Derbyshire County Council has been slammed by Chesterfield MP, Toby Perkins, who has accused the Conservative-controlled authority of causing chaos for road users, cyclists and pedestrians.

Toby Perkins said, “Derbyshire has recently been named the worst area in the whole of England for potholes, which will come as no surprise to my constituents, but there are wider and longstanding problems with the management of roadworks and repairs.

Far too often, we see the same stretch of road being closed numerous times so that different organisations – such as highways, broadband installers and utility companies – dig up our roads, needing repeated closures or temporary traffic lights. There must be a better way to coordinate these works between agencies so that there is less disruption on our roads.

We also need proper repairs to our roads, rather than this sticking plaster approach to potholes that again means the Highways Team have to complete the same repairs over and over”.

Toby has written to Derbyshire County Council calling for a different infrastructure strategy to improve road safety and reduce the disruption to local roads. He has also written to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities urging the Government to give the County a fairer share of funds being allocated for pothole repairs.

Toby added, “Everyone is fed up with the chaos on our roads that the County Council are presiding over. We all appreciate the challenging weather, but these are longstanding problems with mismanagement and council policy. We need a long-term strategy rather than this constant firefighting and disruption.”