Road debris protest at Rotherham council meeting: GIVE YOUR VIEWS

Conservative councillor Tony Mannion hit out at the ruling Labour group as he handed over the package from the damaged road outside his Rotherham home in Flat Lane.

The Sitwell member accused the opposition of not doing enough to repair the borough’s roads during the coldest winter in years.

Cllr Mannion placed the bag of loose tarmac in front of Labour councillor Richard Russell, the Cabinet member for Streetpride, and said: “There’s no need to bother yourself with going to get a sample, I’ve brought the pothole to you.

“That’s the state of the repair that was made.”

As the town was being covered with a blanket of fresh snow last week, debate hit melting point inside, as the state of the borough’s roads came under further fire from Cllr Mannion.

“These repairs started deteriorating the same day they were laid and were just a loose collection of black gravel within a week,” he said.

“You would expect a repair to last longer than a day.”

Afterwards, he added: “This road has needed repairs since I moved there almost four years ago.

“Their attempt to repair it before failed, but when you tap tarmac down with the back of a shovel what do you expect?

“This is for my constituents and not for my benefit as I don’t even have a car.

“I have shown Cllr Russell the extent of the hole in his repair strategy, it’s now up to him to look into it."

Cllr Russell, defending the council’s work on the weather hit roads, said: “The general condition of the roads is as good as any as our neighbouring authorities.

“The weather this year has been exceptional and is not something that is normal.

“I was speaking to a lady who was complaining of one of her roads being particularly damaged.

“There was someone there within hours repairing it and I would like to commend Streetpride for what they did in the testing circumstances that we had.”

When replying to the accusations of Cllr Mannion who said he saw workers “tapping down the road with a shovel,” Coun Russell dismissed the claim by saying the vehicle was not one of the authority’s.

He added: “Rotherham's roads are the best in this whole area and we should be thankful of that.”