Political support crumbles as city’s streets show cracks

18 October 2006

Liverpool’s footways have come under the spotlight after statistics revealed the amount of cracked and broken slabs was 13% above the national average.
Opposition Labour councillors have made much of the figures, which were recorded under Best Value performance indicators.
Between 2003 and 2005, 37.4% needed to be fixed or relaid, but this year, the figure has risen to 39%.
Sharon Walls, highways maintenance team leader, said the BVPI could be improved, but it did not show the ‘huge’ strides the authority was making on improving safety and the fact that compensation claims had been slashed. She said: ‘A lot of our footway slabs have cracks, and this reflects badly on our performance in the BVPIs.
‘But, they are not dangerous and we have doubled investment in improving them to £800,000.’
Walls also said her team was looking to tarmac areas where pavements were in a really poor state of repair – which was more cost effective and gave 25% more coverage – but faced opposition from councillors.
She added: ‘People think this is cheap, and in conservation areas, I can understand concerns. But if it is used properly, it could be a good alternative.’

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Political support crumbles as city’s streets show cracks

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