00:00Tell me if this is not right, but this is according to a Freedom of Information request
00:04prompted by Labour, that, since you mentioned potholes, pothole spending in North Warwickshire
00:10under reform has dropped by more than 50%. Is that right?
00:14Well, the first point to make is judging a council by what the spending in absolute pounds
00:19is not the correct measure. The correct measure is to determine the quality of the roads.
00:23Well, hang on. People want to know, potholes come up every week.
00:25Fiona, with respect. Fiona, with respect.
00:27Well, is it true? Is that council spending 50% less on potholes?
00:31Fiona, with respect.
00:32With respect, I'm asking you that question.
00:33If you run a business on the basis of, I want my department to spend as much money as possible
00:38and that's all I judge them on, then your business would not last very long.
00:41But is that right?
00:42One of the big problems we have in this country right now is a huge amount of money is wasted.
00:47We have championed at reform more efficient ways of utilising money that is allocated to potholes
00:52to the degree it's actually spent on fixing roads.
00:54The truth of the matter is the contracts that are dished out by councils to contractors
01:01to supposedly fix potholes invariably have no quality component to them whatsoever,
01:07have no guarantee attached to them whatsoever.
01:09That stands in stark contrast to many countries that are great at this,
01:12countries like the United Arab Emirates, for example.
01:14So I've overseen personally a lot of our initiatives on this and I'm very proud of that.
01:18I'm just going to give it one more go.
01:19Has pothole spending in North Warwickshire under reform dropped by more than half?
01:24Well, I'm not across that precise bit of detail.
01:27I will tell you this, I will tell you this.
01:28No party who controls councils in this country has been more successful in fixing potholes than reform.
01:36We've already published that information.
01:38OK, would you like to.
01:39OK, would you like.
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