IT seems like a query extra akin to a joke you may discover in a Christmas cracker: What number of council employees does it take to fill a pothole?
Nonetheless, the reply in a single explicit case in Edinburgh has sparked outrage – and is actually no laughing matter.
We will reveal it took eight workers the equal of two-and-a-half days – at a price to taxpayers of round £3,500 – to plug one defect within the metropolis’s roads this 12 months.
Edinburgh metropolis council’s roads division additionally deployed a fleet of six autos, comprising 18 and seven.5 ton lorries, a Ford Ranger, Ford Transit, an extra ‘items automobile’, and a JCB ‘Pothole Professional’ machine to the job within the metropolis’s Outdated Dalkeith Highway.
Shopper professional Scott Dixon, who uncovered the figures, described them as ‘scandalous’ and mentioned they left him ‘gobsmacked’.
5 of the employees are pictured ‘on the job’
He mentioned: ‘If that is what it takes to fill one defect, it’s no shock council tax payments are so excessive.’
Native resident Mr Dixon, who specialises in resolving motoring and roads-related complaints, mentioned: ‘Along with the quantity of employees concerned, what stood out for me was the truth that they wanted so many autos.
‘The aim of hiring and deploying a Pothole Professional machine is to chop prices and lower your expenses.
‘This doesn’t seem like the case right here, with taxpayers for my part being ripped off on what’s a comparatively small restore.
‘It’s a scandal for Edinburgh metropolis council to offer eight operatives over 60 hours to repair a defect like this and represents poor worth for cash.
‘It’s my perception these practices are by no means correctly highlighted. The quantity of sources and time spent on this one job left me gobsmacked.’
The council mentioned that, following a ‘website assembly’ a call was made to hold out the work on a Sunday in Might this 12 months to ‘minimise disruption’.
The rutted patch of tarmac on Outdated Dalkeith Highway
The small-scale restore that took eight employees 60 hours
It revealed ‘labour prices’ had been £2175 with ‘eight operatives’ finishing up the restore which took 60.5 ‘complete working hours’.
Different prices included for autos and supplies. Plant prices, together with a flooring noticed, plate compactor, curler, trailer, and a ‘Welfare Van’ added £274.
The council hiked Council Tax payments for this 12 months by 5% with Band H, the best, paying greater than £4500 per 12 months, or £380 per thirty days, with even a Band D invoice reaching slightly below £2000 per 12 months.
Additional will increase are anticipated subsequent 12 months.
Scottish Conservative Lothian MSP Sue Webber mentioned: ‘Edinburgh residents shall be elevating their eyebrows on the prices concerned in repairing this single pothole.
‘Whereas it’s all the time welcome to see the capital’s roads repaired, the council ought to all the time be targeted on guaranteeing they ship worth for cash for taxpayers.’
Nonetheless Edinburgh council argued that the price of the restore was justified because it lined not only a single pothole however an space of 22sq m of broken highway.
Potholes are more and more changing into a scourge to metropolis motorists
Councillor Scott Arthur, Edinburgh metropolis council’s transport and atmosphere convener, mentioned: ‘This restore lined 22sq m, or 237sq ft, reasonably than a single pothole and utilizing the Pothole Professional allowed the group a better stage of high quality management, guaranteeing a dependable enchancment.
‘Given the visitors sensitivity of this key path to Edinburgh’s largest hospital and its impression on the bus community, this work needed to be carried out on both an evening shift or Sunday.
‘The price of was in step with the common price of such schemes.
Council tax ranges mirror Edinburgh’s place as Scotland’s worst-funded native authority, however do stay decrease than cities like Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen and Stirling.’
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