Petition - Urging Hampshire County Council to repair our Aldershot roads

Thank you for your note and your local petition.

As you are aware we are dealing with a record number of potholes following the winter weather, and this has led to us doing more temporary repairs. We’re taking this pragmatic approach because in the time taken to undertake a permanent fix, between 4 and 7 temporary repairs can be completed. Whilst we understand that seeing temporary repairs can be frustrating, this enables us to address any immediate safety risks ensuring people can travel safely. We have been fixing exceptionally high numbers of potholes, currently fixing up to 1,000 potholes every week and deploying extra resources to repair more road defects across the county.

The Leader has recently announced a further £22.5m over the next three years to go even further in delivering stronger roads for Hampshire. With the additional funding, it means more people, enabling us to fix potholes more quickly and other defects in the coming months, to ensure our roads are stronger ahead of the challenging winter period. This will include returning to some potholes like those in Birchett Road and at the junction with Birchett Road and Frederick Street to undertake a more permanent repair or resurface parts or all the road. In addition to significantly increasing the number of road repairs we will deliver, we have also empowered our highways teams to fix as many potholes as we can in one location, in one visit, rather than repairing just the most severe defects.

The signs identified by local residents regarding road surface treatments are in place as we are undertaking some specific surface treatment techniques to the carriageways.

The roads we are treating are as follows:

• B3208 Lower Farnham Road, from Ash Road the Avenue
• Church Lane East, from Avondale Road to Warwick Close
• Highfield Close, from Highfield Gardens to end of cul de sac

This treatment is known as surface dressing where we spray a layer of bitumen onto the surface and then roll in a layer of chipping which seals the surface from the ingress of water and restores the surface texture. This is a fast effective treatment process to extend the life of the carriageway.

With regards Church Lane East from Eggars Hill to Northbrook Road, I have been advised by the planned maintenance team that this road has been identified for a full resurfacing and it is currently programmed for the early part of 2024/25 financial year. The road will continue to be kept safe until it is resurfaced.

I hope this clarifies the situation and reassures you we are doing everything we can to repair and improve the road network.

Yours sincerely

Councillor Nick Adams-King
Executive Lead Member for Universal Services