A COUNCILLOR has claimed two dogs have died because of a “poisonous” substance being used to repair pavements across the city.

Stephen Aylen, Belfairs ward councillor, called for council officers to assess the cost benefit of the current policy to replace damaged pavements by using a dense bituminous material known as “DBM”.

In a report to cabinet, officers said the use of BDM “allows us to resurface pavements by approximately three additional roads per year”.

Mr Aylen said: “It’s proved that it is poisonous to pets. We believe in Belfairs two dogs died from walking on it and then licking their paws.”

He added: “It’s a huge mistake to reject the motion. They are spending thousands of unnecessary pounds in Southend for low grade repairs to paving which don’t need to be done. All they need to do quite often is just to lift the paving stones and reset them or replace them when they are broken.

“They claim they can’t get imperial paving stones but how come all the utility services get them. They have to replace paving if they lift it up. They do a lovely job when they replace them. We’re laying bitumen down which is polluting all its life. In hot weather you can’t walk on it as it sticks to your shoes.”

The council said DBM is 20 per cent cheaper than slab replacement. Many paving stones are also in imperial measurements which are more expensive to source than metric sized slabs.

Daniel Cowan, leader of the council said: “Southend has long had a policy of resurfacing pavements using black DBM. Agreeing to councillor Aylen’s motion would have increased costs by 20 per cent, thus reducing our repair and resurfacing budget and ability by up to one fifth.

“Residents want to see us fixing more pavements and potholes, not fewer, so I could not agree to this motion.”

Highways officers said: “The motion detailed that many slabs have been in place for over 100 years. This is clearly one of the issues as they are now very brittle in nature due to their age. Vehicles traversing the footways, over proper vehicle crossings or improperly, has led to slabs lifting or cracking, which leads to an increased risk of tripping accidents and maintenance costs.”