MOTORISTS could still face a bumpy ride on Saddleworth’s pothole riddled roads despite a £6.2 million, year-long highways improvement programme starting this month.
Oldham’s roads have been singled out by the Department of Transport as the worst in Greater Manchester.
And the recent cold snap has caused greater deterioration to a number of surfaces throughout Saddleworth’s villages.
Since we highlighted the craters on the Victoria Mill car park at Saddleworth Museum in our January issue, the Independent has been made aware of other hot spots throughout the parish.
Our pictures show blighted carriageways on Smithy Lane, Uppermill, the pack horse bridge on Oakview Road, Greenfield and Gartside Street, Delph.
Whitegates Lane and Thorpe Lane, both Scouthead, the A670 leaving Uppermill for Diggle and Kinders Lane, Greenfield have been highlighted as other holey surfaces.
OMBC insist for urgent repairs there must be an “actionable defect”:
• 40mm or more deep on a carriageway (road)
• 25mm or more deep on a pavement
The Council’s 12-month programme of works is designed to ensure the surfaces of streets, roads and cul-de-sacs are high quality, durable and safe.
The first phase of work up to March 2018 was due to start as the Independent went to press.
This includes highways improvement to the A635 Holmfirth Road at its junction with Manchester Road outside the Clarence public house.
Kinders Lane and Kinders Crescent are also to be repaired during February.
In 2016/17, the Department of Transport supplied £100 million to local authorities in England outside London for the Highways Maintenance Challenge Fund, and a further £50 million through the Pothole Action Fund.
Councillor Fida Hussain, Cabinet Member for Environmental Services, said: “Our borough is more vulnerable than most to the challenges that are being experienced across the country, with more traffic and harsher weather leading to more potholes and damaged highways.
“As a council it is our duty to provide good quality roads for residents and motorists to help improve access and driving conditions.
“Despite the unprecedented ongoing cuts to our funding and well-known financial challenges we recognise it is vital to continue to invest in our key infrastructure wherever possible.
“We are already on site working on some of these schemes so people should start to see the benefits and improvements from this pretty quickly.
“As always with infrastructure works, this may mean some temporary inconvenience in terms of traffic disruption.
“But we will be monitoring this closely to ensure that we keep this to an absolute minimum.
“That short term pain will be offset by better driving conditions across the borough as we tackle this backlog and I would like to thank local people in advance for their patience.
“These repairs are in addition to our regular working to fix potholes and other defects which we rely on people doing your bit and reporting to us.
“Together – with this additional investment and your patience and help – we can deliver better roads that continue to make Oldham a more attractive place to live, work and invest.
“Once we have completed the individual schemes we will be contacting residents asking them for their feedback on the work and this will help us improve how we work in the future.”
To find out more about which roads across Saddleworth will be improved over the next few months in the first phase of works go online: www.oldham.gov.uk/highways2018
To report a pothole visit: www.oldham.gov.uk/potholes
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