Pothole Parade

[David Whipp]

In another thread, I threatened to start a topic about potholes...

Panbiker wondered how bad roads needed to be before Lancashire County Council did something about them.

I've got a few examples to get going, mainly from a survey I did walking around Barlick last February. The survey will be repeated over the next few weeks, which should provide some new examples as well as seeing what's happened with last year's crop.

The first pothole picture isn't from Barlick (unless you use the Royal Mail definition) but it's the longest pothole saga I know and it has a happy ending...



This is the gaping hole left in Elm Close at Salterforth pictured in April last year after a machine doing snow clearance ripped the metalwork off the top of a road gulley. However, problems with the short stretch of road had begun many years before.

Over 40 years ago, residents had paid for the road to be 'made up' and adopted by the highway authority, which at that time was the West Riding of Yorkshire. But with local government reorganisation in 1974 the adopted status of Elm Close was forgotten.

Years passed and the road began to crumble but the new highway authority (Lancashire County Council) said it wasn't adopted and refused to carry out any repairs.

This is the potholed and broken carriageway in February 2013.



Only after documents proving that it was adopted were dug out of the archives at Craven District Council did Lancashire agree to maintain it at public expense.

Here it is pictured on the day it was finally resurfaced later in 2013.

[Stanley]

Adoption can be a funny thing to prove. Ted Waite once told me that his father John got the council to repair Esp Lane but I don't think it was legal adoption.

[David Whipp]

Adoption can be a funny thing to prove. Ted Waite once told me that his father John got the council to repair Esp Lane but I don't think it was legal adoption.

Esp Lane was surfaced with the benefit of a Min of Ag grant way back when. The work was to facilitate milk wagons etc getting to farms. Unfortunately, the work didn't mean that the road became maintainable at public expense. (The end of the adopted section is at the top of Pickles Hippings, where I got them to put in larger road gulleys.)

It's now in a very bad state on the initial steep section and residents on the lane are working to get an effective and long lasting surface put down.

[David Whipp]

Another one that the county council said wasn't adopted, Back Dickens Avenue.

This one didn't take 40 years to sort out... but it illustrates a common problem with LCC systems.

In the good old days, we had a reasonably local team of highway engineers who knew their patch quite well and kept paper records of what was and wasn't adopted.

Without researching exactly when, I guess Back Dickens Avenue was 'made up' and adopted under BUDC in the 1960s or possibly late 1950s. After that, any repair requests would be dealt with (as far as money allowed) firstly by the urban district council until 1974, and then by Pendle Council through their agency agreement with LCC (the highway authority).

After 20 odd years of a system that worked pretty well, with a highway team based in Nelson, the county council decided to scrap the agency agreements and do all the work themselves. At first it wasn't too bad, with more or less the same people doing the same job and still based locally. People such as myself knew who was responsible for looking after different things and were able to let them know when repairs were needed.

In the last few years, local teams have been replaced by centralised teams (in our case covering East Lancashire). The number of engineers has been slashed (one left telling me he was leaving the sinking ship...) and any repair requests have to go through 'customer services'.

The problem is that the people dealing with the requests don't usually have any knowledge of local areas. They depend on their electronic map to tell them where you're talking about and if the road in question is adopted.

When the highway in question is wrongly identified as being unadopted, Bingo! they believe the map...

In the case of Back Dickens Avenue, they eventually agreed that it was adopted (it's the front street that's not), the very bad potholes were filled in temporarily and the whole street resurfaced last September...

[David Whipp]

Thinking about getting roads made up reminded me of the efforts to get one of Barnoldswick's most notorious 'rocky roads' sorted out.

St James Road was probably the most prominent undadopted street in the town, with a town centre view from its junction with Skipton Road between Bank Buildings and Holy Trinity.

Here it is as it was during the 1980s.



Rather than doing the whole street in bitmac, the steep section was paved with stone setts.

(An interesting point I learnt during this job is that the Church of England are exempt from paying street works charges; I think they had to be paid by the highway authority or Pendle Council.)

[David Whipp]

St James Road, February 2014

[David Whipp]

Kelbrook Road pavement (entrance to WCHTC car park) February 2013.

Despite this being a very busy pedestrian route, it took months to persuade the county council to carry out resurfacing work. When the work was eventually done, the drop off lane, which isn't part of the highway, wasn't repaired though.



February 2014.

[David Whipp]

I must have zapped a folder with some of last year's pictures on, so I can't show the awful state the road at Long Ing had got into, or the similar stretch at the junction of Wellhouse Road with Skipton Road.

Here's one from this year's survey.



Greenberfield Lane near the locks.

Several very bad potholes on the lane were filled in eventually last year, but the lane is cracking up in several areas and potholes developing. Bad enough in a vehicle, but potentially lethal for a cyclist and bad news for the many pedestrians who use the popular leisure route.

[Thomo]

Good stuff that David, and its true that when we looked after our own affairs, things did get done, Sadly now we appear to be in a "No Mans Land" unless it is to the benefit of Lancashire.

[Stanley]

I've argued for years that the County Council is a 19th century anachronism. About as much use as a chocolate teapot. All county wide services have their own administrations and should be allowed to get on with the job. Local services should be local responsibility. There are far easier ways of monitoring and controlling what happens without Preston.

[David Whipp]

Pothole at bottom of Crownest Road, near pedestrian bridge into Victory Park.

[David Whipp]

Park Street yesterday.

[David Whipp]

Ponding on the pavement of Kelbrook Road, outside West Craven High Technology College.

[David Whipp]

Bracewell Street.

[David Whipp]

Kirkstall Drive.

The whole of the section next to the school is a patchwork of old repairs.

After much nattering, LCC have agreed to resurface the road. They were going to permanently patch it at the same time that they did Park Road, but the surface is too knackered.

[David Whipp]

Ghyll Lane.

The condition of Ghyll Lane has been reported and re-reported umpteen times over the last few years. Potholes have been filled in from time to time, but the lane is falling to bits. It's shameful that the journey to the town's cemetery is so uneven.

The county council has agreed that Ghyll Lane is in a bad way, but said the lightly used route would be a low priority for resurfacing. I argued that the heavy pedestrian use should get it considered against the criteria for assessing the condition of pavements.

Anyhow, one way and another, in the last few months I've managed to get the lane into the resurfacing programme for the next financial year (beginning April 2014).

[David Whipp]

Long Ing/Rainhall Road at the junction of Valley Road.

There are several patches along Rainhall Road from the traffic lights down to Valley Road where the surface has broken up. On two occasions in the last few years, these areas have been marked up for permanent patching, but the work hasn't been carried out. Quite a lot of the pots have been bodged up leaving a rough and shortlived surface.

Last year, it took a lot of chasing to get a massive pothole filled opposite the junction of Clifford Street. When it was eventually filled in it was marked with a 'T', meaning it was a temporary repair, but there's no word of any permanent repairs being carried out along this stretch.

The pitted and uneven surface along this stretch causes a lot of nuisance for nearby residents as the heavy traffic to and from Silentnight etc bounces and rumbles over it.

[plaques]

I could swear I've seen this one before. Are you sure they're not digging them up and recycling them?

[David Whipp]

I could swear I've seen this one before. Are you sure they're not digging them up and recycling them?

Guaranteed genuine and unique...

(Is there a market for recycled potholes; how much do you get for them? We could have a gold mine.)



Work underway this morning to sort out the defective road drains at the mini-roundabout.

Problem is a broken connection in the surface water pipe preventing the water draining out of the road gulley.

[plaques]

Just checked on the National index for Potholes. With all this bad weather the bottom has fallen out of the market. Everybody's knee deep in them. Gold mines are still at a premium.

[David Whipp]

Just checked on the National index for Potholes. With all this bad weather the bottom has fallen out of the market. Everybody's knee deep in them. Gold mines are still at a premium.

Blast! I thought you'd put us on to a good little earner.

I reckon even if any gold mines show up they'll turn into treacle...

[Stanley]

They were working well yesterday in the snow.....

[David Whipp]

Perhaps the blocked drain is just a cover story?

Have they been sucking treacle out of a recently discovered deposit?

[David Whipp]

Edmondson Street, near junction of Bolland Street.

[David Whipp]

The potholes on Salterforth Lane are so big, they are better described as craters. This picture was taken last year when it was relatively dry.