Cyclist, 84, killed after wheel hit a pothole
Woefully inadequate roads must be fixed, says widow as rural councils found to spend far less on repairs
‘Roads here are in a terrible condition. The lane where Harry died is used by heavy milk trucks, tractors and lorries, and so often subsides’
AN 84-YEAR-OLD cyclist was killed when the front wheel of his bike got jammed in a 9in-deep pothole on a remote rural road.
Harry Colledge, a retired music teacher and father of three, suffered fatal injuries after he was catapulted from his bicycle in Wyre, Lancashire, on Monday.
His wife Valerie, 69, told The Daily Telegraph that both central and local government must do more to repair potholes on the country’s “woefully inadequate” roads.
She spoke as new analysis of council expenditure revealed that potholes are blighting rural roads because up to half as much money is spent per mile on repairs in the countryside compared with towns and cities.
“Potholes are a horrendous problem for cyclists,” Mrs Colledge said from her Lancashire home. “Harry’s front wheel got stuck in a 9in-deep pothole. A local farmer told me she had complained to the council about the pothole but nothing was done.
“Roads here are in a terrible condition. The lane where Harry died is used by heavy milk trucks, tractors and lorries, and so often subsides.” A spokesman for Lancashire county council said it was “looking into the circumstances” of Mr Colledge’s death and was co-operating with the police investigation.
Now Mrs Colledge, along with motoring and cycling safety campaigners, is calling for more to be done to prevent future deaths. The Department for Transport’s (DFT) own data show that since 2016 at least 425 cyclists have been killed or injured owing to poor or defective road surfaces.
The Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA), which represents companies supplying materials and repairing roads, released its latest analysis of local authority expenditure which showed stark differences in funding for road repairs in rural and urban areas.
On average, each mile of road in the south west of England – including Somerset, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Gloucestershire – had just £7,040 spent on vital repairs in the financial year 2021-22.
Roads in the more urban North West region, which includes Manchester, Liverpool, Stockport, Salford and Wigan, had £13,385 per road mile spent on improvements over the same period.
Meanwhile, the east and south east of England – which includes Oxfordshire, Kent, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Essex – received £13,205 and £11,767 a mile respectively.
Rick Green, AIA chairman, said its survey found that £12 billion was needed to bring roads “up to scratch”, adding that councils could better plan their road maintenance if central Government
gave funding over a longer period. “Not investing in local road maintenance only leads to worsening conditions, which impacts on other locally provided public services, and a rising bill to fix the problem,” he said.
A DFT spokeswoman said: “We continue to work tirelessly to improve safety, which is why we are investing more than £5 billion from 2020 to 2025 into local highways maintenance. This funding is allocated based on the length and type of roads – without any regional bias – and local authorities decide how to use it based on local needs.”
Keir Gallagher, of Cycling UK, said Mr Colledge’s death highlighted the serious threat potholes pose to cyclists, adding how “our crumbling roads … are deterring many from taking up cycling”.