The hole truth: 17,000 dug in area's road last year

Feb 25 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

GAS, electricity and water companies dug 17,027 holes in Kirklees’ roads and paths last year.

That equates to a staggering 46 every day.

The shock figure, revealed in a council inquiry into the quality of road works, does not include the council’s own road works and is a massive reduction on previous years.

In 2007, 18,597 holes were dug while in 2006 the number was 20,846 and in 2005 it was 24,983.

But the report, commissioned at the request of former Kirklees Council roads chief, Clr Martyn Bolt, concludes that the council is improving in the quality of its A, B and C roads and also on the quality of works carried out by utility companies.

Clr Bolt said he wasn’t surprised at the high number and blamed the ageing Victorian sewers.

Just last summer most of the A629 Halifax Road was fully re-laid all the way down to Edgerton Road.

But less than a year on, contractors have dug a hole in the shiny new tarmac.

A spokeswoman for Northern Gas Networks said they had been called to an emergency gas leak last Thursday.