Potholes leave South Tyneside roads in disgraceful and dangerous state amid calls for fair government funding

It comes after a motion was raised by Labour councillors at the latest authority-wide meeting of South Tyneside Council on the issue.

Councillor Ernest Gibson, cabinet member for neighbourhoods and climate change, in proposing the motion, applauded the pledge made by the Labour Government during their election campaign to fix one million potholes a year.

He also welcomed the “cash injection of £500 million” for the national pothole fund which was announced in the budget in October.

The motion called for the local authority to write to the government minister responsible for roads and ask that “the Department for Transport ensure that South Tyneside receives its fair share of the new funding.”

It was unanimously approved by all councillors in attendance at the meeting held at South Shields Town Hall (on Thursday, September 20).

Labour’s Cllr Gibson said: “After years of underinvestment by the previous Conservative Government, the local roads in South Tyneside are in a terrible state of repair.

“Despite the hard work of our council workers, this situation is making life difficult for motorists and further disconnecting our communities.”

He also noted inflation has had a “massive impact” in recent years in terms of the council being able to deliver repairs and it is something they must remain wary of.

Cllr Gibson added: “Inflation for materials, the increase, we can’t get as much as we did production wise out on the roads as we could before because of the cost of materials.

“That is one of the things we’ve got to combat against as well because we don’t get that revenue to combat inflation either.”

Councillors from across the chamber voiced their support for more funding to fix potholes and improve roads in South Tyneside and stressed the need for any cash to be distributed to all areas of the borough.

Councillor Kate Owens-Palmer, South Tyneside Alliance Group representative, said: “I’d like to hope that we do get our fair share of this money because some of our streets are absolutely disgraceful, frankly they’re dangerous.

“I would like to hope that we get it, and when we do, if we do, there will be an even distribution of the funding between the wards in the borough just to make sure that every part of South Tyneside sees the benefit of this.”

She also gave the example of one side street in the Westoe ward which she represents which is “colloquially known as pothole alley.”

Her group colleague Councillor Andrew Guy added while he welcomed funding for increased pothole repairs in South Tyneside, wider road restorations are also needed.

He said: “Potholes are simply like plastering over the cracks, what fundamentally needs to be fixed is our roads themselves.

“A lot of pot holes you’ll find are because of road surfaces deteriorating.”

Meanwhile Councillor Robin Coombes, another South Tyneside Alliance Group representative, added he did not think “the lack of government funding is entirely to blame” for the issues with roads in the borough.

He said: “To blame the lack of funding on the previous government may have some truth in it, but it’s not the full picture.

“I’m all in favour of road safety but we need to fix what’s already broken before we make further mistakes. Fixing things which are not broken is what is eating into our roads budget.”

Labour’s Councillor Jim Foreman, lead member for housing and community safety, said he was looking forward to seeing what amount of funding they would receive and echoed calls for it to be distributed fairly across the borough.

He added: “No matter which ward you’re in, in South Tyneside, everybody has got their problems.

“Everybody has a story about their ward and I just hope that the fairness comes through and everybody is able to fill their potholes in.”