A hole lot of trouble
Reporter: Andrew Rudkin
Date published: 04 January 2013
But we’ll dig deep to fix the nuisance — council chief
A SQUASH player has had to fork out £600 to fix his new car — thanks to a pothole.
Dave Wood heard an “almighty bang” when his two-week-old Nissan Qashqai clunked into a large dip cutting across the width of Union Street, Oldham.
The Ashton resident is now making a claim against Oldham Council in the hope they will cough up the money for his repairs.
He said: “I know potholes are everywhere, but this one is ridiculous — especially with it being in the town centre. It stretches the width of the road.
“I just heard this almighty bang when I went over it. I discovered my tracking was damaged as well as my alloy wheels. The car has only 200 miles on the clock.
“To make matters worse, the sports centre was shut because of Christmas — it was a real wasted journey.”
Potholes are growing by the day along several streets in Oldham town centre. In many places the wear is so deep the underlying cobbles show through.
Local authority staff were out in force to fix potholes on Rhodes Bank yesterday.
Bekky Benson (26), from Royton, also faces a hefty bill as an end-of-year journey to work saw her Rover damaged by a pothole in Peel Street, Chadderton.
You can report potholes in Oldham by calling 0161-770 4325 or by visiting www.oldham.gov.uk.
OLDHAM Council leader Jim McMahon admits potholes are a “massive challenge” — but insists £12 million is being invested to explore new ways to repair them.
Councillor McMahon said he understands motorists’ frustrations.
“There is only time and money to deal with the worst at the moment, but with continuing investment the borough can get on to a more even footing, the local authority chief claimed on his council blog.
He said: “We all know the frustration when the council comes out to repair a pothole, only for the material to pop back out a few weeks later — the cost of this kind of repeated repair is significant.
A new, high-tech machine is seen as a “first-time fix” in a £2million drive to improve the borough’s blighted roads.
The council chief admits residents have complained about repair teams fixing only some potholes and leaving others nearby because they aren’t technically potholes.
He added: “I see this as a nonsense — if we have a gang repairing one pothole it has to be cheaper in the long run to do all the repairs at once.
“We are monitoring how effective the new velocity patcher is and working hard to tackle the backlog.”
