Cycling groups slams Croydon Council over potholes

By MATT JOHNSON

matt.johnson@essnmedia.co.uk

A cycling group has gone potty over the state of the borough's streets - slamming Croydon Council as one of the worst authorities in the country for fixing poor quality road surfaces.

Criticism from Cycling Tourists Club (CTC) members came after our report last week that an average of 75 potholes are reported in Croydon each week.

A league table on the club's website documenting how many reported potholes are fixed by each highway authority ranks Croydon a lowly 192nd out of 206.

It also claims that out of 404 problems reported by cyclists in the area since early 2007 a worrying 351 are still to be fixed - which works out at 87 per cent.

Croydon Council is unable to say if this number is correct as it claims it would be too costly and time consuming to check.

Jim Bush, CTC's Right to Ride representative for Croydon, said: "The fact that the council is near the bottom of this league table is an indictment that they don't care about cyclists.

"They don't take cyclists seriously because there are not so many of us."

Mr Bush accused the council of being "slow and unresponsive".

He added: "They tend to care more about motorists. I think if a motorist reported one of these problems it would be dealt with more quickly.

"I do think the roads are pretty terrible. They don't seem to fix them, even when you report a problem."

The council's corporate solicitor James Derby said "many" of the 351 reportedly unfixed potholes would have been repaired.

He said this was based on a random spot check of nine of them, which showed seven had been fixed and the other two were on roads covered by the likes of Transport for London.

But the Advertiser carried out its own random spot check of nine of the potholes under the council's remit - and found only four had been fixed.

A council spokesman said he understood people's concerns over the state of our roads.

He added: "Unfortunately it's not something that can be sorted out overnight, even though much of the damage can be caused in a very short space of time.

"Only last year we announced that we had allocated £4.35 million for road resurfacing and repairs in 2008/09 – the highest level of investment since 1996.

"However, we also said that we were having to address 10 years of under-spending which had left a backlog we estimated at well over £12 million."

Priority he said was going to the biggest problems that have arisen in the most-heavily used roads.

*DETAILS of our random check of nine potholes reported by Cycling Tourists Club members which they claim have not been fixed.

Selsdon Park Road, Selsdon - FIXED

Upper Selsdon Road, Selsdon - FIXED

Pampisford Road, South Croydon - STILL THERE

Violet Lane, Waddon - FIXED

Drovers Road, South Croydon - FIXED

Selsdon Road, South Croydon - STILL THERE

Lodge Road, Broad Green - STILL THERE

Lansdowne Road, East Croydon - STILL THERE

London Road, Thornton Heath - STILL THERE