A scheme aimed to identify potholes has been criticised by local Liberal Democrats as a stunt that will have little effect on the condition of Haringey’s roads.Liberal Democrat councillors branded Haringey Council’s £200,000 ‘pothole blitz’ “utterly impotent” in contrast to the work needed to bring Haringey’s roads up to standard.

In the first month of the ‘pothole blitz’ (12 May -13 June 2008) Haringey Council repaired 347 potholes. Liberal Democrats in Crouch End and Fortis Green last week identified over 100 potholes in their wards alone.

Cllr Martin Newton, Liberal Democrat Transport and Highways Spokesperson commented:

“Residents are unlikely to see any change from this utterly impotent scheme. We have for years been able to notify Haringey Council of potholes only for the Labour-run council to ignore them, fail to repair or do a botch job.

“These figures fail to show how many more potholes have been repaired due to the ‘blitz’ and how many of these are repairs to old potholes that Haringey Council have failed to repair properly in the past.”

Cllr David Winskill, who chaired a scrutiny review into potholes in 2006, added:

“Two-and-a-half years ago the scrutiny committee handed Haringey Council a report showing the sorry state of Haringey’s roads. Since then we have seen little action to improve this situation. As we predicted the ‘pothole blitz’ has turned out to be another one of Labour’s publicity stunts paid for by residents.”