Councillor calls for ‘proper repairs’ at Maltby pothole hotspot
Motorists are facing repeated damage from potholes at a busy Maltby junction which a councillor says has not been properly repaired for years.
Councillor Adam Tinsley BEM, who represents the Maltby East ward on Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, has raised concerns about the condition of Queen’s Corner, where Muglet Lane, High Street, Grange Lane and Tickhill Road meet.
He said the surface of the road has deteriorated over around four years, with potholes repeatedly reappearing despite being reported and patched.
“People would live with its current state until it got resurfaced,” he said. “But can we have repairs – some proper repairs? That’s the main road, so you’ve got quite a lot of HGV traffic, and it gets some hammer.
“If you don’t do a proper repair, especially with all the water we’ve had, it just comes straight back up.”
Cllr Tinsley said the same potholes were being reported again and again, rather than new defects forming.
“It’s not like it’s a new pothole. Some of them are the same ones,” he said. “They just come in and aren’t doing a proper fix first time. It’s definitely patching rather than proper repairs. If we’d done proper repairs, they’d probably last.”
He said the junction had also been linked to vehicle damage, with motorists reporting cracked or blown tyres.
“There’s been quite a lot of reports of damage on this corner where drivers have cracked or popped tyres,” he said.
Cllr Tinsley said he had emails going back to January showing potholes being repaired and then reappearing shortly afterwards.
“They’ve been fixed, then it’s come back round again where they’ve come back up,” he said. “It’s just frustrating reporting the same issues.”
He suggested the method of repair could be part of the problem.
“You grind it out, prepare the surface, then put it down and seal it,” he said. “But when they come in with a shovel and just chuck it in, I don’t know if it’s cold tarmac, not even warm, there’s no bond to the surface. It’s not sealed.
“So when you get water in, it goes underneath. As soon as you get weight on, it just separates.”
Cllr Tinsley said he had reported more than 100 potholes across Maltby.
In response, Rotherham Council said the junction is regularly inspected and maintained in line with national guidance.
Sam Barstow, service director for community safety and street scene at Rotherham Council, said: “Queen’s Corner is inspected monthly to make sure the road remains safe, and we want to reassure residents that every repair is carried out with safety as the top priority.”
He said resurfacing of the junction is included in the Highway Repair Programme and is expected to take place in early 2026/27.
The council said potholes are prioritised based on risk, with the most serious defects repaired within four hours and others addressed within days or weeks depending on urgency.
It added that during colder months, temporary repairs may need to be revisited due to wet and freezing conditions, and that roads which continue to deteriorate are reviewed for resurfacing.
Since 2021, around £3.7m has been invested in improving roads and pavements in the Maltby area, with further work planned subject to budget approval.
The council also said Rotherham recently received an “all green” rating from the Department for Transport for the way pothole repairs are managed.