Ex-Wycombe mayor Khalil Ahmed on town's pothole problems

Khalil Ahmed, who was the town’s Labour Party parliamentary candidate at the 2019 General Election, expressed his displeasure at the current state of the roads in both the Downley and Disraeli sections of Wycombe.

Several residents have reported the issues to the Fix My Street website, but the local politician isn’t happy with the ‘lack of action’, insisting that more needs to be done to repair the roads in South Buckinghamshire.

One of the potholes in High Wycombe (Image: NQ)

According to Highways Industry, motorists collectively spent around £474m on getting their vehicles repaired due to pothole damage.

Mr Ahmed said: “Buckinghamshire Council should hang its head in shame that they have failed to address these seriously large potholes on a stretch of road that is a main bus route.

“Equally, I believe that the elected councillors for the ward are also just as much to blame for the lack of action as they have access to the Local Area Technician to highlight such conditions.

“This demonstrates that not only is Buckinghamshire Council failing their duty to inspect the roads regularly, but the locally elected members do not seem to be aware of issues that affect their constituents.

Many cars have been damaged due to the number of potholes in the town (Image: NQ)

“What I find even more concerning is that locally elected members are finding time to do litter picks instead of escalating such matters to the relevant department for action.”

Peter Martin, Buckinghamshire Council's Deputy Cabinet Member for Transport, responded with: “Buckinghamshire Council has a robust and publicly published Highways Safety Inspection Policy.

“Regular inspections and repairs to our highways are undertaken in line with this policy to ensure taxpayers money is spent where it is most needed to keep road users safe.

“In the last financial year, we repaired nearly 45,000 potholes – one every 12 minutes.

A pothole that hasn't been repaired yet (Image: NQ)

“The best way to report a problem so the Council can investigate is via FixMyStreet.

“Automatic updates are sent on the progress of the follow-up inspection or repair.

 "If residents or Mr. Ahmed has reported these potholes in this way they will have received an update indicating whether the potholes needed urgent repair or could be added to a programme of works to be treated more efficiently as part of a wider programme.

“However, we have asked our Local Area Technician to revisit and inspect this area.”