'Crazy golf' sign appears in Malmesbury town centre as locals hit out at potholes
A campaign group has placed mock 'crazy golf' signs in Malmesbury to draw attention to what they call 'disgraceful' and 'dangerous' potholes in the town.
Members of the group 'Our Malmesbury' want Wiltshire Council to do more to repair the area's roads, while officials say they are doing their best to tackle the issue across the county.
Ben Thornbury, who helps run the campaign group, said: "The potholes on Malmesbury High Street are a disgrace to the town! Not a good impression to visitors and certainly not good for vehicles.
"Residents were reporting the potholes but Wiltshire Council was never responding and the potholes weren’t getting filled.
"It’s about time the council got their act together and sorted them out.
"We're launching a social media appeal, This sign was placed on the High Street and a photo taken and put on the local Facebook group and the residents love it!
"Hopefully Wiltshire Council take some notice because they haven’t so far and the residents aren’t happy about it. We need to be listened to.
"With Malmesbury being one of the oldest boroughs in England you would have thought that we would have had some priority on repairs but clearly not.
"Hopefully Wiltshire Council take some notice because they haven’t so far and the residents aren’t happy about it. We need to be listened to."
Wiltshire Council has condemned the sign, calling it 'a distraction to drivers'.
Cllr Caroline Thomas, Cabinet Member for Transport, said: “There has been an increase in the number of potholes across the country, not just in Wiltshire.
"We have recently been awarded an additional £3.6m from the Department for Transport’s (DfT’s) Pothole Fund which we will use to target pothole hotspots across the county.
"We intend to create heatmaps of the areas with the worst pothole problems, and we will use this data to identify roads in most need.
“We are working hard to tackle the issue, and when there are increases in the number of potholes reported, we deploy additional resources as required.
"Deeper potholes require more urgent attention than others, so we prioritise defects based on intervention levels contained within our Highways Inspection Manual.
"In addition to this reactive approach we have a program of resurfacing that is based around information provided by our technical surveys.
“The signs that have appeared in Malmesbury will be removed as they could pose a distraction to road users.”
Earlier this month, a fund of over £26million to be spent on Wiltshire highways was announced.
Wiltshire Council was awarded £22,924,000 from the Government’s Highways for the highways maintenance in general and the additional £3,684,800 from the Department for Transport’s (DfT’s) Pothole Fund which will be used to target pothole hotspots around the county.
Cllr Caroline Thomas added: "Unfortunately, the extra funding won’t solve all the pothole issues in the county, but the additional treatment, combined with our scheduled resurfacing programme, will make a big difference to the safety and ride quality of Wiltshire’s roads.
“We have filled 11,130 potholes and completed 28 major resurfacing projects so far this financial year, and we hope to do more this year.
“We would advise those concerned to please report highway defects and potholes to us using MyWilts – either through our website or by using the smartphone app."