From the FixMyStreet website today:
Drain damage in road
Reported in the Potholes category by Dave Atheis at 18:02 today
Sent to Essex County Council 3 minutes laterDrain under railway bridge on Hambro Hill has developed a large hole causing cars to swerve to avoid
Not a good place to be swerving – let’s hope it be can repaired quickly, and well done for reporting it.
This is correct and it needs fixing. I was going to ring this one in to Highways on Tuesday. It is also very dangerous for cyclists.
Be best if you phone them anyway…
I also reported the increasingly large ones on Rawreth Lane almost a year ago and nothing has been done to them. My car now needs costly work on its suspension and the main dealer informs me this is due to potholes!
It is impossible and quite dangerous to swerve to avoid these two elongated potholes if there is traffic oncoming – as there invariably is.
Anyone know how I can make a claim to the Highways Dept?
We’ll get back to you…
Might be an idea to avoid the route ( or the potholes )altogether if you have been continually damaging your car over a period of one year, just a thought….
CCR, you should phone Contact Essex on 0845 603 7631. They will be able to send you a claim form. And please keep us updated !
Rayleigh Resident – this is a bit difficult when I have to use Rawreth Lane on a daily basis. I do all I can to avoid the pot holes – but
as they are more like trenches now this is hard. As stated, to swerve onto the other side of the road would cause an acdident.
Will follow the advice given and contact County in the morning.
Wonder if they will ever be fixed??
CCR
I raised this very point regarding the Rawreth Lane trench potholes at a Rawreth Parish council meeting about 3 or 4 months ago and the Clerk to the Council reported it to the County Highways Department. It seems that County Highways has the biggest pothole in the county in their department, the one they file all of our complaints in!
Thanks Greenbelt.
I shall be applying for my claim form today.
Also the pothole originally mentioned under the bridge is getting larger.
CCR
Have emailed Natalie at Highways on Friday at 9.40 asking for an update on the Hambro Hill hole.. Last time I reported one by email it was looked at and repaired within 2 hours. If it is on the list to be done then there will be a number, which I have asked for, which will enable people to see when it may be rectified.
It’s still not been fixed yet – and not even any red markings to show it has been inspected. I’ve sent in photos tonight of the big pothole – and the one that’s now developing on the other side of the road.
The Hambro Hill pothole under the railway bridge has been filled in – but not very well at all!
I was a passenger in a car today and as we drove round it I noticed that the filling seems to be collapsing already!!!
CCR
I think there may be another problem on Crown Hill, in the road as you drive down hill from the high street towards the station. Somewhere between The Knoll and The Bailey there was a repair made some months ago to fix a water leak and subsequent pot hole.
Travelling along this stretch recently there appears to be water on the road originating from the same point as the previous repair. It is difficult to confirm, as the road is often wet due to the weather, but if anyone is passing this area on a dry day maybe they could have a look and confirm. The water leak may have returned.
They were out doing roadworks under the Hambro Hill bridge today so hopefully all fixed!
Looked at it this evening and they have topped up the repair that was sinking.
Now can we have then back to re-surface DPW and put in the yellow lines please?
CCR
Yellow lines will not solve the problem. The problem is speed and this needs to be controlled. There are children, dog walkers and horse riders, none of whom have been given a thought. When vehicles are parked, then the traffic naturally slows down because the drivers are aware of the problem. No parked vehicles and hey ho everyone thinks they are at Brands Hatch. We have seen this happen. When the road was clear of traffic for the very poor resurfacing, but one must say a very quiet surface compared with the original, the traffic speed was dangerous to say the least. The worst offenders are the drivers, 99% women, dropping their children off at Downhall School. (I am a woman driver but one who has taken care when my children were in the car). Whilst the work at the school was going ahead, the traffic between 8.30a.m.-9.15a.m. and 2.45p.m.-3.15p.m. was minimal and these are the people who need to be reminded of the fact. The parking has reduced considerably but the authorities should be thinking of installing warning signs for children, horses and a school and not waste money on yellow lines.
Rita is spot on , once the lines go in speeds will increase just at worst possible place, opposite the playground. Police have to focus on the few idiots that live on the estate who think 40mph is ok. Mark my words, there will be tears over this one. I urge the council to reconsider before it’s too late. I live in DPW so I know what I am talking about.
Well, I think there have been about 5 objection letters and we’ll see what the County Highways experts make of it now….
Regarding the high speeds aspect, ideally there should be one of those signs that flashes to tell you when you are speeding….
I tried my hardest yesterday to go at anything above the speed limit of 30mph on a relatively clear second stretch of DPW and found it almost impossible to gather the speed due to bends, oncoming traffic, parked cars etc. I have come across one persistent teenage speeder on the estate – and he certainly is persistent, no seat belt either.
I think we need a healthy mix of the two deterrents – lines in the relevant places to prevent obstructive, dangerous and selfish parking as well as some sort of speed limiting. The sort that speed presently will take absolutely no notice of signs and the Police almost seem to forget that we exist on this estate so enforcement will be patchy at best? Short of a speed camera itself or some physical deterrent, such as chicane or humps, I do not think those that speed will be bothered by anything else. They are just very selfish drivers who perhaps need a few points on their licences or bans to make them sit up and take notice.
CCR
Chris – maybe make it a 20mph zone ? HOWEVER the problem is this, the anti-social morons that speed ignore the 30mph limit so why would they take any notice of another sign. I am convinced that only hefty fines & points on the license make any difference.
Regardless of the speed involved – personally I would prefer children with poor road discipline who rush out in front of a car to do so in a clear road with good visibility and not from between parked cars. Even at 20 mph (and I also think a limit is a good idea on this estate) it’s still going to hurt. I still see the parking there mostly down to inconsiderate owners and not as a necessity.
I thought parking on a bend was illegal in the Highway Code anyway; certainly it is within a specified distance of a junction, this is again a common problem in this area, which seems to be unaddressed by the police.
The proper solution to the issue of child safety here would be a pelican crossing, with its resultant no parking markings on the road. But – as has been stated in the past by the powers that be – it is way to expensive. Presumably significantly more so that the money thrown away on the botched resurface of a perfectly adequate road.
I can only hope that if a serious incident ever happens the people who are responsible for putting a children’s park on the opposite side of the road from most of the children who use it and more importantly those who can not find the budget to address the problem come forward and say to the parent’s face that their child’s life was not worth that small amount of money.
Buzz – you make some interesting points. Having a play area on the near side of the road was never considered – and would have been strongly opposed by some residents on noise / nuisance grounds. (some think it is too close to the houses anyway).
Having a pelican crossing along here would be difficult to design because of rules about bends and junctions, but there are other things that could be done to encourage to slow down drivers.
I think the real problem is the original design of the bend here – quite wide with a very pleasant sweeping turn. Compare that with Laburnum Way , designed a few years later, mych narrower and with much less opportunity for on-street parking and soing 30 mph.
I’d like to think that when the new housing schemes are being designed – eg in Hall Road – councillors will be encouraged to study what has worked and hasn’t worked elsewhere, but that doesn’t seem to be happening.
Perhaps raised sections of road similar to those provided adjacent to Westcliff High Schools and Darlinghurst Primary School in Leigh-on-Sea would provide safer crossing and reduced speeding. The raised sections are like extended speed humps so more than the full length of a car is on them as they cross. They span the full width of the road and are constructed using interlocking bricks in a contrasting colour to the main road surface. At Darlinghurst there is one of these speed restrictions immediately outside the school gate and generally when slowing down for the hump the driver also allows the children to cross. These humps are also in a 20MPH zone so a dual safety consideration has been provided.
One of these elongated humps on the bend in DPW would control the traffic speed and may even instill in children that this is a safer place to cross. There is also no reason why the hump should not be used as a proper pedestrian crossing with white lines, beacons and zig-zag lines provided.