Waltham Abbey Greens

Dave’s written to Essex Highways about the potholes on Silver Street, Fountain Place, Paradise Road and Town Mead Road.

These roads are in a terrible state with an uneven service, the result of years of piecemeal patching up, and have over a dozen substantial holes which can damage vehicles and have caused injuries to pedestrians and cyclists.

Dear Essex Highways,

I am writing to draw your attention to potholes in Waltham Abbey on Silver Street, Fountain Place, Paradise Road and Town Mead Road.

There are over a dozen substantial potholes on these small residential roads, along with many smaller holes. Many are over 5cm deep – I’ve used a full-sized Zippo lighter (5.5cm high) to demonstrate the depth in the attached photos.

I am aware that many of these potholes have been reported via both the Essex Highways website and fixmystreet.com but have been classified as ‘not a priority’.

It’s difficult to see how this can be the case. These potholes are deep enough to cause damage to motor vehicles and, more importantly, cause injury to cyclists and pedestrians. The latter is exacerbated by pavement parking forcing pedestrians into the street.

I am aware of several pedestrian tripping incidents and of cyclists being dismounted by these potholes.

Some potholes have recently had what I assume to be ‘make safe’ repairs but this is not a long-term solution and the vast majority of the potholes remain unfilled.

Successive attempts to address individual potholes and other works, along with general wear and tear, have left these roads in an uneven state and in need of complete resurfacing.

I appreciate that funding is tight but I ask that you re-inspect these roads and prioritise make-safe repairs here, with a view to resurfacing the roads shortly thereafter.

Regards,