Council trials pothole machine rejected elsewhere

A new machine to repair potholes is being trialled by a council despite other authorities across the country rejecting it.

Suffolk County Council - which is run by Reform UK - began trialling the Pothole Pro on Monday after it became free on loan from JCB.

In Leicestershire, the county council said the machine was not economical, but since being taken over by Reform, it was once again trialling the machine while other councils had reported success.

The leader of Suffolk County Council, Michael Hadwen, said he had "declared war on potholes" and it made sense to trial it when it was free, but opposition parties voiced concerns on its suitability.

According to the council, the machine is engineered to cut a neat repair area, crop around defects and ironwork, and clean road defects with sweepers.

JCB said a typical pothole can be repaired in about eight minutes, after which a conventional patching crew can complete the repair using hot asphalt.

It is being trialled across a number of sites in Suffolk.

Alan Wallace, JCB's national highways manager, said the machine could "mechanise the job that would have been done by hand or by a traditional planer".

It was also revealed earlier in the year that JCB had donated £200,000 to Reform and the Conservative Party.

Leicestershire County Council said at the start of the year the machine did not "stack up as an economical piece of kit".

Nearby Lincolnshire County Council also said in 2021 its engineers "found better tools", but it has since taken it on while Leicestershire was still in a trial.

In Stoke-on-Trent, the machine did lead to a 740% increased output and it had doubled the repair life on potholes, according to the city's council.

Hadwen said one of the promises his party made when it was voted in was "to be creative and innovative".

"Why wouldn't we trial it," he said.

"We're not paying for it; it's not costing the taxpayer anything.

"Let's see what it does... it might not be the silver bullet, but anything is better [when] trying to get this war won."

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When questioned about the other councils that had struggled to see the value of the machine, Hadwen said "we'd be wrong not to try it" and that JCB had shown the council it was "constantly measuring the metrics".

When also asked about the £200,000 donation, Hadwen stressed it had nothing to do with the Pothole Pro and if the council decided to introduce the machine full-time, it would have to pay for it.

"I promise you, no matter who donates to whatever party, I'm doing what's best for Suffolk residents," he added.

"If this is the best thing, we're going to go for it."

Robert Lindsay, opposition spokesperson for highways and transport for the Green Party, said he was "all for exploring new ways" of fixing potholes.

However he was fearful the machine had already been criticised elsewhere and that it required road closures.

"There needs to be a lot of money invested in, rather than constantly fix and mend; in finding better ways to build the roads in the first place," he said.

He added decisions should be made "in the interests of Suffolk citizens... not on who's giving the political party the money".

Richard Rout, the Conservative group leader, echoed Lindsay and said in January - when the council was under his party's control - council staff and its highways contractor advised that the machine "would be less effective in Suffolk than other available equipment".

He said it was due to the fact it was "better suited to sustained work in a single location, rather than the more nimble, mobile approach required across Suffolk's dispersed rural road network".

"The Pothole Pro is also slower to move between sites, meaning more time is spent relocating the machine rather than repairing roads - a significant drawback given how scattered defects are across the county," he added.

"This reduced mobility, combined with its size, also means greater traffic management requirements at each site, adding further cost, disruption and delay compared with faster, more flexible alternatives."

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