PERFORMACNE of the county's highways contractor Amey came under fierce attack by the Liberal Democrats at the county council today.

The party has been joined in calling for an urgent review of the satisfaction levels of the under-pressure highways service.

The Lib Dems have been leading the demand for faster action on Gloucestershire’s road repairs for months and today said: “enough is enough”.

The review follows the release of surveys showing satisfaction levels of Amey amongst both county councillors and parish councils being well below par.

Using a 1 to 5 rating system, the score for county councillor satisfaction with the highways service was 2.95.

Parish Council satisfaction levels was even lower at a mere 2.41.

At today’s full meeting, councillors from all parties at Shire Hall gave their unanimous support for the review.

Liberal Democrat group leader, Cllr Paul Hodgkinson, led the call.

"In sounding like a broken record, I hope I've finally got the message across that these satisfaction levels for road repairs need to improve,” he said.

“In supporting our motion, the Conservatives are admitting that more needs to be done to raise such levels.

“They’ve criticised themselves over the state of our roads and it goes without saying that they are the ones who have been in charge for eleven years.

“So they need to get their act together. Enough is enough”.

Liberal Democrat spokesperson for highways and flood, Cllr Chris Coleman, spoke in support of the motion.

He said: "I'm delighted that cross-party support has been given and that the Council's Environment and Community Scrutiny will now conduct a detailed analysis of these satisfaction levels and for this to be reported back to council in December.

“The message is simple - sort out the state of our county’s roads and satisfaction levels amongst members and parish councils will improve.”

Conservative councillor Vernon Smith, cabinet member for highways, said that while statistics were improving, more needed to be done.

“The vast majority of the highways statistics published today show consistent improvement in the condition of Gloucestershire roads,” he said.

“This includes the speed of repairs, as well as a reduction in the backlog of work needed.

“Whilst public opinion is also above target and improving, more work needs to be done to look at communications with councillors and parish councils.

“I welcome this decision as a useful way of looking at that.”

Cllr Lesley Williams, leader of the Labour Group, said: “The public needs to have confidence in their government to deliver safe roads.

“I believe we can change that.”

Amey delivers highways services across Gloucestershire covering a 10,000km road network.