'˜Highly dangerous' roads to be fixed in Northamptonshire village

Nearly 350 residents backed a petition by Blisworth Parish Council criticising the ‘lack of maintenance’ of the village’s streets, particularly on Buttmead and Connegar Leys.

The petition, which was lodged in May last year, was initially rejected by Northamptonshire County Council as the defects were not large enough to meet the authority’s ‘current intervention levels’ of 50mm deep and 250mm wide.

And the ‘exceedingly disappointed’ parish council asked for the county council’s scrutiny management committee to look at whether its response had been ‘adequate’.

Charlie Jeffery, speaking on behalf of the parish council, told the meeting on Wednesday morning: “The road has deteriorated for another year and is highly dangerous. We are not satisfied with the response of the council. This road needs to be a priority because it’s a bus route as well.”

But the county council revealed that another inspection had found further defects, and confirmed that work would now take place on the roads.

Debbie Taylor-Bond, head of transport and highways at Northamptonshire County Council, said: “Although at that time there were defects they didn’t warrant intervention.

“There has been a subsequent inspection though that happened in February and there has been an increase in defects. Following on from that works have been ordered to be carried out in the middle of June.

“Our inspections are picking up defects and although we are probably not doing as much as the parish would want, we are doing the best we can with the worst defects. We can’t afford to repair all the roads to the standards that everyone would like.”