Yorkshire residents left with damaged cars amid 'absolutely shocking' pothole problem

On a windy Friday morning, Abigail Marlow of the Local Democracy Reporting Service headed to Skelmanthorpe in the Denby Dale ward and spoke to residents at Barrowstead and the surrounding streets. They told of damage to vehicles and fears for the safety of drivers and pedestrians as a result of the uneven road surface.

One resident, Terrence Firth, said: “It would be nice if they were mended. You’re driving on the road and you avoid one and hit another. It’s getting pretty bad, there are too many now. Touch wood, I haven’t had any damage to my car. What it really needs is resurfacing.”

Ellie said: “It’s shocking. There was a really bad one at Ponker Lane. My dad did his car in.”

Ellie described the “botch jobs” done by the council to temporarily fix the problem. She said: “They just patch them up but after a few weeks they’re back again.” Other residents told the same story, with the issue reportedly returning just a couple of weeks after repairs are made.

A resident who wished to remain anonymous said: “This road is very bad with potholes. It’s the cyclists that worry me going up and down. You have to be very careful.”

Jennifer Brook said: “They’re absolutely shocking and members of my family have had a lot of damage to their cars since Christmas. Not just the tires but it sometimes does more damage than that.”

On the matter of repairs she said: “They spent quite a lot of time here last Summer, they relayed all the pavements up by the school [St Aidan’s] and the road was redone, yet here where it’s absolutely awful – no.”

Speaking on the issue of potholes in the wider ward, Denby Dale ward councillor, Tim Bamford, said: “I have lost two tyres and a wheel to pothole damage along with lots of residents. The council can be slow to repair some large potholes and when they do its normally a temporary repair that needs attention soon afterwards.

“There is a method statement on their pothole reporting portal that describes how they will carry out a repair but I’ve never seen this done.”

According to the council’s website, the repair process has four steps, beginning with the removal of water and debris from the pothole and finally making sure the repair is level with the rest of the road.

Asked what is being done to tackle the pothole problem across the borough, Coun Moses Crook, Cabinet Member for Highways and Housing, said: “Like every council across the country, potholes develop across the highway network within Kirklees causing an inconvenience and frustration to all users of the network.

“To be proactive and to ensure the safety of users of the highway network, we operate a system of highway inspection and maintenance, with scheduled highway safety inspections are undertaken on a monthly, three monthly, six monthly or twelve monthly basis by our team of highway asset maintenance technicians. The purpose of these inspections is to identify any defects which are deemed a danger to any user of the highway. Any defects that are noted are programmed for repair.

“Following the recent storm events, we have increased the number of repair teams we have working across the highway network to deal with any damage caused as quickly as possible to mitigate any impact on users of the highway network through winter months. Additional resources have been deployed.

“Naturally there will be occasions where potholes develop between our scheduled highway safety inspections and we would encourage users of the highway network to report these to the council through the online reporting tool on the Kirklees Council website or by calling Kirklees Direct on 01484 414700”