Dunmow residents back petition to repair Essex potholes

The petition, which is available to sign at https://www.change.org/p/repair-essex-potholes, was started in February and has received more than 2,500 signatures.

Now residents who travel on the B1057 between Dunmow and Great Bardfield are echoing the calls for the county council to take action.

Susanne Macpherson, who travels on the road "on a daily basis", said: "It has a national speed limit, quite a few bad corners and the road narrows in a number of places.

"There are parts of the road that are crumbling into the verge so that there is at least an eight inch drop.

"There is a turn off to Lindsell on this road between Bran End and Great Bardfield. I cannot even begin to explain the state of this road.

The B1057 between Bran End and Lindsell (Image: Google Street View)

"This road - as with a few roads out of Stebbing - have had a few new development housing sites.

"Large lorries delivering materials have used these roads for a while and have to be one of the contributing factors to accelerating the demise of these already badly in need of repair roads.

"We know the road and now know when to slow down (or even stop) when there is oncoming traffic.

"I cannot imagine how many drivers/cyclists have experienced the horrible reality of hitting part of a road in this condition.

"I would like to ask what do we need to do to at least get some of the very bad parts of these roads repaired properly?"

As well as drawing attention to the risk of damage to vehicles, the petition - which was started by Treena Griffiths - says that pedestrians "get soaked" from cars driving through potholes full of rainwater.

The petition adds that people and properties are blasted by loose stones, concrete and broken tarmac as more pieces of the road break off.

A spokesperson for Essex Highways said: "Figures from the Department for Transport show Essex had the highest traffic volume across all local authorities in the UK in 2023.

"This means that more vehicles use our roads than in any other county, putting our 5,100 miles of network, one the largest in the country, under constant pressure.

"This volume of traffic combined with the wettest winter on record and the wettest spring in 40 years has resulted in deterioration to our road network across the whole of Essex. This has created an unprecedented number of potholes on our roads.

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"We have crews out every day across the network and they have been working enormously hard in all weathers to repair potholes in accordance with Essex Highways’ maintenance strategy.

"This includes prioritising the most severe potholes, making them safe within two hours of being reported.

"All defects reported to us are assessed. We therefore encourage members of the public to track any defects or issues they find and sign up to receive updates on repairs via our online Track It tool at www.essexhighways.org/track-it."