People living in one corner of Bristol say the potholes in their estate are so bad they dressed up as cavers to protest about it.
Residents of Lockleaze donned helmets and head torches to make their point about the state of the roads, by going round spraying the potholes with red paint and posing for pictures right across the estate.
The residents have formed their own local branch of community organisation Acorn, and first on the agenda is to persuade Bristol City Council to sort the roads out.
Council chiefs had promised to resurface the whole of Shaldon Road and Romney Avenue, the main spine road into the estate, once the new Trinity School was built and other developments had been completed.
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But with those developments delayed, and house building still going on at the top of the estate, that’s been delayed - although the bottom part of Shaldon Road will get resurfaced, with plans for the work to be by the end of 2020.
Now residents said they were tired of waiting for the rest of it to be done and said they would be taking matters into their own hands.
They’ve now written to council chiefs and their local councillors to ask for something to be done, and also said they wanted to do it in a light-hearted way to poke fun at just how bad the roads are in Lockleaze.
“It’s potholing but not as we know it,” said Acorn’s Lockleaze organiser Esme Roslin.
“The roads would not have been left to get this bad for this long in an area like Clifton, so why should Lockleaze have to stand for this any longer?” she asked.
“Acorn Lockleaze are demanding that Highways commit to repairing all the other roads in Lockleaze and ensure they get resurfaced sooner,” she added.
Local resident Jonathan Anstis said he had been campaigning for the roads to be better in Lockleaze ever since he realised quite how bad they were when he passed his driving test.
“The middle island of Romney to the left of the road there, there’s a big pothole that you can manage to avoid if you know the area - if you don’t, it will be a trip to the garage,” he said.
Sarah Ramage said: “We’re really pleased to hear that down the bottom of Shaldon Road they’re starting to fill in the potholes in December, but there are potholes all over Lockleaze - even more over this road and all over Lockleaze - and we’re just fed up now with there being so many of them and the council not doing anything.
“Some of them are so dangerous, especially for cyclists. In the dark you don’t see them and it’s an accident waiting to happen
In a letter to local councillors, Acorn members said: “The current state of Romney Avenue, Brangwyn Grove, Landseer Avenue, the top of Gainsborough Square, Morris Drive, Bonnington Walk, Constable Road and Cotman Walk (to name a few) are unacceptable.
“The potholes and cracks in the road are dangerous for motorists, cyclists, and are a trip hazard for pedestrians who cross them. We will not take the developments being used as an excuse to not deal with the other dangerous potholes littered across Lockleaze.
"We will not wait for a serious accident or for someone in our community to get hurt before they are fixed,” they added.
“ACORN Lockleaze members are demanding an immediate commitment to repairing all the roads in Lockleaze. We want the potholes to at least be patched up immediately and for a date to be provided for when they will all get fully resurfaced like Shaldon will be in December,” they added.
A Bristol City Council spokesperson said: “The ongoing upkeep of our highways never stops and we are continuing with preventative work such as surface dressing, road surface safety inspections and repairing defects before they cause potholes.
“We repair 4500 a year across a 650 mile network within 10 days of defects being investigated – over two weeks earlier than the government’s 28 day guidance - and are robust in monitoring the conditions and working on the upkeep of the highway.
“Winter is a particularly busy season for our crews as the poor weather and general increase in the number of vehicles on the road has an impact on the city’s highways.," he added.
