This petition has been reviewed and the following response has been offered:
Thank you for your petition regarding substantial potholes on South Road, Saffron Walden needing repair.
Unfortunately, you haven’t provided me with a specific location of the potholes you refer to and therefore I am unable to confirm if these have been repaired recently, or to check to see if they have been assessed in line with the Maintenance Strategy.
I can confirm that we are aware of issues with South Road, Saffron Walden, and presently it is in our forward programme of works to be treated as a machine surfacing scheme however it is not included within the coming years programme. Schemes such as these are prioritised for investment depending on the needs of the asset across the whole County and at present, we are not in a position to advise of a date for completion of the surfacing.
I can see that there have been some recent make safes completed along this road, and the potholes you are referring to maybe within those. There is a video on the Essex Highways website that explains the background and use of make safes in the service. https://www.essexhighways.org/news/myth-busters-road-maintenance
We appreciate that the quality will not be the same as a permanent patch, and these are delivered as a follow up repair when resources are available. We must remember that ‘make safes’ are meant to keep our highways open and available for use, the alternative is to close areas which is much more inconvenient to the road users. They are lower cost than a permanent repair, mainly due to the differences in plant, labour and materials associated with each repair but also the duration of works and traffic management used during that period.
Please be assured we will continue to prioritise those works which pose the highest risk to drivers and pedestrians. Meanwhile, the road will continue to be monitored via our routine inspections, for any deterioration.