Villagers told to pay £73,000 to fix potholes 'dating back to 60s'
Locals in Furneux Pelham, Hertfordshire say people have fallen over and have cut their faces due to a pothole epidemic the council is refusing to fix.
Villagers in one of Britain's longest-running pothole rows have been told by the council they will have to pay at least £73,000 if they want them repaired.
Locals in Furneux Pelham, Hertfordshire, have been locked in a bitter dispute with the council since the 1960s over Whitebarns Lane – which links the main road through the village to a cul-de-sac.
Hertfordshire County Council said that Whitebarns Lane has always been a public footpath and not a road - meaning its 32 potholes cannot be repaired at public expense.
The latest quote from the council to fix the problem in 2016 was £73,000, but the real cost could be closer to £100,000 if inflation is accounted for.
Resident Sarah Wright, 59, said locals have refused to pay out of their own pockets to make the 125m lane an "adoptable road" – a private road taken over by a local authority and maintained with public money.
"It is terrible because the council are refusing to resurface it. They fill it with road chippings on a regular basis and they come out of the potholes if it rains, making the surface even more dangerous," she said.
"People have been injured. We've known people to fall over and cut their face, smash their glasses. An elderly grandmother fell and hit her face on the ground while she was walking with her grandchildren.
"She broke her glasses and it was really distressing. The elderly people are petrified to use the lane if they fall and hurt themselves.
"We've had ambulances refuse to come down the road. Children topple over walking up the lane to go to school."
A report in the local newspaper the Herts Mercury in 1980 referred to an already 20-year battle over Whitebarns Lane, while a letter from 1967 which Wright obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request also references the poor state of the road.
Despite this, Wright said that more homes have since been built on the lane without fixing the problem.
"Should social housing residents expect to have fit-for-purpose access to the main highway by the council or government? The alternative is the unthinkable."
Douglas Debnam, 79, suffers from macular degeneration meaning he is considered "severely impaired" but gets the bus three times a week from the top of the lane.
"The council should pay. They can't say it is a public footpath when I have to move out of the way for cars and tractors," said the pensioner, who uses a white cane to get around in public due to his visual impairment.
"I have to watch where I am walking with the potholes so I don't trip into them. You've got to walk through all of these potholes and they're getting to a point where they are uncountable because one is going into another," he said.
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Diana Perigoe, 72, has lived down Whitebarns Lane for seven years and stopped driving because it was a "nightmare", having burst two tyres after leaving her home down the lane and driving towards the main road.
A Hertfordshire County Council spokesperson said: “It would potentially be possible to adopt Whitebarns Lane as a public road, but only if the landowner, or the residents living along the lane, were able to bring it up to an acceptable standard.
"We have offered to contribute towards the cost of the necessary works. In the meantime, we will continue to maintain Whitebarns Lane as a public footpath.”
What causes potholes and why does the UK have so many?
A pothole is a depression in a road surface caused by wear or sinking.
They start out as tiny cracks but can grow if not fixed, as the friction of tyres on the road heats up the surface and causes it to expand.
Water can then seep into the cracks, and potholes are formed when water in those cracks freezes and thaws.
For this reason, the UK is more susceptible to potholes due to its cold and wet weather, particularly during the winter months.
The heavy road use and traffic on the UK's roads is also a factor, as well as tight local authority budgets to fix potholes.
Earlier this year, the RAC said the UK is thought to have more than one million potholes, causing 33% more breakdowns in 2023 compared to the previous year.
The AA said it received more than 50,000 pothole-related reports in September alone, marking its highest figure for the period in seven years.
Figures from the insurance provider show there have been 10,000 more pothole-related breakdown incidents compared to last year –marking a 2% increase. These callouts mainly include punctures, damaged wheels, and problems with steering and suspension.
The AA, which is part of a coalition presenting a five-point plan to the government to fix the issue, warned heavy rain in recent months has compounded the problem, as many potholes have been hidden by puddles.
Read more
The world’s first pothole-fixing robot that uses AI to repair road (Manchester Evening News)
Pothole-related breakdowns jump to seven-year high, AA warns (Yahoo News)
Help us map Britain’s worst potholes (The Telegraph)
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