Whitebarns Lane is littered with 32 potholes (Credits: James Linsell Clark / SWNS)
Villagers involved in a 60-year pothole row with their local council have been told to pay £100,000 if they want them fixed.
Residents in Furneux Pelham, Hertfordshire, have said they are at the end of their tether after being locked in a dispute with their council for decades over a lane littered with potholes.
Whitebarns Lane, which connects the village’s main road to a cul-de-sac, has always been a public footpath and not a road – meaning it cannot be repaired at public expense.
But with the lane now consisting of a whopping 32 potholes, the council have told residents they can have them fixed for a very hefty sum.
The latest quote from the council set the cost at £73,000 in 2016 – meaning that in 2024, due to inflation, locals will have to fork out around £100,000 for repairs.
Sarah Wright says the potholes are ‘dangerous’ (Credits: James Linsell Clark / SWNS)
Residents have been locked in a 60-year dispute about the potholes (Credits: James Linsell Clark / SWNS)
Residents are refusing to pay the sum themselves to fix something which they believe ‘has to be done.’
Resident Sarah Wright, 59, said: ‘It is terrible because the council are refusing to resurface it.
‘They fill it with road chippings on a regular basis and they come out of the potholes if it rains. Making the surface even more dangerous.
‘People have been injured. We’ve known people to fall over and cut their face, smash their glasses. An elderly grandmother fell and hit her face on the ground while she was walking with her grandchildren.
‘The elderly people are petrified to use the lane.’
Douglas Debnam suffers from macular degeneration, meaning he is severely impaired (Credits: James Linsell Clark / SWNS)
Some people have even stopped driving cars down the lane because of the potholes (Credits: James Linsell Clark / SWNS)
Douglas Debnam, a 79-year-old resident who uses a white cane, said: ‘I have to watch where I am walking with the potholes so I don’t trip into them.
‘You’ve got to walk through all these potholes and they’re uncountable because one is going to another. We’re getting quite annoyed about it as people who should be doing something about it are not.
‘The council should pay. They can’t say it is a public footpath when I have to move out the way for cars and tractors.’
The houses that are most affected by the lane are a mix of social and privately owned houses – and the lane is their only access point.
A Hertfordshire County Council spokesperson said: ‘It would potentially be possible to adopt Whitebarns Lane as a public road, but only if the landowner, or the residents living along the lane, were able to bring it up to an acceptable standard.
‘We have offered to contribute towards the cost of the necessary works.
‘In the meantime we will continue to maintain Whitebarns Lane as a public footpath.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.