NAVESTOCK: Potholes ignored in bid to cut drivers' speed

By pmeyler

POTHOLES will be left to ruin for a year in a bid to save money and kill motorists' speed.

The decision, taken by Navestock Parish Council, has been labelled as "crack pot" by some.

Although responsibility to fix roads falls to Essex County Council, members of the parish council have decided not to pass on details of road repairs needed for a whole year.

Potholes along the village's numerous small country lanes are a recurring problem say motorists and residents.

Roy Tyzack, who lives in Navestock Side, said: "It beggars belief that the people who are supposed to be acting on behalf of the parishioners think it a good idea to put people at risk, particularly the elderly, cyclists, motorcyclists and horseriders by coming up with such a totally crackpot idea.

"Potholes, and we have a great deal of them, are very dangerous.

"They cause accidents, damage to vehicles, even at slow speeds, personal injury to pedestrians, particularly at night in our unlit lanes, and the consequences of one of our many young horse riders falling foul of a pothole does not bear thinking about."

Navestock is the largest parish in the Brentwood borough stretching from Pilgrims Hatch to Stapleford Abbots.

The controversial proposal has been given further weight in a parish council newsletter under the headline New Thinking Please, published by the parish council.

"I wonder in this new world whether we should stop complaining about the verges and potholes in our Navestock roads," the author writes.

"Potholes cost a lot to repair and that's our rates. Coupled with potholes there is an ongoing cry for speed limits.

"Well, potholes are the original traffic calming measure.

"So what with saving much time, rates and calming the traffic, potholes seem quite friendly."

The writer added: "Am I mad or should Her Majesty's Government change the law which obliges councils to repair potholes so that our country lanes can get pot-holey and thus slowing traffic to our ideal way of life, save hedgehogs, and rates and possibly keep people out."

Roy Tyzack added: "If the writer of this drivel really wants to keep people out of Navestock, a view definitely not shared by the residents who welcome visitors to our very pleasant village, perhaps they should allow the roads around their homes to fall into such bad repair that they are unable to leave them."

Vice chairman of Navestock Parish Council, Cllr Adrian Enkel, said: "It's worth a shot. We'll see how it goes.

"We are not going to badger borough and Essex highways.

"We'll see how it works. The roads here have a natural speed limit because of the state of the surface."

Not all parish councillors back the scheme though.

Cllr David Williams said the plan was a dereliction of duty.