Legal action may be taken against Shropshire Council over 'collapsing' roads

Members of Highley Parish Council's Village Maintenance Working Group have spoken of "landmine" roads damaging cars and one highway "collapsing" under the pressure of vehicles.

The group is set to meet at the Severn Centre in Bridgnorth Road from 7pm in efforts to force the authority into action.

Shropshire councillor for Highley, Dave Tremellen, said the move is a last-ditch attempt to address the problem.

Independent Councillor Tremellen said: "As far as roads around Highley go, I can't see what else we can do.

"We don't want to come down hard on anyone at the council but I cannot for the life of me see what choice we have.

"Every time I raise the issue at Shirehall it's like an echo. The situation goes back years and nothing has been done."

The working group said it will consider taking action under Section 56 of the Highways Act 1980, which holds authorities to account over their statutory duty to maintain highways.

'Falling away'

Councillor Tremellen highlighted a bend in the B4555 Chelmarsh road known locally as the Kings Arms corner, which has been "falling away for years".

"The state of that corner exemplifies the problem," said councillor Tremellen.

"The road narrows and from there it's actually collapsing. It hasn't got any foundations so whenever there is any work done to level the road it keeps falling away.

"We're focusing on the fact, like everyone else in Shropshire, that the roads just aren't good enough.

"I've lost count of the number of potholes and you can see people post their own experiences on community news pages.

"Before Christmas I was travelling through Chelmarsh and thought I'd hit a landmine.

"It threw me past the centre line by about a foot and if anything would have come the other way I would have had it – I was only doing about 20mph at the time due to fog."

This comes after the area's MP, Philip Dunne, pledged to lobby the Government Roads Minister in order to get an earlier allocation of pothole-repair funding to Shropshire Council.

He said the county's roads are among the "most pothole-ridden in the country".