Derbyshire farmer urges council to fix pothole-ridden route that ‘takes wheels off cars’ amid drop in trade

Stephen Thompson is the owner of Moss Valley Fine Meats – a long-established, family-run pig farm close to the Derbyshire-South Yorkshire border.

He said that potholes along Lightwood Lane and Hazlehurst Lane – the main route into the farm – have been causing significant disruption to his business.

“So far, we’ve had 22 incidents where people’s tyres have been damaged. That includes customers, lorries and taxis, as we’re on City Grab – a delivery service run by City Taxis.

“We had a wheel completely ripped off a taxi. We were trying to work out why he hadn’t been to pick up an order, and we only found out when they rang and said that his taxi was being recovered.”

Stephen said that, due to the poor condition of the lane, some customers have stopped using Moss Valley Meats altogether.

“We’ve got customers who won’t come down in winter now, so you lose the trade – we’re getting damage to our cars and vans, and the van is always mucky because of how wet it is – it doesn’t look very good when you’re out on deliveries.”

The issue, according to Stephen, is a blocked drain along the route, which he first reported to Derbyshire County Council (DCC) two and half years ago.

He said: “It’s been two and a half years that I’ve been telling them about the blocked drain, which has caused the lane to sink. Water is running onto the lane continually. It’s sheet ice for most of the winter and the whole lane is now rotten, because it has frozen that many times.”

After highlighting the problems along the lane to DCC again, Stephen said they came to fix a number of smaller potholes this week – but missed the large one that is responsible for damaging vehicles.

“The council have been out and filled all the little potholes, but not the big one that is taking wheels off. I don’t know if they’ve run out, or they’ve decided the lane doesn’t go any further than the point they went to.

“It’s an ongoing thing – they’ve filled the holes, but the water is still running underneath, so they’ll probably last a couple of weeks. It only needs a JCB down there for half a day to sort it all – they’ve spent the money that would cost just putting bits of tarmac in these holes.

“It’s a narrow lane, so you can’t go around the pothole, and when they’re full of water, you don’t know anything about it until you’ve dropped into it.

“I’ve asked our MP, Lee Rowley, to write to DCC as well – it just winds you up, slowly but surely.”

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A spokesperson for Derbyshire County Council said: “When we fixed the potholes on Lightwood Lane we did not know there was a pothole further down the lane, which turns into Hazlehurst Lane.

“We had not received any pothole reports for Hazlehurst Lane so the team did not travel any further along the lane once they had fixed the potholes on Lightwood Lane. We have inspected this pothole today and it has been classified as one for us to fix within 9 days.

“With regard to the drainage issue we have spoken to the farmer this morning and have identified an issue with a culvert that runs into private land. This will be investigated in detail during February.”