GAPING pot holes have attracted the ire of upper dale farmers on an authority owned road.
The top road from Middleton-in-Teesdale to Newbiggin via Hude has been beset by three feet wide holes for a number of months.
Flooding last month saw traffic using the road more regularly and the freeze-thaw cycle has cracked and widened the asphalt faults.
Road resident Emma Spry has to negotiate the track on a daily basis.
She said: “The top road ended up like the M1 during the flooding – there were 20 cars in the space of half an hour.
“Our road is definitely an issue – it’s horrific at the moment for pot holes and some of them are massive – I bet a lot of people would not see them in winter and at this time of year there are some really vicious ones.”
Durham County Council bears responsibility for the upper dale highway through Lanehead Farm, Greta Lodge Farm, Bell Farm and Revelin Farm.
Patch repairs were made last month by workers but Ms Spry wasn’t impressed with the methodology.
She added: “I emailed the council and they came out with a van, dropped some ready set Tarmac and ran over it with the van wheels.
“It’s all they ever do to be honest and it’s getting worse.”
However, Ms Spry said there was little the council could do when the weather was bad in winter time.
Oil was visible in one of the pot holes after flooding – thought to be from a vehicle’s damaged oil sump.
Newbiggin’s Diana Lambourne was forced to use the top road during last month’s floods.
She said: “The road is so narrow you cannot pass anything in quite a few places.
“It’s not too bad in the daytime but at night it’s just impossible or very difficult.
“The pot holes are terrible – some people have to get to work.”
One farmer, who’d worked on the Aukside and Coldberry Road all his life, said the problem was just as bad on the Snaisgill loop above Town Head and Middleton-in-Teesdale.
He added: “We have pot holes and the verges are just paddled to bits. Nobody comes out to clear the gutters any more and the council are not really interested.
“Years ago there used to be lengthsmen out on foot who’d cut bits out with a spade – they knew where every gutter, culvert and cut was for every length of road.
“The council don’t do anything like that.”
Mark Readman, Durham County Council’s highway services manager, said: “We carried out pothole repairs on Tuesday, January 30, but due to snowfall we were unable to repair all of the potholes along the 5km road.
“Once the snow thaws, we’ll be sending out an operational team as soon as possible to complete the repairs.”
