9:51am Tuesday 16th March 2010
By Alex Hayes
THE council has admitted making temporary repairs to some potholes in a bid to reduce the numbers being reported by residents.
Since January's cold snap 4,000 holes in Barnet's roads have been repaired either on a temporary or permanent basis.
However, in a bid to deal with the spiralling number of reports as roads around the borough crumbled, repair teams used temporary fillings to make many roads more serviceable.
There are still 235 reported holes which have not yet been treated which are expected to have been dealt with by the end of the month.
A spokesman for Barnet Council said the permanent repairs will take longer to complete but are guaranteed for 12 months by the contractors.
Councillor Daniel Thomas, who is in charge of transport, said: "There have been tens of thousands of potholes across the capital and we've even seen reports of some German towns asking their residents to sponsor a pothole for it to be repaired.
“We certainly won't be asking Barnet residents to do this.
"With a switch from temporary to more permanent repairs we naturally expect these to take slightly longer than normal so I ask residents to bear with us while these are made.
"We are aware there is still work to do, but our crews are working hard to make sure the borough's roads return to normal as soon as possible."
Last week Cllr Thomas told the Times Series the potholes were not caused by neglect of the roads in the borough.
People wishing to report a pothole are encouraged to do so by visiting the Fix My Street website, barnet.fixmystreet.com.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.times-series.co.uk/trade_directory/