Time for concrete action on Amey’s asphalt failures
The council’s PFI contract with Amey started in 2012 and runs until 2037
Talk to almost anyone and they’ll say Amey is failing.
And by anyone I don’t just mean readers, who are incensed at the state of Sheffield’s roads.
Business leaders, MPs, mayors and councillors have all expressed dismay at the sheer scale of the company’s pothole crisis.
New figures show it fixed 8,929 defects in the first four months of 2026. But as of May 8, it still had 4,088 to repair.
It matters on a practical level because our cars and bikes are being shaken to bits - and that costs us money.
And it matters on a political level because taxpayers thought we were forking out £2.2bn for smooth roads.
The council’s PFI contract with Amey started in 2012 and runs until 2037. It seems reasonable to me that a new road should last that long, 25 years.
But apparently not. Since the firm got started some have been resurfaced twice, while some are due a third. And that was before pothole-mageddon in January and February.
It isn’t just the quality of the resurfacing that is a problem, but repairs too. Often carried out by notorious duo ‘fill and pat’, some of these half-baked fixes last days.
Further evidence of rot at the heart of this relationship was revealed when Amey said it would double the number of repair teams.
It did not say how many. And it was only later revealed it was from five to 10.
Five teams fixing potholes as the number soars into the thousands….
The company also said it was using more durable material. Why not use durable material in the first place, you might ask.
Meanwhile the boss was blaming extreme weather - which most people call winter.
But there is more. A new Freedom of Information response shows the council has fined Amey eight times this year, which seems a very low number to me, and not at all last year, or in 2024.
And it won’t say by how much, which rings alarm bells around accountability.
So the council is protecting the company it's supposed to be policing?
It’s a cosy, toothless, frustrating, damaging, shoddy mess - and it has 11 years left to run.
Before the elections in May, politicians were promising to revisit the contract and crack the whip.
New city council leader Fran Belbin has since confirmed that is her intention and we look forward to concrete action.
Because at the moment Amey is getting away with £2.2bn of our money and what exactly are we getting?
Read the full exclusive story HERE.