Pothole-ridden road 'causes punctures and cracked wheels'

A woman says potholes on a council-owned road have caused punctures and cracked wheels on her car.

Judith Lee, who lives near Burrington in rural north Devon, said potholes on Mill Lane had cost her hundreds of pounds in car repairs.

Devon County Council said the road had been added to the list of future sites for remedial work.

The authority said it would continue to undertake "regular safety inspections" of the road.

Ms Lee said the potholes had become so bad the road was now "almost impassable".

She said: "You can't drive down here very easily in an ordinary car. You have to creep down the lane, and even then you hit potholes.

"We're continually getting punctures and we've complained to the council endlessly and we've got no help."

Devon County Council said due to the current high workload facing its highways teams, no date had been scheduled to carry out repairs on Mill Lane.

Ms Lee said: "It's just dreadful. I'm unfortunately living by myself now and my friends won't come and see me because they won't drive their car down the lane.

"It has got to the stage where I have parked my car at the end of the lane, to walk down, and I have actually hurt, thrown my ankle, walking down in the dark because I walked in a pothole, and I know where they are.

"You can't avoid them. It's getting to the stage where it's almost impassable and we can't even drive to our own houses."

Mike Harris, who lives on Mill Lane, said when he moved there in 2014 the road surface was "much better".

He said: "It's horrific. You can't do more than about five or six miles per hour.

"If you've got a low-level car, you're scuffing the rubbish on the middle of the road while you're going down the potholes and scraping the car on the potholes.

"The major problem is if you've got a problem, either a domestic problem or a health problem, and you need to get to the place quickly, you can't."

A Devon County Council spokesman said: "Our neighbourhood highways officers have visited Mill Lane to assess its condition and the road has been added to the list of future sites for patching.

"However, due to the current high workload facing our highways teams, no date has yet been scheduled for when these repairs will be carried out but we will continue to undertake regular safety inspections of the road."

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