A CRUMBLING road running through an Oxford housing estate will continue to crack up and could become dangerous in just three months if £300,000 is not found to rebuild it.

Oxford City Council needs to find the cash to save Fettiplace Road, in Barton, which is deteriorating due to the weight and vibration of traffic from years supporting a major bus route.

Neil Castle, street services manager at the council, says the road was built on clay soil with a high water content, was not built to take the heavy buses and needs constant repair.

Mr Castle told the council's highways and traffic committee at its meeting yesterday that if the road was left without repairs, within three months the surface would crack and steel and concrete would protrude up into the road.

He said: "The road is an old worn-out structure and if you run HGV buses up and down it, it disintegrates through vibrations.

"If we stopped doing repairs we would have to close it in two or three months. The tarmac is fretting away underneath and if left alone the concrete will start to protrude through the surface, leaving lengths of steel sticking out. It would become extremely dangerous." Meetings with residents concluded the only way to completely cure the situation was to reduce the amount of traffic on the road or re-build it.

Other options includes a scheme to drain the soil of water in the area, imposing a 20mph speed limit or using cash from the Barton Single Regeneration Budget, which has provision for £300,000 worth of environmental improvements, or traffic calming.

The council has talked to the Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach Oxford, which run bus services along Fettiplace Road, asking for funding for repairs, but was told they did not think it was their responsibility. The county council says it cannot afford the money for the repairs.

Yesterday's meeting agreed to ask the Government for permission to borrow the £300,000 to secure the future of the road by seeking supplementary credit approval.

Committee chairman Alex Hollingsworth said: "This is a key bus route both for the bus companies and for the people of Barton.

"We do have a serious problem here. Given the expense likely in keeping it usable over the next two or three years, to spend £300,000 is money very well spent."

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