Staveley councillor reports over 200 potholes in just two years with residents ‘appalled’ at state of roads

Dean Rhodes, a Staveley Town and Inkersall Parish councillor, has logged over 200 issues on roads in the area with Derbyshire County Council in the last two years. He said the council was failing to deal with problems in Inkersall and Staveley, and that the condition of the roads was bound to lead to an accident.

“A lot of people come to me, asking me to report potholes. It seems that these types of potholes are recurring all the time, and the fixes aren’t working.

“They’re just putting a bit of tarmac in, patting it down and leaving- as soon as we get a bit of bad weather, they all start lifting again.

“They shouldn’t have to keep going out to the same roads. It’s only a matter of time before someone has a head-on crash because they’re trying to avoid a pothole.”

Mr Rhodes identified a couple of pothole hotspots in the area, and said that one particular patch of road had been reported on nearly 40 occasions since 2020.

“The worst spot for the Inkersall area is under the bridge over the transpennine trail - I’ve logged issues there 35 times in the last two years- that one is constant.

“It needs doing again now and it was only done a week and a half ago. People were reporting having damage to their cars, and I was advising them on how to claim for this.

“Middlecroft Road is also constant, it's a nightmare on there for potholes. You get a few that are appearing all the time in the same places.”

Mr Rhodes said that, while he was representing people in Inkersall, these problems were likely occurring across Derbyshire, and called on the County Council to find a lasting solution.

“The roads are in dire need of repairs, and proper repairs as well. I’m not just talking about Inkersall but Staveley in general, and I would’ve thought that other areas are having the same issues.

“People sometimes ask me why other people don't report it - a lot of them might be elderly people who have no idea how to use a computer to report a pothole. If you ring DCC, you’ve got a 30 minute phone call trying to get through to them, so I’m acting on behalf of the residents of the area.”

Derbyshire County Council have been contacted for comment.