Abbey Road, Park Avenue And Broadley Crescent Need Urgent Resurfacing
June 15th 2021
Road repairs are one of the County Council's most visible services, and also one of Lincolnshire County Council's most
apparent failings. In 2017 I began a campaign to get St
Bernard's Avenue resurfaced, and took the petition to LCC later that year.
Eventually that bore fruit, and one of Louth's busiest roads was properly resurfaced.
It's now Groundhog Day, as the issues that were present at St Bernard's Avenue, namely an ageing and crumbling structure of concrete bays underlying the road, are causing problems with other nearby roads. Abbey Road, Park Avenue, and Broadley Crescent are just off St Bernard's Avenue, and they suffer from similar problems due to their structure and age. They are crumbling and extremely prone to potholes.
However, fixing them is not a case of simply reporting the issue. Because it's a structural problem, they're not getting fixed properly, and even when a patch is made it won't necessarily last very long. On several of the holes, the underlying layers of the road show through clearly.
What's happening with these streets is exactly what happened with St Bernard's Avenue, until the council eventually paid for a full resurfacing following public pressure. It took years, and a petition, before they budged.
What we don't want to do is pay for maintenance crews to drive up and down the county rather than filling holes in an area systematically before moving on. We don't want to pay extra for the shareholders and directors of private outsourced contractors, if better value for money could be achieved in-house. And we don't want to keep paying for temporary repairs when a total resurface would return a street to a decent standard and remove the need.
So the county council needs to carry out in-depth scrutiny of these issues, and make improvements.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/improve-road-repair-in-lincs-and-resurface-abbey-road-broadley-crescent-and-park-avenue-in-louth
It's now Groundhog Day, as the issues that were present at St Bernard's Avenue, namely an ageing and crumbling structure of concrete bays underlying the road, are causing problems with other nearby roads. Abbey Road, Park Avenue, and Broadley Crescent are just off St Bernard's Avenue, and they suffer from similar problems due to their structure and age. They are crumbling and extremely prone to potholes.
However, fixing them is not a case of simply reporting the issue. Because it's a structural problem, they're not getting fixed properly, and even when a patch is made it won't necessarily last very long. On several of the holes, the underlying layers of the road show through clearly.
What's happening with these streets is exactly what happened with St Bernard's Avenue, until the council eventually paid for a full resurfacing following public pressure. It took years, and a petition, before they budged.
A systemic problem
What is happening with these three streets is unfortunately not unique. Because there are flaws in the way potholes are prioritised for repair, roads throughout the county, including several others in Louth, are left in a poor state in spite of people repeatedly reporting the potholes on them. There are also issues with how securely the holes are filled and whether the repairs will last. Another thing that's notable is deep holes being filled whilst shallower ones next to them, holes that will eventually deepen, are conspicuously left alone.What we don't want to do is pay for maintenance crews to drive up and down the county rather than filling holes in an area systematically before moving on. We don't want to pay extra for the shareholders and directors of private outsourced contractors, if better value for money could be achieved in-house. And we don't want to keep paying for temporary repairs when a total resurface would return a street to a decent standard and remove the need.
So the county council needs to carry out in-depth scrutiny of these issues, and make improvements.
The petition
I launched a new petition asking the county council "to properly resurface roads with crumbling foundations including Abbey Road, Park Avenue, and Broadley Crescent in Louth, and to review and improve the way it deals with potholes and road maintenance so that repairs last longer and are more efficient." Please sign and share it. You can find it here:https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/improve-road-repair-in-lincs-and-resurface-abbey-road-broadley-crescent-and-park-avenue-in-louth
