'Embarrassed' by state of pothole-ridden city road

6:00pm Saturday 23rd March 2013 in News Photograph of the Author By Damian Fantato, covering Summertown, Jericho and North Oxford. Call me on 01865 425429

County councillor Roz Smith says London Road in Headington is an “embarrassing” state. Picture: OX58169 Marc West Buy this photo » County councillor Roz Smith says London Road in Headington is an “embarrassing” state. Picture: OX58169 Marc West

CALLS have been made for the resurfacing of one of Oxford’s main roads to be brought forward due to its current “embarrassing” state.

Oxfordshire County Council, the highways authority, has said it will be resurfacing London Road at some point in 2014 as part of a major redesign of the route.

But it is now riddled with potholes and there are concerns that things will only get worse if it has to wait for another year or more.

Roz Smith, county councillor for Barton and Churchill, said: “The state of the road is dreadful. It is so bad that the buses are not using the bus lane anymore.

“The surface of the road is crumbling away, so for cyclists and people on motorbikes it will be particularly dangerous.

“I am embarrassed by the state of it. We have got visitors coming from London and they have got to travel down this awful road.

“I have asked the county council whether anything can be done before the redesign takes place next year.

“I would like to see some resurfacing done now.”

Ms Smith suggested that the reason London Road was in such a bad state was because of the sheer volume of traffic using it.

It is used by cars and buses arriving and leaving Oxford for London and could also be used by people who move into the new 1,000-house Barton West development, which the city council is expected to start next year.

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Transport bosses are proposing to extend the bus lanes along London Road to help make the traffic flow more smoothly.

Initially there had been plans to extend the bus lane from the Green Road roundabout to the Headington shops, both inbound and outbound, by making the pavement narrower.

But this has been scrapped by the county after concerns were raised about cutting the width of pavements on both sides of the road.

Now the county council is looking into having a shorter bus lane, but the finalised scheme will not be known in full detail until a formal consultation starts next month.

The county council has already announced an extra £250,000 will be invested in sorting out Oxfordshire’s potholes after months of rain and snow this winter.

County council spokesman Owen Morton said: “To carry out resurfacing ahead of the planned works would effectively mean replacing the road surface twice in quick succession, and as such there are no plans to do this.

“However, our highways team are aware of problems with potholes at this location and repairs are due to be carried out soon.”

Comments(7)

Myron Blatz says...
10:35pm Sat 23 Mar 13

Whilst most people seem to have a somewhat cynical (and maybe correct?) view about County Council just happening to 'find' extra cash for potholes, as we approach the end of one financial year and the start of the next, one does find it an amazing 'coincidence' that an otherwise active and dynamic Cllr Roz Smith seems to only be raising such issues in the run-up to her own re-election as a County Councillor - or have I missed her campaigns in the Oxford Mail over the past four years? Headington's London Road must be one of the City's most heavily used access and through-roads, especially wityh regard to all the buses going to Barton (and even more, when Barton West is built?) and two major bus operators using the road for their London and Airport coaches every day.

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Mark L. says...
3:25pm Sun 24 Mar 13

"Embarrassing"- same can be said for many of Oxfordshires roads, Some of the rural ones, I would describe as shameful.

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oxinkytext says...
6:54pm Sun 24 Mar 13

The roads across Oxfordshire are in an absolutely appalling state. True, the winter weather has not helped, but this is the result of years of neglect and a poor,poor maintenance system. Talk to the road crews and you will find that they think it is a shocking system as well. The so-called "high priority" holes have often been left for weeks in rural areas and people are suffering serious damage to their cars. The only people who seem to think everything is fine are Ian Hudspeth and Rodney Rose.

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Myron Blatz says...
9:42pm Sun 24 Mar 13

And yet even I can remember when Councils used to employ (that quaint old term!) a bloke on a bicycle to gleefully pedal around town and country roads, and report back about potholes and all manner of torrid and ghastly highway engineering issues. Maybe the most disgusting thing, is that here in the early 21st century, we pay our vehicle excise licence fees to legally drive on the roads - but the Government can no longer guarantee condition or maintaining of said roads - oh! And all that massive revenue the Government (any political colour) steals from us for fuel tax, every time we fill-up at the pumps! It's all an ENORMOUS RIP-OFF for which we idly sit-by and accept like sad mobility lemmings. Nor, are most of the repairs anything more than short-term fixes using patch-n-mend techniques which become 'un-patched' next time it freezes, floods or another load of buses and heavy goods vehicles churn it all up again!

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xjohnx says...
8:23am Mon 25 Mar 13

I'm so glad everybody is happy to pay extra taxes to fill the potholes. Well done!

How about raising some more taxes for schools, hospitals etc?

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davyboy says...
11:07am Mon 25 Mar 13

this is one of the main arteries into the city, and is in dire need of a complete re-lay. there will be many who say it will cause major disruption, and that may be the case, but with well planned diversions using the ringroad, many jams could be avoided. maybe restricting London Road to buses, taxis and deliveries only during the works would enable the workers to get on more quickly. also working later into the evenings would quicken things up too.

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Myron Blatz says...
3:19pm Thu 28 Mar 13

Because City Council wants people to use 'park + pay lots' and has 'CllrPriced' the motorist out of Oxford (plus substantially increased parking charges, penalties and cut parking spaces) we have seen a massive increase in bigger, heavier buses wearing down roads and causing congestion - especially all those buses going nowhere to Blackbird Leys. Time to cap buses - there cannot be demand every four minutes

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