Political Opinion: Council's huge road repairs scheme is underway

But I can also let you know that the good news continues with the highways.

Phase one of our £122.5m investment has commenced with eight hot box crews deployed to work county wide.

This is part of record-breaking, never seen before investment from a local authority in 12-month period with a six-point plan in place to ensure the longevity of the highways for years to come.

Finally, all the planning and hard work has come to fruition and you are now seeing the crews I have promised working hard out on the highways.

Last week I, along with Coun Bert Bingham and Coun John Semens, waved off our eight new hot box, first time repair teams to start work throughout the county.

We now have 50 teams out working, with 134 staff making the massive improvements we promised you on the roads.

This is fantastic news for residents as many roads will now be resurfaced. The days of quick fixes are no more.

The new six point plan we have put into practice, is as follows:

• Prevent problems early by treating roads sooner.
• Carry out permanent repairs first-time wherever possible.
• High quality fixes using longer-lasting materials and methods.
• Improve efficiency and get better value from crews and equipment.
• Strengthen winter resilience with extra crews working through the season for the first time.
• Make the case for increased long-term funding from central Government.

At the end of April, we will take the repairs to another level, with the addition of two JCB Pothole Pros that will be covering over 250m² of road a day, fixing potholes in eight minutes.

The Pothole Pros will be followed by two further hot box teams to ensure maximum output.

We inherited huge problems with the highways from the Conservative and Labour groups. Decades of lack of funding and investment have found us in this pothole dilemma throughout the county.

As council leader, along with my 40 fellow Reform councillors, we have worked tirelessly this last year to ensure we will have roads we will be proud to drive on.

I have lobbied EMCCA and we have raised the largest amount of money ever by an authority to ensure I keep my promise to the residents.

This last 11 months seems to have passed by in a flash, but the amount of hard work and savings we have created has been nothing short of ground-breaking.

Within this time, we have:

• Initiated and rolled out a full Highways Review.
• Started an Efficiency Review that will save £45m, within our term.
• Carried out a Waste Strategy Review.
• Chosen an option for LGR in four months, which the previous administration could not achieve in 10 years.
• Support for the Armed Forces
• Written and implemented the Nottinghamshire Plan.
• Reviewed the Constitution.
• Cabinet Meetings within the community.
• Delivered a county magazine through every door.

Keep your eyes open for phase two for the highways coming shortly.