MP Toby Perkins visits Chesterfield roads on national pothole day as the state of the roads in Derbyshire is an 'absolute disgrace'.
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00:00 The state of our roads in Derbyshire is an absolute disgrace. It's something that is being reported to me the entire time.
00:08 I've got a letter here saying, "Can you ask Toby to drive from Ashgate Avenue along Old Road towards Old Brampton,
00:14 then turn right up Slack Lane, down Lousie Green and left to Barlow please.
00:18 There are too many potholes and worn out surface to report them all.
00:22 I'm totally fed up of smashing my car to bits driving around the local area.
00:27 I've reported as many as I can. It's a disgrace.
00:30 Something needs doing about Derbyshire County Council urgently before someone seriously injures themselves or worse.
00:36 As you can see, the state of the roads is totally unacceptable.
00:39 It won't have gone as a surprise to many people driving across Chesterfield.
00:44 But the impact of these potholes isn't just on the damage to our cars, which we all experience,
00:51 but it also has a real impact on road safety.
00:54 If you're a cyclist, a motorcyclist going over these potholes, even cars, it has a genuine impact on your safety.
01:02 Now there is a central government element to this.
01:05 Councils are massively underfunded and it is also the case that we're getting different organisations,
01:11 like broadband providers, like energy providers, digging them up, refilling them, then digging them up again just a few days later.
01:21 And that is something central government can take action about.
01:24 But there's also a real issue for Derbyshire County Council here.
01:28 They've done this kind of patch-up repairs for so long now that our roads, when they get bad weather like we've had this year, are just in an appalling state.
01:38 So we are going to be pursuing Derbyshire County Council and central government to get these roads sorted.
01:45 But also in the next Labour Party manifesto you will see action to prevent the amount of digging up of our roads that's happening at the moment.