government had been “hollowed out” over the last 20 years and adult social care pressures left to increase – making it difficult to do “what should be basic maintenance on our highways”.

“There are…new ways of fixing the potholes coming out all the time – so we have to be willing to try that.”

The ‘Lancashire Decides’ debate was staged by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Lancashire Post, Blackpool Gazette, Lancashire Lead and Blog Preston – and held at the MacDonald Tickled Trout Hotel on the outskirts of Preston.