“Crazy” Chatsworth Road cycle lane roadworks and potholes create “absolute nightmare” for residents of village outside Chesterfield

Nicci Fletcher, who lives in Holymoorside, was travelling home in the dark earlier this month when she hit what she described as a “huge pothole” along the A619 Chatsworth Road.

The following day, she went to take photos of the road - and found that at least another five vehicles had been damaged along the route. Nicci said that she had tried to contact Derbyshire County Council (DCC) to report the hazard - but was left unable to inform them of the potholes.

She said: “I tried to contact DCC’s highways team, but their message advised to contact the police on 101. Another affected driver tried 101, but the wait times were ridiculous. I left the driver contacting 999, as it was evident this was going to become a serious incident.

“They have been and filled them in since, but it was just an absolute nightmare.

“The amount of vehicles that were inconvenienced, and the amount of taxpayer’s money that is going to be forked out, because those potholes were left - clearly by the workmen doing that work. They obviously forgot to fill them in, or didn’t fill them in properly, and that has caused carnage - it’s not good at all.”

Nicci criticised the council’s efforts to fix the potholes impacting Derbyshire’s roads - saying that she was regularly forced to report problems in the area.

“I’m sick of reporting potholes - I probably report one every week.

“My partner said, with the size of the potholes, he couldn’t believe that someone wasn't seriously injured - they were so bad. For someone to pop both front tyres, because the potholes were side by side, it’s absolutely crazy. It’s carelessness from the council.

“You’d assume the workmen are there most days - why would you leave gaping potholes? It’s the way they just fill them in. We all know that we get some bad weather and they need filling again. They’re not repairing the roads properly.”

Roadworks are underway along the route as part of DCC’s scheme to create a cycle lane along Chatsworth Road - which Nicci said was causing major disruption for Holymoorside residents.

“It’s crazy. We’ve had traffic lights at the turn-off for Holymoorside for about a month. I try and avoid it to be honest - I’d rather use the back roads to go into Chesterfield, because it’s just ridiculous.

“You’re queuing up constantly, there’s always a tailback of traffic, and it’s a nightmare just pulling out onto Chatsworth Road from Holymoorside.

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How many people are seriously going to use that bike lane? I’ve got a mountain bike and I cross Chatsworth Road to get to the track.

“Why would anybody want to cycle on Chatsworth Road - the lorries are ridiculous. I just think, they’re spending all that money when you’re dodging potholes everywhere in Chesterfield.”

A Derbyshire County Council spokesperson said: “We were aware of the issues caused on Chatsworth Road, which were related to a drop in some temporary surfacing as a result of poor weather conditions, in particular the amount of rain we have had recently.

“We took action to resolve this and are continuing to monitor the work to ensure no further problems occur.

“We apologise for any disruption caused by the cycle lane works but we are trying to keep this to a minimum for all highway users. The works are due to be complete by the end of March and we are currently on target to meet that, weather-permitting.

“The cycle lane is funded by a ringfenced Active Travel government grant so cannot be reallocated.

“We are investing in our roads across the county through our major capital programme. We have also increased the number of teams working to fix potholes and are using hotboxes to try to give longer term fixes wherever we can.

“The extreme weather events over recent months have caused lots of damage to our highways network and the continued bad weather is making this more challenging but we are doing our best and working round the clock.

“We’re also making the best use of the additional government grant funding for pothole repairs received over the last few months and continuing to make the case to government for additional longer term funding and investment in our roads.”