“Urgent” road repairs totalling nearly £2 million in a bid to fix Nottinghamshire’s crumbling roads have been unveiled.
Reform-led Nottinghamshire County Council has come under fire in recent weeks due to an abundance of damaged roads and a litany of potholes being left untouched.
There have been 1,586 claims received by the authority related to damage and accidents caused by potholes in the year leading up to 18 February 2025.
Due to some deteriorated areas becoming a “potential threat” to road users, the council says there is an “increased risk” of failing in its legal duty to maintain the highway network if there are accidents.
Earlier this month, Conservative councillor Mike Adams showcased the crumbling state of the A612 Colwick Loop Road, next to Marks and Spencer in Netherfield.
Gedling’s Labour MP, Michael Payne, also took a swipe at the authority highlighting the deteriorated state of Godfrey Street and Arnold Lane and the council’s inadequate response letter to him.
The authority’s highways director visited the Colwick Loop Road site on 19 February with Cllr Adams, but the councillor “had not heard a thing” from the authority since the visit.
Now, the council appears to be putting some plans into action, announcing on Thursday (26 February) that it will be spending £1.83 million on “urgent” road works at 35 Nottinghamshire hotspots – including £75,000 for the Colwick Loop Road damage.
Council leader Mick Barton said on Friday (27 February) that the authority plans to start the urgent works in the week beginning 9 March.
The council said “recent and prolonged” wet weather over winter has caused “rapid deterioration” to parts of the network.
• Full list of Nottinghamshire roads to be fixed urgently in £2m council highways fund
Following the announcement, Cllr Adams said the pressure both he and residents had put on the council to fix the roads in their area was “key” to the sudden announcement.
He said: “I’m really happy they’ve responded to the urgent situation. Lots of people’s cars are getting damaged; there are safety issues; it was really dangerous.
“But it’s still not done yet… I want to see spades in the road and this getting resolved and fixed as soon as humanly possible.”
Cllr Sam Smith (Con), who represents the Trent Valley ward alongside Cllr Adams at Gedling Borough Council, said: “I’m really delighted for the drivers right across Nottinghamshire who are having their wheels popped and their springs broken.”
However, he said the announcement was “far too late” and that the Reform authority lacked winter road resilience, adding: “There’s £75,000 for flags that Reform spent. If that had gone into potholes, it would have repaired 1,000 potholes across the county, in a not-so-good way – tar out of the bag – but it’s called a safety repair.
“The garage owners across Nottinghamshire’s profit margins would be down by a lot. That’s the Reform way – boost the economy for the car garages.”
• Tyre business repairing over 100 pothole-damaged wheels every month
The urgent scheme comes before a three-year programme that will start in 2026/27 and will patch, resurface or surface-dress 4.5 million square metres of road – 16 per cent of the total road network.
The nearly £2 million worth of works will be funded by underspends and savings from within the council’s current highways budgets.
Recent highway network surveys show that 15.9 per cent of Nottinghamshire’s roads are in poor condition and require urgent maintenance, while 21.7 per cent are likely to need repairs “soon”.
Speaking at the County Council’s budget meeting on Thursday, Cllr Bert Bingham (Ref) said that for the three-year programme the council “will be reviewing the types of materials we use, we’ll be using thicker layers of asphalt and stronger materials, hot-rolled asphalt instead of stone asphalt”.
He said: “This will ensure new road surfaces last for a longer time – or a long time. That will automatically reduce the number of temporary pothole repairs.”
