142 defects repaired on single Ipswich Road over nearly a decade

In the past decade 440-metre long Hawke Road's defects have included 50 potholes - and a local councillor believes resurfacing the road properly would have been cheaper for taxpayers.

Roads-underwater-as-Suffolk-floods

Suffolk County Council has been to the road a total of 30 times to repair the 142 defects from 2012/2013 to 2020/2021.

From 2013 to 2017, a total of 36 problems were corrected - nearly the same amount for the whole of 2018 and 2019.

In 2018, 34 defects were repaired, 28 in 2019, 32 in 2020 and 12 in 2021.

Martin Cook, Ipswich borough councillor for Gainsborough ward, said: "I have reported numerous potholes myself, and seen a few of them fixed. In places these repairs overlap like a veritable patchwork quilt.

"Shockingly, they admit to having lost count of how much all these patch repairs have cost us as council taxpayers. My firm belief is that properly resurfacing the road four years ago would have been a cheaper approach with better results.

"This sorry tale just demonstrates the waste at Tory-run Suffolk County Council. The current highways regime is set up to benefit private contractors, who can treat Hawke Road and thousands more like it across Suffolk like a cash machine."

Ipswich borough councillor Martin Cook (Image: Martin Cook)

Mr Cook also said the figures, released under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, do not show how much these repairs cost.

A Suffolk County Council spokesman said: "We don’t hold individual defect costs, cost is recorded on area, such as works planned out of the Ipswich depot etc, not specific roads or defects.

"This road has actually been identified for resurfacing for this surfacing season, and it is hoped that this will be carried out in September. As soon as the scheme has a planned date this will be communicated out to residents.

"To clarify, 142 is the number of individual defects repaired since 2012/13, not the number of times the road has been visited.

"The way individual defects are repaired, they’re grouped into ‘orders’ so there are often multiple defects to one order. Since 2012/13 there have been around 50 orders for potholes, and we have physically attended the location around 30 times to repair."