Pothole pointed out by Rishi Sunak remains unfilled two weeks later – and it’s even deeper
A POTHOLE personally pointed out by Rishi Sunak remains unfilled two weeks later.
The suspension-buster even appears to have got deeper and wider despite the attentions of the Prime Minister, the constituency MP, regional mayor and a council leader.
Now the joke among exasperated residents waiting for repairs has become: “How many Tories does it take to fix a pothole?”
Mr Sunak was photographed looking purposefully at the pothole in Emley Moor Road, Darlington, on March 31.
The PM was there to announce a crackdown on utility companies that failed to repair roads and pavements after digging them up.
Flanked by Teesside Mayor Ben Houchen, Darlington MP Peter Gibson and council leader Jonathan Dulston, he bent down to see the damage for himself.
But despite promising drivers smoother journeys and pledging hundreds of millions of pounds more for repairs, the pothole is still there a fortnight later.
Stephen Harker, Labour group leader on Darlington council, said: “If the Conservative council can’t even fill potholes pointed out by the Prime Minister, what hope do drivers have?
“Rishi Sunak is running out of road here in Darlington.”
However, a Darlington council spokesman insisted: “The pothole will be repaired this week in line with our procedures.”
The scourge of potholes has become a keen battleground ahead of next month’s local elections.
The Conservatives claim their councils fix more than their Labour counterparts.
Analysis shows Tory local authorities repaired 16,250 compared with 5,417 filled by those councils controlled by Sir Keir Starmer’s party.
However, Labour has accused the Government of a “decade of broken pothole promises” after then-PM David Cameron vowed to tackle the problem in 2014.