Pothole campaigner Theresa Meredith Hardy is calling on Surrey County Council to rethink its entire strategy for road maintenance.

It follows what she claims are inefficiencies and poor practices from the council highways department in how potholes are repaired across Farnham and the surrounding area.

Ms Meredith Hardy, a Lib-Dem campaigner, has been conducting a survey on the state and number of potholes in Farnham, as well as the frequency and effectiveness of repairs.

Through this work, she has observed that when a pothole is repaired in a given location, nearby potholes are often left untouched, even when they are only metres away.

“This has happened on several occasions in my local area,” she said. “It would be far more efficient and cost-effective to address all the defects in one visit, rather than returning multiple times.”

She submitted a query to Surrey County Council’s highways department, which she said acknowledged that until mid-2023, its policy was to fix individual defects only.

A revised approach now allows inspectors to recommend repairs beyond the immediate pothole, covering an area up to 2m² or other visibly deteriorating sections.

Roads in generally poor condition can also be referred for further assessment by an engineer and considered for resurfacing. In addition, Surrey has introduced 'fix now' teams tasked with repairing all qualifying defects on a particular road.

Despite these changes, Ms Meredith-Hardy says the reality on the ground does not reflect the council’s stated improvements.

“From what I’ve seen, this just isn’t happening. I’d like Surrey residents to help me gather specific examples to show the council that contractors are not following this through,” she said.

She has also asked Surrey County Council for data on how many pothole repairs are redone under the two-year guarantee reportedly offered by Ringway, the council’s contractor — but has yet to receive a response.

“Many residents complain about the poor quality of repairs. I often mention the guarantee, but I’ve never seen any data on how often it’s actually enforced,” she said.

Although she is considering a Freedom of Information request, Ms Meredith-Hardy is mindful of the cost implications.

“I’d prefer if the council just published this data voluntarily, in the interest of public transparency,” she said.

According to recent statistics, Surrey County Council maintains more than 3,000 miles of roads and receives around 50,000 defect reports each year.

Ms Meredith Hardy’s campaign continues to call for greater oversight of road repairs, stronger enforcement of contractor guarantees, and more efficient use of public funds.

She would like to hear from any Farnham residents about potholes in your area by email at: [email protected]

A Surrey County Council spokesperson said: “We're now repairing multiple potholes, or other defects in the road that are close together, as one patch. These bigger patches last longer. We now also empower our repair teams to “fix now” a pothole near another one that may not yet have been inspected or reported.”

Regarding the quality of repairs, the spokesperson said: “We carry out monthly compliance audits to identify potential failures. In April, we investigated 134 cases where new jobs had been raised in the same location as a previously completed repair within the past two years. These were assessed as possible failures under the two-year guarantee.

“Following investigation, only one of these cases was confirmed as a failure of the original repair. The remainder were found to be new issues that had developed either adjacent to or very near the earlier repair sites.”