URGENT action is needed to stop the pothole problem deepening on one of Abergele’s biggest housing estates.
People living on the Maes Canol estate have voiced strong concerns about the large number of potholes and the dangers they cause, with the situation worsening after the freezing conditions of the past few weeks.
The problem compounds other traffic issues on the estate with too many vehicles using narrow roads like Maes Canol and Ffordd y Morfa to access the A55 and three of the town’s schools.
Jeff Page, who has lived on Hafod-y-Mor for more than 20 years, said: “This situation is not good at all. There are potholes everywhere and the situation is an absolute disgrace. Something has to be done, and this isn’t a problem that has just existed since the recent bad weather.
“The roads on the estate are very bad, they cannot handle the amount of traffic. There needs to be measures such as sleeping policemen or a one-way system introduced to help.”
The Assembly Government has promised to invest almost £3million to help improve roads damaged by the bad weather, but they have received criticism for not pumping more money into road maintenance.
Cllr Sam Rowlands, of Pentre Mawr ward on Conwy County Council, said: “We need to stop patching up and start resurfacing; a proper job needs to be done.
“The roads in Abergele, particularly around Maes Canol, are very busy roads, especially around the schools. I’m worried that cars will soon be damaged because of the potholes and we could see an increase of claims against the council because of the Assembly Government’s lack of investment.”
Gwyn Hughes, Conwy’s head of operations, said the authority was responsible with dealing with more than 1,500km of roads and trunk roads and the severe weather had damaged surfaces across the county.
He said: “We’re dealing with potholes as we find them during inspections, or following reports from members of the public. It’s too early to put a figure on the financial impact, but we will be monitoring the costs of repairing our road network closely.”
The bad weather has had direct consequences on other work planned for Abergele.
Planned footway improvements for disabled users on Water Street that were scheduled to start last month are now not likely to begin until the beginning of next month because staff are repairing roads elsewhere.