The strategy for dealing with potholes in Congleton may need a rethink for 2022.

Pothole fixes need a rethink because repairs don't last and the cheapest option isn't always the most cost effective, two councillors have said.

Cheshire East Council, which respond to Congleton pothole filling requests with their Essex-based contractor Ringway Jacobs, were debating the problem this week.

Conservative councillor David Brown (Congleton East) and Labour's Ashley Farrall (Macclesfield Central) raised the matter at Wednesday's meeting of Cheshire East's finance sub-committee.

The Congleton Leek Road resident suggested an alternative approach on how to tackle the scourge of drivers.

Cllr Brown asked whether capital funding could be used to repair the roads rather than just fixing potholes.

"What I was suggesting is we would spend the capital sum on resurfacing or patch repairing roads, that means we don't have any potholes," he said.

"The problem with potholes is that every time you go and fill one in now, in 12 months' time maybe less, it needs doing again because of the time of the year it's been done."

Financial director Alex Thompson said potholes can be filled through capital expenditure.

"You can certainly use capital expenditure of a high value in one year and then pay that off over a long time, as long as you don't keep repeating it, then that is a sound strategy," said Mr Thompson.

Cllr Farrall said: "I think the best way to look at it would be to build a business case for different methods of filling the potholes.

"For level one patch repairs it seems to me the way that we do it currently in Cheshire East is the cheapest and easiest way, but isn't always the most cost effective."

The Macclesfield resident said some pothole repairs lasted barely a day.

Cllr Nick Mannion (Macclesfield West & Ivy, Lab) also explained flaws with the current policy.

"Filling the potholes, a level one repair, is a temporary job and obviously patch repair and resurfacing are more long term," said the South Park Road resident.

"So filling the pothole, in my book, isn't appropriate for capital expenditure, it's a temporary revenue job."

You can report a pothole in Congleton here.

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