Having spent another weekend photographing potholes across New Invention and Short Heath I couldn’t believe what I was hearing from Tory cabinet members at last night’s Corporate Scrutiny Panel as they defended a proposal to change the council’s “repairing highway defects” policy in order to save £20,000 each year.

The proposal shifts the response time for making a “temporary” repair from 24 hrs to 5 days claiming that it would allow for a more efficient “permanent” repair. This must be a joke! anyone who drives around Walsall’s roads on a daily basis spends a great deal of time dodging potholes which have become a permanent feature in spite of their being reported, inspected and marked up for repair. Some have been marked up so long that the paint used has almost worn off!

To be fair, I do believe that the Tories running the council actually believe the current system is working after all a great deal of money has been spent on “state of the art” equipment to deal with the problem.

A quick tour around Walsall’s road system will show that this “state of the art” equipment is giving a “state of the ark” service.

Cabinet members at the meeting agreed to look into the problem.