People living in a Nottinghamshire village held a mocking ‘birthday’ for a pothole, complete with cake, after complaining about it to a council for two years.
Vonnie Daykin says the hole first appeared on Main Road in Plumtree “at least” around March 2015.
She and other villagers reported it to Nottinghamshire County Council, she said, but the hole has not been repaired and has grown even deeper.
In a latest effort to highlight the hole, she took a picture of it next to a birthday cake placed on the road complete with candles, which was tweeted by the @PlumtreePeople village account.
“I nearly put three candles on but I thought that might be pushing it,” said Vonnie.
“It’s dangerous for people who drive, and who cycle, because if you come to a pothole you have to swerve out in to the road which makes it unsafe for everyone.
“I last complained back in September or October time last year and they came and said they weren’t bad enough to fix.”
Last year the Government promised £1.2 million to repair tens of thousands of pot holes in Nottinghamshire.
The county council is in charge of 2,600 miles of road network in Notts – including Main Road in Plumtree.
Vonnie, 56, who is a Parish Councillor for the village, added: “The main village road really wants re-doing from one end to the other. A good mend would help but it really wants replacing.
“I’ve lived around Plumtree all my life and the roads are definitely the worst they have been at the moment.”
Notts TV contacted Nottinghamshire County Council for comment, which referred the case to Via East Midlands, which delivers road services for the authority.
The council replied to @PlumtreePeople on Twitter, saying “I don’t think ‘Happy Birthday’ would be appropriate in this case,” adding the hole has been reported again and will be inspected by Via within seven days.
Don Fitch, a team manager for Via East Midlands, said: “We take the quality of highways surfaces in Nottinghamshire very seriously and use inspections to prioritise our planned maintenance works and make any critical repairs as needed.
“In this particular case, we inspect this road monthly as it is classed as a ‘C’ road and any defects that are considered a hazard are identified for repair.
“We have a number of enquiries recorded from this caller with each one resulting in an inspection.”
Via also added they are planning to do some repair work on the road within the next fortnight, and encourage people in Notts to report potholes on county roads on the council’s website.
