Council accused of dismal attempt to fix 'worst road in Shropshire'
A villager has been left "insulted" by the response to her attempts to get her council to fix up her pockmarked lane – which she says is the worst in the county.
The Nook near Child's Ercall is a narrow, unlit road serving four homes and Alford Green Farm. It has several potholes and in places the verge of the road has collapsed completely.
Shropshire Council did send a crew out to repair the road last week after months of requests but the "dismal attempt" barely made a dent in the problems, one resident said.
See Clare Gangadeen's video from The Nook here:
Clare Gangadeen moved to The Nook last year and has grappled with the council over the road, which she believes is the worst in Shropshire.
"The road doesn’t just contain potholes but the sides of the road have completely collapsed, making it totally unsuitable and unsafe to use," she said. "There is a severe risk of damaging any vehicle that uses this road and there is only one entry/exit to residents along this road.
"We have no choice but to put ourselves at risk each time we need to go out, not to mention any delivery vehicles that attempt to reach us.
"I first raised a concern to the council via the website on December 12, 2019. I received an update on the case on January 24 noting that ‘they had carried out their investigation and work would be carried out shortly’.
'It is a complete insult and shows a true lack of care'
"I have contacted the council, been passed around, told that the work has been put to contract and after months of nagging and contacting our parish council to help assist pushing this forward, workmen finally arrived to complete works on Thursday.
"But it is a complete insult and shows a true lack of care, value, respect and consideration for the residents on this road with the dismal attempt to make the road safe and useable.
"They have failed to fill in three quarters of the collapsed sides of the roads, not even making it to the first property before they ran out of materials and the process of ‘raising a new job’ will have to start again.
"This puts residents' lives at risk as the road is impassable for emergency vehicles and the milk collection tankers struggle to access the farm which also puts a farmer's business at risk."
The parts of the road that have been filled in are still at different angles to the main road surface.
Shropshire Councillor for the area Rob Gittins said that parts of the road were of worse quality than dirt tracks on African safaris, and said that tax-paying residents deserve better.
"I have been trying to get this fixed for months now, but without success. Ideally the road needs resurfacing, but I can’t see this being done for some time due to a lack of resources.
"The road has now become so bad emergency services would struggle to get down. This is not acceptable and calls into question why these poor residents are even paying their council tax."
Shropshire Council has been approached for comment.
