Dangerous route to Northampton school '˜must be adopted to improve safety'

The unnamed road runs alongside Abbey Primary School, in Winchester Road, Delapre and has a particularly damaged stretch including a metre-wide pothole.

Councillor Julie Davenport said the school is very keen to have it resurfaced but this is not possible because the county council will not take responsibilty for it.

She said: “It’s a problem for the people who drive that way, as people do from Redruth Close, but its also obviously unsafe for children and parents to be walking that way when it’s dark.

“The council did update all other parts of the school routes from Redruth Close to the school and the actual roads on school grounds, but this has not been touched. It is an access route for vehicles to garages.”

While the road has not been adopted by the county council, the Labour group says the borough council have stated it doesn’t belong to anyone.

Councillor Davenport said she would also like to see a a road off Tower Hill Close taken on by the local authority as there is a bond in place for road adoption.

She said: “If the county council won’t adopt the roads even when a bond is in place, is this is what could happen in the long term?”

A spokesman for Northamptonshire County Council said roads need to be in an ‘adoptable standard’ before they can be taken on. Who brings the road to that standard is difficult in this case because there is no owner and no developer.

The spokesman said: “Before a road can be adopted a road must be brought up to standard, serve a maintenance period which lasts at least 12 months, and have the sewers adopted by the water authority.

“Regrettably the developer has not completed the road in question [Tower Hill Close] and there is insufficient bond to pay for the work.

“The onus is on the developer or administrator to bring the roads up to standard. If not the county council will be inheriting a sub-standard network with taxpayers’ money used to pay for the work.

“This is the same approach that other local authorities also take and we will be working to see what we can do to try and find a solution.”