Daniel Francis MP takes Bexleyheath and Crayford’s road woes to Westminster

Daniel Francis, the MP for the Bexleyheath & Crayford constituency, has taken his Pothole Patrol campaign all the way to Westminster. At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday 22nd October, he raised the blight of potholes affecting residents across Barnehurst, Bexleyheath, Crayford, Northumberland Heath and Slade Green. 

This summer, the MP for Bexleyheath & Crayford visited every road across the constituency reporting potholes, to ensure the £895k given by this Labour government to the Conservative controlled council in the London Borough of Bexley is being spent.  

“I reported over 100 potholes across the constituency including one in Mayplace Road East which is over 1 metre wide and another in Rochester Drive which was big enough for me to fit a chair in” said Daniel Francis. 

He added, “I know potholes are a big issue in the area. Which is why I am really keen that the London Borough of Bexley, who is ultimately responsible for road maintenance, is getting on with the job and using the money to improve our roads.” 

“The Conservative Cabinet Member responsible for roads has been more focused on writing to a local paper, the News Shopper, asking that I stop reporting potholes, because it’s creating more work for the council.” 

Last week, the council published its budget monitoring report showing that by the end of June this year, they had only spent £40,000 of the dedicated £895,000 investment the Government provided for road repairs. This equates to less than 5% of the budget being spent in the first 25% of the financial year, despite residents continuing to raise this as a local issue.  

The local MP has reported countless potholes, with the council accepting that 50 require filling. However, the MP argues that many others, which meet the council’s own criteria of being at least 200mm wide and 31mm deep, may have been wrongly rejected. 

Daniel said “I shared my concerns with the Prime Minister that the council is not moving quickly enough. The Prime Minister’s message to the London Borough of Bexley was clear, use the money, fix the roads, or risk losing it. Given the pace at which the money is being spent, I am really worried that the council may have to return some by the end of the financial year. Their focus needs to be about getting on with the job, and using the money they have been given to fix roads across Bexleyheath and Crayford.” 

Since raising the issue in Parliament, the sorry state of roads in Bexleyheath has been taken up by Matt Chorley’s BBC Radio 5 show and BBC News. 

He added, “The message to Bexley’s Conservative Councillors is clear, start filling the potholes. If they spent less time spending public resources writing letters and issuing press releases about me, they might find the time to get on with the job and make our roads safe to drive on.”