‘No magic wand’ to fix Thame’s potholes

SPEAKING at the annual, Thame Town Meeting last night (28/03), ex Mayor of Thame, Cllr Peter Lambert, compared Park Street to ‘a ploughed field’ before asking County Cllr Nick Carter, when the street’s pot holes were going to get fixed.

“I live at the end of Park Street,” Cllr Lambert, Landlord of The Cross Keys pub, continued, “and it’s getting so bad now that I regularly see cars swerving to avoid potholes, including those outside the primary school; this is becoming a very dangerous spot.”

But Cllr Carter was unable to offer him much hope, stating that Park Street was not a top priority of the county council and that it was his understanding that any major work was unlikely, but that some patching was due to be carried out sometime between September and December.

Cllr Carter went on to say that there are 4,000 miles of roads needing repair in the county and that the problem was mainly due to ‘an enormous decrease in government grants for roads last year. “In that context,” he went on, “I am trying to make sure Thame has a fair a shout as possible but there are some more, very heavily used roads that are used more.

“Patching is the best we can hope for,” he concluded.

Thame resident, Matthew Robinson, stated that he, and others in the town were ‘fed up with the neglect of the roads’ and that ‘it was about time Thame’s voice was heard.” He had done some research, he said, into various sources of government funding, including a Pothole Action Fund. (LINK Government allocates £1.2 billion roads funding to councils) Read Matthew’s full statement HERE

Cllr Carter responded: “Rest assured that if there is a pot of money, then Oxfordshire County County Council will be bidding for the maximum amount it could get!”

Town Cllr Mary Stiles pointed out that not only cars are affected by potholes, but that they are dangerous for cyclists too. “We want to encourage people to cycle more,” she said, “not put them off riding their bikes because of the state of the roads.”

The Town Clerk, Graham Hunt said that the town council was just as concerned about the state of the Parish’s roads and that every day people go into the town hall to report problems. He reported that the town council was in discussion with the county council about taking over responsibility for car parks, and that TTC was currently looking at transport issues as part of a Transport Plan (see LINK) which could present opportunities to feed back to the county council to get something better for Thame. “However, there is no magic wand,” he said, and thanked Matthew Robinson for his research, adding that the town council will keep looking for answers.

Useful links – Oxfordshire County Council’s Fix My Street weblink HERE
Government’s ‘Report a pothole’ website: LINK