STATION Road has recently undergone resurfacing works following complaints by road users that potholes on the road were causing serious damage to cars. Calls have been made for Wiltshire Council to look at resurfacing the whole road following repeated repairs.
Wiltshire Council has said that while they have recently repaired the road, they will need to come back to complete some further minor works over the next two weeks.
One resident, who drove over the pothole at the end of the January, says that the road surface at the whole stretch of Station Road needs to be prioritised by Wiltshire Council highways team as it has become a hot-spot for potholes over the years.
“That whole stretch of road feels neglected by the council,” said Mika ap Ellis. “They will occasionally come out and complete some patch work repairs as they have done now but clearly this is just papering over the cracks without addressing the underlying problem.
“The latest pothole on that road is so deep that when we drove over it, we thought we had hit an animal or something. The damages were about £160 in total which could have easily been avoided.”
Station Road is a key route in Westbury which has seen an increase in traffic over the past year as Wiltshire Council revealed that 200 extra lorries a day are being pushed onto Westbury streets after Bath introduced a clean air zone and enforced a weight restriction on Cleveland Bridge.
Wiltshire Council says that they have also seen an increase in potholes in the county as a result of recent temperature changes.
Cllr Caroline Thomas, cabinet member for transport, said, “Unfortunately, we’ve seen an increase in potholes across Wiltshire due to factors such as recent extreme temperature variations. We encourage people to report any road defects to us using the MyWilts app so that we can programme works on a priority basis, as per our Highways Inspection Manual.”
Claim for damages and report road issues
Residents can claim for damages to vehicles as a result from road defects – visit https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/article/1269/insurance-claims-against-the-council
You can also report any issues including road defects, abandoned vehicles, fly tipping and weather emergencies using MyWilts. Issues can be reported using the app or from the browser using the online reporting function: https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/mywilts-online-reporting
