Features

Some people like to don a hard-hat and lamp and spend their weekends exploring them. What are we talking about? Potholing, of course! And, judging by some of your comments the potholes peppering our county's roads are big and ugly enough to swallow an entire car, let alone a man and his trusty helmet!

Coldham's Lane pothole

Spurred on by 'Mr Angry' - Dave, of Fulbourn, who contacted us to complain that he's recently forked out £500 to repair his tyres and tracking, having driven repeatedly through potholes (not on purpose, we hasten to add!) on his daily journey to and from the city, we decided to investigate.

Our attention was drawn to a particularly perilous pothole under the bridge on Coldham's Lane, near the Cambridge Sainsbury's store (other supermarkets with potholes are also available). We sent our reporter Jozef Hall out with strict instructions to LOOK at it, but NOT to drive the BBC Radio Cambridgeshire van into it... please!

You can see some of his photographs of that pothole on this page, together with one on Hills Road in Cambridge, opposite Homerton College - which a very helpful passing policeman suggested Jozef take a look at!

What a mess! Pothole on Hills Road

Potholes in pictures

If you think you can beat these, we'd love to see your very favourite examples of the county's worst potholes, and you can email your comments and complaints to us to help us compile a picture of just how bad some of our roads are.

Top of the pots

Listeners to Andie Harper on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire have been inundating the show with tales of pothole-related woe. Based on their texts and emails, we've compiled a list of some of the worst culprits in Cambridgeshire - but again, if you can do better, you can email us, or contribute to Andie's show weekdays from 9am-12.30pm.

Starting with the worst...

1) Fulbourn to Teversham (High St)
2) Cherry Hinton Road
3) Queen Edith's Way roundabout
4) Rustat Road
5) Hills Road
6) Mill Road (Romsey Town)

Pothole parables - your stories

Angela - Grantchester Road between the orchard and the village itself - just where they're building a new house- that's a cracker!! Others near the M11 Madingley Road junction- there's a few round there that are constantly being repaired but don't seem to get any better; near the pedestrian lights at the end of Storeys way on Madingley Road...

I could go on but the Grantchester Road one is the biggest and could probably break an axle if you go through it at the wrong speed/angle.

Potholes in Downham's Lane, Cambridge

Mr N.Barnett - I saw your report on potholes on the Radio Cambridgeshire web site. I have been out taking a few photos and a video of a local street 'Downham's Lane' in Cambridge, that has been damaged over the past 10 months or so by heavy goods lorries delivering materials to the old 'Rees Thomas School' site which is under reconstruction. I have to cycle to work along this road and during the recent snowfalls, it became impossible to cycle along this road without cycling into one of the many potholes that are along this road.

Potholes in Downham's Lane, Cambridge

There are at least 15 potholes (see photo), ranging from a few inches to 20 feet long, and a few inches up to two feet or more wide. Also the grass verge on one side has been ruined and has had tonnes of hardcore dumped onto it, to accommodate contractors parking. I don't normally complain about things but this road has become a real safety issue for cyclists, especially during the bad weather when the potholes weren't visible.

Pothole near Caxton

Ellis Selway - I hit this pothole on Saturday evening on the A1198 heading towards Caxton from Papworth Everard just before the A428 Caxton GIbbett roundabout.  I measured and photographed the hole just in case I need it for my insurance claim and to prove it really was as deep as it felt when I hit it. It measured 90cm diameter and 20cm deep!

Roger - If you think the potholes are bad in Cambridge you should come to Bedford - it looks like its been visited by the Lufftwaffe. Roger in Moggerhanger no longer in Bedford.

Ian - If you hit a pothole and damage your car but the pothole hasn't been reported to the council, you can't claim against the council because they can say they didn't know about it.

Damaged by pothole near Caxton

Brian - I've just heard you mention potholes again. You may recall I emailed you last week about the Royston bypass (A505) and the poor state of repair - or non repair to be honest. I was on M25 yesterday, between M11 & A127 both ways, and there are large potholes there too. Accidents waiting to happen.

Rob - Why are the councils doing temporary repairs to the potholes. Why don't they do proper repairs. Cut a square out a coat of bitumen in hole then fill the hole with tarmac job done. If a jobs worth doing, do it once and do it right.

My car is now off the road with a broken wheel rim, split tyre and possible steering damage.  To add injury to insult when the vehicle was recovered for repair the mechanic damaged the seal by putting the jack in the wrong place whilst trying to replace the wheel to make it easier to put on his recovery vehicle.  An accident but it has added to the frustration.

I advised the police about the danger and they placed the traffic cone that you can see in the picture next to the hole. Hoping to follow this up with the Council.  Luckily no claims bonus protected but will be affected if I make another claim before September.

Charlotte, Burwell - The section of Newmarket Road, Cambridge between the Airport Way roundabout to the Park and Ride traffic lights is, I think, one of the worst stretches of road in the county - on both sides. The surface is severely rutted and potholed. The road is also very busy, and therefore the damaged surface is even more of a problem. The road has been in this state for several years. If something can be done about it, I think it would be a significant improvement to safety on Cambridge roads.

I look forward to some improvements on the County's roads following this feature.

Nick Dickson - I would like to nominate the entire stretch of the A505 from Duxford to the A1M junction, but particularly through Royston. The road is no more than a rock-strewn pitted dirt track in some places, and it’s getting worse.  No-one seems to fix this particular road – is this because half is in Cambs and the other half in Herts?

Oh yes, and Hunts Road in Duxford is also horrible in the extreme. Cheers, Nick Dickson (Duxford resident in case you didn’t guess already!)

Bethy - I would like to put forward two pot places; There is a positive wheel breaker on Willingham High Street - beware.

Also, the A141 going up Mepal Hill, the entire road surface has been in disrepair for sometime, but after this weather it has simply crumbled as the huge lorries struggle up the hill, this was not helped by the flood waters bubbling out of the drains at the top of the hill, running down and freezing causing some very interesting driving on Monday evening!

Mark, Cambridge - Potholes - what a can of worms you've opened up now! Driving around Cambridge you really see the state of our roads. I can't think of a road that hasn't got a pothole. Not only that, but the road surfaces in general are in a shocking state: East Road, Mill Road, Cherry Hinton Road, Station Road, Hills Road, Newmarket road. The list is endless. These are main roads of Cambridge and all are akin to riding a rollercoaster instead of driving!

In my area there must be the road that ranks as the worst in Cambridge - Rayson Way. In the past week the council has arrived to repair up to EIGHT potholes. I say repair - what I mean is they has dropped a dollop of tarmac in the hole which will last a few weeks or months until it opens up again. The whole surface of this particular road is breaking up.
I'm sure the guy you have on from the highways department will [talk] about the millions spent on road repairs and the bad weather etc etc but the question is, where are all these millions spent? Certainly not round here - a few dollops of tarmac doesn't add up to millions.

Deborah, Peterborough - The potholes are not the fault of the weather. It's shoddy workmanship, cheap repairs and an absolute disgrace. Since summer last year potholes in Lawson Avenue, Stanground, have been repeatedly repaired in this unacceptable way.

Paul, West Wratting - About 2 months ago I drove over a pothole just outside of West Wratting and a tyre burst. I photographed the hole about 18" wide and 5" deep - had to be rescued by the RAC and had to have a new tyre fitted at about £180. The hole was filled in next day!

I then made a claim against the County Council and they refuse to pay saying in effect "see you in Court".  

As a matter of note - the car - a top of the range VW Polo was supplied without a spare wheel - which we did not realise. The tyre company said many cars sold do not have a spare -  it is an additional cost option. Its worth checking if you had one as we had to be transported to the tyre service by the RAC having broken down at 09.30 and got home at 4.00pm.

Matt from Ramsey - On a positive note about potholes, I wish we had some of these in our road, as it does a good job of slowing down the cars and motorcycles.

Phil from Cottenham - More potholes here than on the Moon. Roads in terrible state through the village especially Lambs Lane.

 Steve - If u try claiming against pothole damage u r in 4 a rough ride. The council tie u up in red tape. I travel the country and cambridgeshires roads r the worst 4 holes [Edited comment].

Dave in Cambridge - Regarding potholes. Go to mill rd, romsey end. There are two near each other. One is outside the coral betting shop, the other nearly outside the co-op.

The writer of this article - Would like to nominate East Road, Cambridge (heading toward town) and a brand new one which took me totally by surprise on Elizabeth Way roundabout this morning!

No crater comfort...

We're not offering to go out there and fill in all of these potholes for you, but we'll certainly be able to raise awareness of where the worst crater culprits are, and who knows, that might just, if you're really lucky, save you some unnecessary damage to your car!

The official response

Mark Kemp is in charge of highways at Cambridgeshire County Council, and he spoke to Andie Harper about the roads, the potholes and what the county's maintenance teams intend to do:

"If we get these particularly cold spells and there are cracks and fissures in the surface, the water goes into those and then freezes; it then expands and pops out bits of the carriageway - and that's the problem that we're really struggling with at the moment in terms of potholes.

"We've got two gangs out in South Cambs, two gangs out in the city, two gangs out in East Cambs, each going round trying to pick up these potholes and fill them up. So, we are doing our best... and they were all out last night doing a salt run... so they're working really hard at the moment.

"With this sort of weather though, you may get some of these repairs popping out again. But once we get through this period we can go in and do some more permanent repairs. But in the meantime, I think it's important that we fill them up as quickly as we can. What we don't want is people hitting them on motorbikes, coming off and injuring themselves."

You can use the link on the right of this page for the County Council website - they'd like us all to report the location of potholes to them, and Mark Kemp says that they will then get to them "as quickly as we can".

Listen to the full interview between Andie Harper and Mark Kemp here:

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