'Death trap': Ashfield Council leader demands immediate closure of 'dangerous road'

Coun Jason Zadrozny, who also leads the Independent Alliance at Nottinghamshire Council, the county highways authority, has demanded the Conservative-led council takes immediate action over Mill Lane, which goes from Kirkby to Annesley.

He said the road surfance has deteriorated to such an extent, the road is virtually unpassable and “dozens of residents have complained about the dangerous road”.

And with temperatures set to plummet over the coming days, he is calling for the road to be closed by the council and fixed as an “absolute priority”.

Coun Zadrozny said: “We have complained about the appalling state of this road for months and the county council has refused to acknowledge the problem and respond appropriately.

“It has failed to the point that it is now extremely dangerous to use this treacherous road.

“With temperatures set to drop, this needs to be an absolute priority for the council – it is responsible for the state of the broken roads and pavements.

“This is the worst example but there are many, many more areas where urgent work is needed.

“I would ask residents to avoid this road until urgent works are undertaken by the council.

“This is damaging vehicles and putting lives in danger.

“It is absolutely imperative that this road is closed and a team of staff from County Hall undertake immediate work on this death trap road.”

Gary Wood, head of highways and transport at the council, said: “Surface water run-off and flooding from adjacent fields has caused a significant amount of damage to the road surface on Mill Lane, particularly during the recent period of extremely wet weather.

“Our teams have attended site and have put temporary traffic signals in place to keep road users safe and emergency repairs are being made to the worst of the damage.“Plans are underway to undertake full-width surfacing in the affected areas as a priority once conditions are suitable for the works to take place and the traffic signals will remain in place until these larger scale repairs are completed.

“We would like to thank local residents and motorists for their patience whilst we undertake these works on the highway.”

Talking about potholes generally, Coun Neil Clarke (Con), cabinet member for transport and environment, said: “Winter conditions always take their toll on highways across Nottinghamshire, but I would like to reassure our residents we are not alone as an authority in experiencing this.

“We’re open about the fact we have seen an increase in the number of pothole reports in recent weeks, but we also want our residents to know that this isn’t unusual at this time of year.

“With more than 3,000 miles of roads to maintain in Nottinghamshire, we’re doing all we can to take action following the bad weather and our teams are working hard to keep up with repairs.”