Letter to Chronicle 16th December 2023 -URGENT NEED TO REPAIR POTHOLES

Urgent Need to Repair Potholes

The irony of Cllr Manda Rigby tentatively promising that potholes will be fixed in a year’s time on North Road is not lost on the many cyclists who travel this well used route. Again we hear that a serious accident has taken place this week leaving a member of the public with serious facial injuries having to attend the RUH. This is a public health matter, costing our NHS precious resources.

The North Road route up to Ralph Allen School and the University of Bath is strategically an important active travel corridor that should be made fit for purpose and regularly resurfaced and kept safe.

In the letters page last week (16th December 2023) Elisabeth, from Bath shared the many experiences that her family had also endured on this route, including her son being knocked off his bike by King Edward School..

On the 24th November 2023, school children, students and worried parents came together on North Road, to demand that “B&NES Council Stops Pot Hole Danger” . As Ward Members for Lambridge we know that many young people on the east of Bath regularly use North Road to get to schools in the area and parents often contact us, worried for their safety.

We are concerned that Cllr Rigby’s promise, to resurface North Road in the next financial year, is too long to wait. The Council under her direction should be acting now to ensure that the public are kept safe on the public highways. All Councillors at B&NEs recently voted unanimously for Vision Zero, which states that every road crash is preventable. Kate Uzzell from Road Peace also spoke at this Council meeting and told of the tragic death of her husband, a confident cyclist of many years who hit a pothole and was killed.
How many other crashes need to take place before North Road has its potholes fixed?

Cllr Joanna Wright and Cllr Saskis Heijltjes