‘Simply not fit for purpose’ – concerns over main road
CONCERNS have been raised over the ‘dire condition’ of a major route which runs across the Staffordshire Moorlands into Derbyshire.
At the last meeting of Waterhouses Parish Council, councillors approved a letter which was to be sent to several councillors, highway officials and the police and fire commissioner, Matthew Ellis, regarding the state of the A523 Leek to Ashbourne Road heading out of the village.
The road is a major commuting and tourist highway and also has many HGVS using the road from the nearby quarries and large cement works.
The letter, from the parish clerk Jason Buxton, said: “Waterhouses Parish Council has asked me to contact each of you to raise serious concerns over the state of the A523, heading out of Waterhouses towards Ashbourne.
“This area of road has now been in a dire condition for over two years, with the rumble strips mostly eroded away, the top surface of the road disintegrating and numerous large potholes scattered in numerous areas.
“This is a major road in a busy commuter and tourist area and the parish council cannot understand how this stretch has not taken priority over many other areas that have been worked, even though this has been complained about for many, many months.
“The stretch has now become a safety concern, with vehicles visibly swerving to avoid the potholes and areas of damage, in our view it is inevitable that an incident will happen here if this road is left in the state it is now.
“We want to make our concerns clear and visible to others to highlight that we have flagged this issue to numerous bodies who can and should take action.
“On numerous occasions we have requested information on whether this work is scheduled, however no response has been received back providing any answers.
“As a parish council, we are tired of continuously receiving complaints regarding this road and the backlash of parishioners who feel that we are not acting on it, when it is the Highways Authorities who are failing in this regard.
“Please could we have an explanation as to why this road has been left to get in this state and whether or not it is on the works schedule. If it is, please could we have a time frame.
“Due to the safety concerns we would be grateful for a speedy response or view from those receiving this”
At the monthly meeting of the authority, Councillor Bob Tuner said: “There are a lot of heavy wagons pounding this road.
“It has been patched but this has not helped.”
Councillor John Goldstraw said the road was not fit for purpose.
He said: “This is a waste of taxpayers money and it is laughable how they have gone about it. There is a lot of traffic on this road and it is dangerous, especially for motorbikes. It is simply not fit for purpose.”
Councillor David Stone said that the patches came out after two weeks.
He said: “Part of the road needs resurfacing. They just put filler in the holes and it comes out.”
Councillor Andrew Carr said: “Staffordshire County Council advisors are pulling the wool over our eyes. There is a one mile stretch of road that needs urgent attention.”
The Post & Times contacted the county highways regarding the state of the road.
Helen Fisher, cabinet member for highways and transport at Staffordshire County Council said: “We do have a huge road network here in Staffordshire, with around 6,000km of roads and these are inspected regularly by our team of highway inspectors. From these safety inspections our crews fix around 20,000 potholes every year. We are also investing an extra five million pounds in road maintenance this year, on top of an extra £5m last year which helped fix over 31,000 potholes.
“Our highways teams are continuing to monitor and make repairs to the road as required to keep it safe and in the longer term will be exploring other treatment options.”