More than 1,000 residents urge council to fix potholes in Borehamwood and Elstree
They are calling on the county council to identify the worst-affected roads and to implement a targeted resurfacing programme
More than 1,000 residents are calling on Hertfordshire County Council to take urgent action to fix potholes in Borehamwood and Elstree.
They say the disruption and danger caused by potholes across the town each winter appears to be getting worse, highlighting “deeply troubling” reports of damage to cars and risk of injury to pedestrians.
And in a petition running on www.change.org, they are calling on the county council to identify the worst-affected roads and to implement a targeted resurfacing programme.
“Each winter, the disruption and danger created by potholes seems to be getting worse,” says the petition.
“Along key roads that are riven with what we can only describe as mini-craters, reports of damage to cars (at significant cost to drivers), risk of injury to pedestrians and, in at least one case, a hospitalisation caused by these are deeply troubling.
“We are concerned that unless a longer-term solution is urgently sought to address this issue, ot will only be a matter of time before someone is killed, as cars swerve to avoid potholes and crash into pedestrians or oncoming vehicles, or cyclists are upended.”
According to the petition, the issue is sometimes most severe outside schools and nurseries, highlighting the roads outside Cowley Hill and Summerswood primary schools.
And petitioners call for “lasting solutions” – suggesting that “patching” is short-termist and wastes taxpayers’ money.
“Hertfordshire County Council is the authority responsible for fixing potholes and repairing the roads,” says the petition.
“We believe they are currently failing to protect us.
“Patching is a strategy that we feel is short-termist and ends up wasting large amounts of taxpayers’ money as potholes are filled, only to open up again, sometimes within days or weeks.
“We need lasting solutions.”
As well as calling for an urgent audit to identify the worst-affected roads and a targeted resurfacing programme, the petition also calls for the county council to be “transparent” about how £173m of planned road repair funding will be allocated across Hertfordshire.
And it calls for the council to review its road repair policy – including the quality and durability of materials and the potential for new technologies.
The petition was started by Elstree and Borhamwood Town Mayor, Cllr Dan Ozarow.
And commenting on the petition, he said: “Many residents in our town are fed up with the chaos and safety risks that they are exposed to every winter due to the emergence of so many large and deep potholes.
“They deserve more dignity than that.
“With the Government’s record investment in road repair, we call upon the county council to take heed of our protest and implement solutions that will last.”
Commenting on the petition, a spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council acknowledged the role of petitions in raising local issues.
And they highlighted the council’s own online petition portal, which can be found at www.hertfordshire.gov.uk
“We like to hear from our residents, and petitions are a great way of highlighting local issues,” said the county council spokesperson.
“We recommend that residents who wish to present their views to the county council or who are seeking for a decision to be considered by a panel that they do so via our online petition portal.
“If our online portal is used, when a threshold of signatures is met, in line with our constitution, we have a duty to present and consider the matter at the appropriate committee.”
Under the terms of the county council’s own petition scheme, any petition submitted through its own petition portal that is backed by more than 1000 residents can be considered at a meeting of the full county council.