Exclusive:'Tyres are being ripped to shreds' - council leader to put spotlight on Amey contract over pothole complaints
She hopes to look at new options to fix the city’s street
Sheffield’s newly-appointed council leader has pledged to shine the spotlight on the city’s roads maintenance contractor Amey over pothole concerns.
Councillor Fran Belbin vowed to ‘dig into’ whether current projects to fix roads are actually working, with residents continually complaining about potholes and parking.
She raised the issue at her inaugural speech on Thursday, saying that people are frustrated at having “their car tyres ripped to shreds by potholes” on their way to work.
She also pointed out residents’ concerns around a lack of street parking, adding that it’s “unacceptable when people can’t park anywhere near their house,” claiming drives are being blocked and grass verges have been wrecked due to inadequate parking options.
Speaking to The Star after her appointment, she clarified that under her leadership Sheffield Council would be considering their current contract with Amey - the company responsible for street maintenance and management.
She told The Star: “We need to look at Amey, I think we need to be scrutinizing the Amey contract more closely and really digging into whether they are hitting the performance targets we’re setting them.
“And if they are, then are those performance targets high enough?”
In 2012, after Sheffield was branded as having the “worst roads in the country,” a 25-year agreement was negotiated for council contractor Amey to spend five years resurfacing more than half of all roads in Sheffield, overhaul infrastructure like street lights, and fix all potholes for the next 20 years.
It is understood that this has cost £2.2 billion, though complaints around roads still persist.
Sheffield Council figures show that the number of potholes, and pothole repairs, have tripled in recent years.
Estimate number of Category 1 (severe, dangerous) potholes filled:
| 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
| 2,348 | 2,707 | 2,862 | 5,762 | 6,179 |
Estimate number of Category 2 (not dangerous) potholes filled:
| 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
| 2,448 | 1,539 | 1,650 | 1,586 | 5,770 |
Beyond looking into the current contract, Coun Belbin says she wants to be “innovative” and reconsider how problems are reported and responded to.
She went on to say: “We varied the contract with Amey that does allow now to try different solutions in different parts of the city and we can do a bit of testing and trialling.
“I find it ludicrous that I have to report five lots of fly-tipping on the same street separately for example.
“Can we look at different ways of approaching the contract which will put less onus on local people to be constantly reporting one pothole, next to another pothole, next to another one and work more closely with our neighbourhoods and communities.”
She said that she had recently met with parents about problem parking around schools and said it was “incredibly useful.”
“How can we work together with parents, residents, with the parking enforcement services, the school itself and PCSOs?” she continued.
“There will be better ways we can manage these kinds of issues, but we need to bring people together I feel and have proper conversations about them.”