Pot of cash for residents who fixed road

Apr 11 2012 By Camilla Goodman

The pothole in Woodley Hill

NEIGHBOURS who took it upon themselves to fix potholes in their road have just received a cash injection for the project.

People living in Woodley Hill, an unadopted road in Chesham, were so fed up with the state of their road that they formed a company called Save Our Street three years ago and have been putting in their own money to buy machinery and materials to fix the potholes.

Once a month for the past two years, the neighbours have been fixing the potholes and estimate they have spent about £3,000.

The group has been given a helping hand after county councillor Noel Brown gave the Waterside Community Association £750 from his community fund which is to be used to help the people in Woodley Hill.

The neighbours did try to get Bucks County Council to adopt the road but it refused saying it would cost about £500,000 to do so.

Chairman of Save Our Street, Mick Dolling, said: “Unfortunately because of economics it was a no go but there’s still a lot of residents who believe it should be adopted. It’s not fair because we believe their lorries could be a big factor in the state of the road.

“The road was awful, it was genuinely going to become impassable. So a few of us had an idea and I decided to take the bull by the horns. The alternative was pretty dire which was to just disappear into a big hole. This money really will help. We’re so grateful of any donations that will help our cause.”

Mr Dolling said he believes the road will always need to be fixed because of the winters making potholes reappear.

Town councillor for the area Peter Hudson said: “It seems unfair to me that residents living along part of Woodley Hill, paying council tax, do not have a maintained road and I’m committed to helping them in any way that I can. I pay tribute to the residents for working together for so long to find ways forward.”