Darwen road repairs: 'flak is unfair’ (From Lancashire Telegraph)

I would agree with Councillor Huggill if it wasn't for the fact that not one road in Blackburn has been delayed AND the A666 (Circus-Wraith St) has been re-surfaced ! So the workmen / machinery WERE in Darwen last year !

And, workmen were on site in about October last year on Harwood St repairing footpaths, street lights and gullies. They were taken off the job to repair potholes.

Coun Huggill, of course, voted against more funding for our roads at the Council budget meetings. So he is being rather hypocritical on this issue.

Is this the same councillor who wants to paint the road and pavements with colourful maps and prints? How can we listen to anything he has to say with any seriousness?
We all know we are not getting full road resurfacing, surely they are talking about digging out pot holes into a square and resurfacing that way (not the bodge method used daily at the moment) and in that case the machinary was also on Harwood Street when they did the pavements.

I live very close to Harwood Street and was delighted at the back end of last year when workmen and equipment turned up. I watched them remove and replace the pavements, carry out repairs to kerbs, and I waited for them to start the promised road re-surfacing. But then they disappeared! Dave Hollings is absolutely spot on - Darwen is being ignored again! And Simon Huggill's crass comments about the men and equipment being elsewhere are just simply lies! As a Darwen Councillor, I hope he hangs his head in shame at his betrayal of his constituents.

"cheap political points" "hypocritical"

This is the best that comes from local and national politicians, they can't or wont do business any other way. Just watch prime ministers questions in parliament. It's more like a chimps tea party.

On the subject of road repairs, yesterday I watched some workmen patching on the A666 near Lynwood. " bodge method" just about sums it up.

Mr Huggill and Mr Hollings stop the tit for tat name calling and work together to sort out the problems for the people that vote for you.

"Simon Huggill is furious"
Bully for him - I'm furious after driving on Priory Drive and elsewhere in the area every morning trying to avoid the potholes.

We'll see who the electors blame for the mess on our roads in Marsh House and the rest of Darwen when his colleague Chris Thain defends his seat in May.

Political childish behaviour.
We’re all sick and tired of you all. Just shut up and do the job we pay you to do. Better still, go get yourself a shovel!

It's become like a memory game. Which potholes have been filled and safe to drive over - which are not and have to be driven around. To make it worse IT CHANGES EVERY WEEK! I started reporting potholes around the Borough Road area something like SIX months ago (September). They have been and patched the holes dozens of times. All along they could have come and re-surfaced it and we wouldn't have all these patches and holes. After all its going to need doing anyway - why not just do it in the first place! Any one want to see a bad road - just go and look at the traffic calming measures outside Holy Trinity School - there must be twenty patches in a 1-1/2 square metre of tarmac. Higher up Borough Road is all breaking up and the road at the side of the Health Centre is becoming near to a death trap - reported in late January. It now has two massive wear patches down to the cobbles on a very heavy braking zone. I just hope there is not a fatal accident....

Here is another thing you can try. Go to Google Earth - find Darwen - zoom in on an area that you know there are potholes NOW. Find a nearby "street view" camera icon and click on it. Are the potholes and patches there on the road? Yes? Well these images were taken during the early summer of 2009. So yes, the snow and bad weather made the potholes worse - but the snow and bad weather DID NOT cause them - they were already there....

Maybe councillor Huggill should focus on the roads closer to home.....the roads around his area are atrocious at the minute. I followed a bus the other week driving down the opposite side of the road purely to avoid hitting the potholes. The potholes on Goose House lane have been filled in, so what happened to the rest of Darwen while that was being done....or was that just done to keep the local businesses sweet and us general members of the public who pay our council tax are left to suffer with the roads near our houses!!!!!!

darwenroads wrote:
It's become like a memory game. Which potholes have been filled and safe to drive over - which are not and have to be driven around. To make it worse IT CHANGES EVERY WEEK! I started reporting potholes around the Borough Road area something like SIX months ago (September). They have been and patched the holes dozens of times. All along they could have come and re-surfaced it and we wouldn't have all these patches and holes. After all its going to need doing anyway - why not just do it in the first place! Any one want to see a bad road - just go and look at the traffic calming measures outside Holy Trinity School - there must be twenty patches in a 1-1/2 square metre of tarmac. Higher up Borough Road is all breaking up and the road at the side of the Health Centre is becoming near to a death trap - reported in late January. It now has two massive wear patches down to the cobbles on a very heavy braking zone. I just hope there is not a fatal accident....

Those patches on Borough Road are the ones I said I would make a claim against if not filled in very soon. Sprayed with white aerosol but no tarmac! That hole to the right is massive and my car sounded like something must have broke when I hit it. Give them until Wednesday and if nothing is done I will call for procedure to make a claim. My car pulls to left violently now and that will be because the tracking has been knocked totally out of line and the inner wall of tyre could be damaged.

CapitaBackHander wrote:

darwenroads wrote: It's become like a memory game. Which potholes have been filled and safe to drive over - which are not and have to be driven around. To make it worse IT CHANGES EVERY WEEK! I started reporting potholes around the Borough Road area something like SIX months ago (September). They have been and patched the holes dozens of times. All along they could have come and re-surfaced it and we wouldn't have all these patches and holes. After all its going to need doing anyway - why not just do it in the first place! Any one want to see a bad road - just go and look at the traffic calming measures outside Holy Trinity School - there must be twenty patches in a 1-1/2 square metre of tarmac. Higher up Borough Road is all breaking up and the road at the side of the Health Centre is becoming near to a death trap - reported in late January. It now has two massive wear patches down to the cobbles on a very heavy braking zone. I just hope there is not a fatal accident....

Those patches on Borough Road are the ones I said I would make a claim against if not filled in very soon. Sprayed with white aerosol but no tarmac! That hole to the right is massive and my car sounded like something must have broke when I hit it. Give them until Wednesday and if nothing is done I will call for procedure to make a claim. My car pulls to left violently now and that will be because the tracking has been knocked totally out of line and the inner wall of tyre could be damaged.

Ah well they did it today.

It's nice to see two councillors getting so heated over this issue. But, how about actually doing something about the holes! I've got a shovel you can borrow if you want.
Election time is around the corner, and we still have not heard one policy from any of the parties either nationally or locally. Get a grip and do the jobs you were elected for.

CapitaBackHander wrote:

CapitaBackHander wrote:

darwenroads wrote: It's become like a memory game. Which potholes have been filled and safe to drive over - which are not and have to be driven around. To make it worse IT CHANGES EVERY WEEK! I started reporting potholes around the Borough Road area something like SIX months ago (September). They have been and patched the holes dozens of times. All along they could have come and re-surfaced it and we wouldn't have all these patches and holes. After all its going to need doing anyway - why not just do it in the first place! Any one want to see a bad road - just go and look at the traffic calming measures outside Holy Trinity School - there must be twenty patches in a 1-1/2 square metre of tarmac. Higher up Borough Road is all breaking up and the road at the side of the Health Centre is becoming near to a death trap - reported in late January. It now has two massive wear patches down to the cobbles on a very heavy braking zone. I just hope there is not a fatal accident....

Those patches on Borough Road are the ones I said I would make a claim against if not filled in very soon. Sprayed with white aerosol but no tarmac! That hole to the right is massive and my car sounded like something must have broke when I hit it. Give them until Wednesday and if nothing is done I will call for procedure to make a claim. My car pulls to left violently now and that will be because the tracking has been knocked totally out of line and the inner wall of tyre could be damaged.

Ah well they did it today.

Of a fashion they did. There was more tarmac on the road and around than in the holes. Just outside Holy Trinity it is like a patchwork quilt. It took them about 5 mins to do half a dozen holes this morning! Why can't they just come and do the road properly instead of patching it up time and again!
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We have just spent over £400 on our car after the tracking and tyres were damaged, can we claim from the Council? I doubt it, its hard to pinpoint one particular pothole!
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They spent thousands of pounds doing the road changes some 3-4 years ago and only resurfaced the road to the bottom of Borough Road and from there up to Bold Venture Park the road is a disgrace!
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Whoever is in charge of roads/resurfacing should be sacked!

31 YEARS wrote:
It's nice to see two councillors getting so heated over this issue. But, how about actually doing something about the holes! I've got a shovel you can borrow if you want. Election time is around the corner, and we still have not heard one policy from any of the parties either nationally or locally. Get a grip and do the jobs you were elected for.

not sure where you live 31 years but here in Darwen the local parties have made it clear where they stand on this issue.

The Con/Lib-Dem/'For Darwen' coalition running the Council have put in an extra £500k into road resurfacing / potholes etc; in 08/09, 09/10 & 10/11. (total of £1.5m)

The Labour Party put amendments to Council budget meetings that would have seen extra spending of £1m 08/09 £1m 09/10 and £750k in 10/11. (total of £2.75m). These amendments were voyed down by the 'coalition'.

This has been highlighted on the various leaflets put round by the parties.