'It is money well spent and we are even considering buying a second one' - Council shows off £155,000 pothole-filling machine in Tividale
A council will use a new £155,000 machine in its bid to slash the time it takes to fill some of the borough’s most treacherous potholes.
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Sandwell Council has been showing off its latest bit of kit as it used a new £155,000 machine to fill a problematic pothole in Tividale on Thursday.
The tractor, named the Multevo Multihog road planer, is said to shave hours off the time it takes crews to fill the hazardous holes in the borough’s roads.
But while the council’s Labour leadership said the efficiency of the £155,000 machine meant it had been “money well spent”, it was not willing to commit to doubling or tripling the 1,600 potholes the authority filled last year.
Cllr Paul Moore, the Labour-run council’s deputy leader, said the authority was spending £55m on highways this year and despite the purchase of the new machinery, Sandwell’s roads were already among some of the best in the country.
Lilian Greenwood MP, the Labour minister for future of roads, visited Tividale to join Labour councillors and Sandwell’s highways bosses to see the pothole being filled outside Tividale Hall Primary School on a quiet afternoon during half-term on Thursday (April 17).
The impressed minister said: “It is probably one of the reasons why Sandwell is doing so well and rated so highly as an highways authority for going and spotting the potholes and getting the repairs done quickly.”
Cllr Paul Moore said he was so impressed after seeing the machine at work for the first time that buying a second machine looked already on the cards.
Cllr Moore said the £155,000 machine would ‘keep Sandwell’s roads among the best in the country.’
“It’s quicker, it’s more efficient, we are able to recycle materials that it brings up, and keeps us as being one of the best councils in the country in terms of road maintenance,” he said.
“It is money well spent and we are even considering buying a second one.”
Highways bosses said jobs that would previously have taken hours could now be completed in less than 60 minutes and digging up the road, which would have taken two hours previously, could now be finished in under five minutes, claimed council director Alan Lunt.
But when asked if speeding up the length of repairs meant more potholes could be filled up this year, Cllr Moore said the council was ambitious but not willing to commit to a target figure.
“1,600 [potholes] last year”, he said. “I haven’t set a figure on how many we are going to fill this year but as I said it does make us much quicker and more efficient in terms of what we can do.
“Our aim is to keep our highways as one of the best in the country.
“I think when you come into Sandwell you notice that the quality of the roads are a lot better than a lot of other authorities, not just in the local area but wider than that.
“And our ambition is to make sure that we stay up there with the best councils in the country.”
The council is currently loaning the pothole-filling machinery and expects its own £155,000 machine to be delivered in the next six to eight weeks.
