Darwen road conditions 'like Third World' (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Darwen road conditions 'like Third World'

8:57am Wednesday 4th July 2012 in Darwen By Dan Clough , Reporter

A town councillor claims a busy side street is like a ‘Third World country’ because the road surface is so bad.

There are a number of potholes and the surface is worn down to the cobbles in one area, at the entrance to St John’s Street, off Sough Road, Darwen.

Coun Simon Huggill said it showed everything that was wrong with the council’s maintenance of roads.

He said: “There are a number of issues here, apart from the huge holes and the worn-out surface.

“The structure of the road is completely gone.

“What is the point of the council contractors doing little bits and pieces? They just end up having to come back.

“It is the economy of the madhouse.

“Instead of coming down and doing bits of patching, they need to do it all.

“This is a microcosm of what is wrong with how our highways are done.

“And it demonstrates the banality of the way the council is doing its street repairs.”

Coun Huggill said the damage to the road surface also causes drains to become blocked.

He said: “Because of all the little bits of stone coming off it, the drains at the end of the road are permanently blocked.

“And then because they are blocked, the next time it rains, the stones run down further and so the next drain becomes blocked, and the next one.”

Marsh House councillor Frank Connor said: “That is a bad road and I have notified the council about it. Unfortunately we can’t just go in and resurface every road because of the Government cuts to council funds.”

n Another Darwen road has also been blighted by potholes, according to resident Simon Heslington.

Mr Heslington said: “The potholes at the bottom of Borough Road are now down to the cobbles.

“Drivers are swerving to miss them, and they are a danger to pedestrians.”