Pensioner spends £4,000 fixing potholes on her road - even though she doesn't drive
A pensioner has spent more than £4,000 fixing potholes on the street outside her home - despite not owning a car.
Elizabeth Williams, 89, became so fed up with the holes in the road outside her house that she paid to have them repaired herself.
Residents complained that drivers were mounting the pavement along Wyncote Court on Newcastle-upon-Tyne to avoid craters a metre wide.
The road is managed by Kingston Property Services, who said they had planned to carry out the work themselves but faced delays in getting quotes.
This wasn't good enough for Ms Williams, who took matters into her own hands and booked a company herself to carry out the job. Her neighbours hailed her as a "hero".
The work she ordered to repair the potholes was carried out earlier this year.
"I feel great about it now but it was awful - I was so bloody fed up. The potholes were absolutely dreadful," said Williams.
"I just wanted to do something about it. It’s also a gift to my neighbours, who are very nice, and to our estate.
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"I'm mad with Kingston. It's their duty to do it. It's a disgrace - I've been furious with them for at least four years."
Williams said she and other residents have been continually emailing, phoning and writing letters to the company about the 120-yard stretch of road.
She took it on herself to source someone to carry out the work after Kingston told her in January they couldn't find a contractor. She said it took her just a week to secure three quotes.
"People wouldn't come down the road - it was embarrassing and made the estate look like a dead-end sort of place," said Williams.
"It was increasingly irritating watching cars go round the potholes and thinking that an ambulance or delivery van would get damaged.
One resident, Camilla Fox, 55, a film location manager, said: "Elizabeth has been out there in the rain sorting this out when she should be enjoying her retirement."
And Jonathan Netts, 56, a property worker, said: "It was horrible - there was as much pothole as road. I could hear cars bumping over them all the time.
"We just couldn't see a way forward, but Elizabeth is a hero - she just did it. She's amazing. Nobody wanted it to happen this way but we're so grateful to her."
Kingston said they have reimbursed Williams, who has lived on the street for 22 years, and plan to fully resurface the road.
Carly Waller, director of Kingston Block Management, said: "Kingston is the managing agent and responsible for approving contractors to carry out maintenance to roads at these premises.
"A large project to fully resurface all roads was in the planning stages which includes letting leaseholders know of our plans
"There were delays in obtaining quotes for this work due to unavailability of contractors and materials which meant we couldn’t start the work as quickly as we wanted to.
"Leaseholders can nominate their own contractors to carry out the work and we asked for those details so we could cover the cost of work, but did not receive those details.
"We are still planning to carry out a full resurface of the road as soon as possible as some potholes still remain.
"We've reimbursed the leaseholder fully for the work she paid for."
