North Northamptonshire Council leader 'taking direct approach' after taking to Twitter to call out council's road contractor

The leader of North Northamptonshire Council has taken to X, formerly known as Twitter, to highlight his frustrations with his council’s own road contractor.

Cllr Jason Smithers, known for his straightforward approach to communications, posted on the social media site questioning why repairs were taking so long and saying that local people ‘deserved better’ – mirroring the views of many North Northamptonshire residents.

He highlighted one case in Irchester High Street where a report of a damaged road sign by a local person had not been actioned in more than a year since it was first reported.

Tagging in his own highways department, as well as the Kier Group, he said: “We can do much better than this. When residents take the time to report issues on our #highway, they should not be ignored.

"For almost two years, this issue has been floating around. Why does it take so long for the repairs to happen?

“Even when you say they will be completed in two weeks, they still aren't done. I'm going to be watching with interest issues like this and will be calling them out. Our residents deserve a better service than this. I will be following this up and will be asking for a thorough investigation and review of other missed repairs. We are here to serve the public. Let's not forget this.”

There are currently 37 open complaints with the state of the roads in Irchester registered on the ‘Fix my Street’ portal including dangerous paving, ‘massive’ potholes, broken drain covers and overgrown alleyways.

Speaking to the Northants Telegraph today (Friday, January 2), Cllr Smithers said: “It’s unacceptable.

"This area’s paying tax to have their streets seen to and our contractors are not doing what they should be doing.

"I’ve spoken to them before about the quality of their work and I’ve reported stuff myself.

"I’ve taken the direct route of posting on social media. We have got to stand up for what’s right.

"There needs to be an improved manner of inspection and if it means going out myself, getting into my vehicle and driving around North Northamptonshire then I will do so.

"We’re paying a considerable amount of money and they’ve got to to the job properly.

"I’m just sick and tired of shoddy workmanship and shoddy service and we’ve got to hold them to account.”

A spokesman for Kier said: “We apologise for not updating the resident on the query raised, which relates to fading country park signage. This does not represent our usual high standards of service and the signage will be replaced imminently.“We encourage members of the public to raise issues via North Northamptonshire Council’s website to allow us to prioritise works, and we understand the importance of communicating with residents.”

Back in December Kier Transportation bosses gave the council’s Place & Environment Scrutiny Committee an update after the completion of the first year of their seven-year, £210million, contract to look after North Northamptonshire’s Roads.

The firm was handed the contract despite its predecessor, sister firm Kier WSP, coming in for heavy criticism for the state of county highways.

Assistant director for Highways Steve Smith said that there had been 19,000 potholes fixed in first year – about 300 per day – and that every single road was inspected at least once a year. He said there had been 1,355 responses in the past year and that 37,000 sq m of carriageway had been resurfaced.

A report to members said: “As is the case with many highway authorities North Northamptonshire is managing a highway network in decline. ..The majority of highway authorities (have) seen several years of decreasing or static budgets at a time when construction inflation rates are around 20 per cent meaning that significantly less maintenance is able to be undertaken each year than previous years.

"As a result, 39 per cent of the nation’s road network maintained by local authorities are deemed to be in need of resurfacing. North Northamptonshire is in a similar position.

He said Kier were struggled to deliver to respond to the number of ‘active defects’ reported over the winter period but had responded ‘very well’ on their key performance indicators.

Kier operations manger Rob Carroll told the meeting: "It’s not been perfect. We had a few issues but I’m quite proud pf how we dealt with this collaboratively with NNC. They’ve definitely held us to account.”