Subscribe to trusted local news
If you are accessing this story via Facebook but you are a subscriber then you will be unable to access the story. Facebook wants you to stay and read in the app and your login details are not shared with Facebook. If you experience problems with accessing the news but have subscribed, please contact subscriptions@thestrayferret.co.uk. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
- Subscription costs less than £1 a week with an annual plan.
Already a subscriber? Log in here.
25
Mar
Council accused of 'total bodge job' on road repairs in Knaresborough
The standard of pothole repairs in Knaresborough has come under scrutiny after a local councillor posted photos on social media showing what he called “a total bodge job”.
Cllr Matt Walker, a Liberal Democrat who represents the Knaresborough West division on North Yorkshire Council, took pictures of a number of road repairs in the Boroughbridge Road area on Friday and posted them on Facebook.
He wrote:
The poor quality of the pothole repairs has been raised with me by a number of concerned residents.
It's a total bodge job and I've raised this with the highways team on my regular meeting with them this afternoon.
They will be sending an engineer to inspect and hopefully resolve. It's disappointing but not unexpected that the council didn't get it fixed properly the first time.
Some social media posters were less measured in their appraisal. One wrote:
It’s a complete mess and not worth the effort (or lack of). Did these people stand back and think ‘that looks really good’?
Another, who described himself as a “former construction trades lecturer”, wrote that it was not uncommon to see “smaller potholes repaired with what looks like drive repair from B&Q tipped into the hole and tamped in with vigorous jumping up and down by the supposed workman in question”.
He added:
As this poor-quality workmanship has been going on for quite a while, I'd also be questioning if the highways leadership team are the right people for the job.
If I was signing off and authorising payment for such work with my employer, I'd be receiving a very uncomfortable one-way conversation with the CEO.
The Stray Ferret contacted North Yorkshire Council to ask about the road repairs. A council spokesperson told us:
These temporary repairs were carried out last week to keep the roads safe for all users.
The quality of some of the road surfacing in Knaresborough was raised by Cllr Walker as part of regular update discussions with the team.
A more comprehensive, longer-term capital resurfacing scheme will be carried out during the 2026/27 financial year which includes this area.
The temporary repairs and condition of the roads will be reviewed by our highways team this week, and should any further measures be required, they will be undertaken as a priority.
The council sometimes carries out temporary repairs because a permanent repair would require a disruptive road closure, or because it would not work due to the prevailing weather conditions, for example when it is wet or icy.
One person commenting on Cllr Walker’s pothole photos said that 17 journeys on Knaresborough’s pitted roads had resulted in nearly £400 worth of garage repair bills.
When someone suffers injury or damage to property because of a highway defect, they may in rare cases be entitled to compensation. More information can be found on North Yorkshire Council’s website.
North Yorkshire Council is set to be allocated around £63.8 million for highways maintenance over 2026-27, up from £57.8 million the previous year.
0