CHURNED up grass on ancient village greens have triggered a parish council to look for solutions.
Gainford’s village greens, near the River Tees, have suffered gouging from vehicles cutting corners when turning.
Parish councillors agreed this winter has seen damage worsen and this sparked them to consider soil tubs, bollards and extra cobbles as remedies last week.
Cllr Dave Greenland warned extra cobbles would only encourage people to park on them.
And business owner Cllr Mark Charge said it was very difficult for wagons to make the turn without cutting the corner.
He added: “They don’t park down there, they abandon them. We were so big we couldn’t get around.”
Cllr Linda Britton, who lives near the green, thought the problem was more to do with modern day living clashing with an old infrastructure.
“The roads are narrow and a lot of houses have two cars now,” she said.
“One of the huge houses is now occupied.
“We’ve had a lot of delivery vans and work vans as in spring a lot of the older houses need work doing after winter.
“We have been hit by snow really badly four or five times this year so for quite a few days we’ve had really icy roads around there.
“It’s not people being careless, it’s just people trying to be safe and avoiding damage,” she added.
Meanwhile, Cllr Simon Platten took aim at refuse crews from Durham County Council.
He said: “Where we live the dustmen cannot be bothered – they have made a right mess outside my neighbour’s house.
“I think it’s a combination of things. It’s tight and we’ve got one or two drivers that don’t give a monkey’s. The more you give them to more they take.”
Divots in the greens attracted the ire of councillors last year and prompted warnings of more damage if something wasn’t done.
Cllr Britton agreed there’d be little excuse if the roads were widened but Cllr Andy Smith warned Raby Estates and the county authority would have to agree before anything was done.
He added: “Are we not jumping the gun?”
“We have mentioned the idea of widening the road and that would be Durham County Council.
“The second thing is, if we widen the road we’ll widen it onto a piece of common land and that would need permission.
“I know people talk about the damage to the green but I think we’re going straight to a solution without knowing what our feasible options are.”
Clerk Martin Clark said he’d get in touch with Raby Estates and request a county council engineer to survey the green.
Cllr Sarah Hannan added: “There’s a good chance the majority of the damage is actually county council contractors that ride over it.
“If it does need work doing we should be asking them to contribute.”
