A West Bridgford resident has been flagging up the issue for six years.
Julian Bentley, a maths tutor and cycle instructor from Ruddington who works in West Bridgford has counted around 100 potholes on Millicent Road – the damage to the surface is mostly the ‘riding strip area’ where cyclists travel along the road, in an area around a metre from the kerb as you travel west along the route from Bridgford Road to Musters Road which is blue-signed as a designated cycle route.
The road is littered with damage and signs of previous patch repairs.
Julian told us:
‘The road is used a lot by bike riders despite its very poor surface.
‘I have been reporting the problems here for several years through Nottinghamshire County Council’s pothole reporting system – and no proper repairs have been done in this time beyond some bodge-patches.’
Julian explains that some ad-hoc patch repairs were done in 2013.
‘The current state is the worst I have known it, and it’s the worst road in Rushcliffe for cycling on.’
Julian has been in touch with Via – the county council’s road repair arm and says that they told him ‘the conditions do not meet its repair criteria and that it ‘may get re-surfaced in 2023’.
He adds: ‘I suspect the criteria is based on risk of damage to vehicles ONLY and does not take into account the dangers to bike users.’
Mr Bentley has also measured some of the holes in the road,he said: ‘There is one hole 35mm deep, 6 holes 25-30mm deep and a further roughly 90 holes/cracks/ruts of depth 10-24 mm depth: all peppered over the ‘riding strip’ 50-150cm from the kerb, right along the length of this road.’
‘I am an accredited cycle instructor and in my view this road is extremely hazardous to bike riders.’
‘I think it is only a matter of time before someone gets seriously injured here: dark nights now make the holes difficult to see even with a powerful bike light!’
Councillor Penny Gowland, Labour for Abbey Ward in West Bridgford said:
‘Potholes are very dangerous for cyclists particularly at this time of year when it is hard to see the road surface clearly, and it is also difficult for car drivers when cyclists have to swerve to avoid potholes.
‘The recent County Highways Review is going to change the way that road repairs are prioritised so that they are done more slowly but better.
‘This is obviously a good thing, but we mustn’t stop quick fixes on downright dangerous holes on roads and pavements.
‘Ultimately this situation could have been avoided with more investment over the last 10 years.’
Councillor Neil Clarke MBE, Chairman of the Transport and Environment Committee, said:
‘When a pothole is reported, we inspect this before putting it into one of four categories depending on its severity. We assess this using a number of different criteria.
‘Whilst we are aware of deterioration of the road surface, an inspection of Millicent Road has taken place which has confirmed that there are currently no defects with a depth which would consider them to be an emergency.
‘Millicent Road is being actively considered for resurfacing, along with others in the county, within our 2022/23 capital investment programme.
‘Our cross party highways review panel has been looking at all aspects of highways management, maintenance and repair over the last few months and has come up with a series of recommendations to be considered by our Transport and Environment Committee.
‘One of these recommendations would see us planning highways works further in advance and moving to a three-year capital investment programme instead of the one-year programmes we have currently.
‘This would mean that residents would be able to see when we plan to do works on the highway in their area.
‘We also want to prioritise local roads and pavement for repair and better communicate with residents about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.
‘The full list of recommendations will be considered by the Transport and Environment Committee on 17 November 2021.”
