Pothole hell: Fed-up Hucknall residents want something done about town's roads

Angry motorists have been taking to various social media channels to blast the state of the roads in Hucknall, Bulwell and the wider Dispatch district.

This has been ramped up even more in the aftermath of storms Babet and Henk, which revealed even more damage after flood waters receded.

Calls for something to be done are getting louder and they don’t want to see what many term ‘bodge it’ fixes which sees holes filled with Viafix – which then wears away again.

Instead, they want the council to make good on its pledge to ‘repair right first time’ that was highlighted back in February 2022 when it announced an extra £15m towards repairing the county’s roads.

Comments have included:

"Everyone needs to keep reporting one a day till they get fed up of us!”

“Are the road surface treatments used for pot holes really fit for purpose?”

"The roads are a disgrace around Hucknall. I knew my motor would become a victim to the craters on Papplewick Lane, Annesley Road and Beardall Street. We have to have MOTs to ensure our cars are safe the roads but the roads aren’t safe for our cars.”

The pot holes that were at the bottom of Broomhill Road now resemble a scale recreation of the Himalayas. If The Grand Tour boys thought Madagascar’s were the worst roads, they were wrong!”

A council highways manager said: “Recent severe weather episodes have taken a significant toll on Nottinghamshire’s roads.

“Severe flooding causes substantial damage to our highways, which then deteriorate further when heavy rainfall is combined with sub-zero temperatures to create a ‘freeze/thaw’ effect.

"The freezing conditions in turn require us to grit our major road network for safety reasons, but repeated gritting can also weaken the asphalt on our highways.

“It is therefore inevitable that we are experiencing a rise in reports of damage to our roads and pavements at this time.

"We are battling as hard as we can against the effects of these weather events.

"Residents may see an increase in emergency repairs as we work to keep our highways safe throughout the winter.

"We will still however be undertaking permanent repairs wherever we can, which residents can see at nottshighways.co.uk and we will continue with large-scale patch repairs as part of our four-year Highways Improvement Plan.

“We recognise this is a really important issue, and we have secured a major new transport fund, with £1.5bn which will be controlled by the new Regional Mayor and Combined Authority.

"We consider this to be a big opportunity to invest in improving our roads.

“Over the past seven years we have invested an extra £40m in road maintenance.

"We continue to lobby central Government for more funds, as do most highways authorities across the country as they contend with similar problems.

“Where residents notice potholes, we ask that they continue to report them to us either through our website or the MyNOTTS App, after which an inspector will attend the site as soon as possible within 10 working days to assess it for repairs – please include photos if you can.

“There is also more information on how we manage highways for extreme weather at nottinghamshire.gov.uk/transport/gritting/how-we-manage-winter-impact-on-the-roads.”