Derbyshire road looks like ‘surface of the moon’ after repeated patching

After years of complaining to Derbyshire County Council (DCC) about the poor state of Bridgewater Street, Tupton, residents were delighted when the authority announced the road would be closed for four days in June to allow for ‘carriageway resurfacing works’.

However they were confused when workers just appeared to patch-up the potholes in the road instead of a full resurface as promised.

Councillor Ross Shipman, who represents Tupton at North East Derbyshire District Council, said he and his fellow councillors have been approached by numerous residents about the issue over the years.

He said: “We have been trying for about five years to get it resurfaced because people have been raising it with us.”

“We passed on the message to residents that they’re coming to resurface, but instead they just patched it up,” Coun Shipman continued.

A DCC spokesperson said: “Resurfacing Bridgewater Street is on our delivery programme for resurfacing this financial year but we are not in a position to release the date when work will start at the moment.

“The repairs that were carried out last month were pothole filling to keep the site safe in the meantime.”

However Coun Shipman is unconvinced that the road will be resurfaced this year, having been promised that many times before.

“They keep saying ‘it’s part of the schedule of maintenance’,” he said, adding that it frustrated him when the work never seemed to take place.

Coun Shipman added: “It begs the question are they just kicking the can down the road again?”

He questioned why DCC kept spending money on repairing potholes, instead of just resurfacing it properly.

“It’s like the surface of the moon, they just come and fill these potholes,” Coun Shipman said.

“You can see where the road has deteriorated – it needs doing.”

In January this year, DCC approved a £58million capital scheme for the county’s road network – its largest single investment of its kind to date – 44 per cent of which was earmarked for improvements to highways.