A PETITION signed by more than a quarter of Berkeley’s population urging the county council to tackle the town’s pothole problem has been handed over.

Residents have warned Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) that the condition of the town’s roads have reached such a point that someone could be seriously injured.

Donna Pritchett decided that the strength of feeling had to be physically shown to the council’s highways department for anything to be done.
Knocking on doors around the town for four hours a day over five days she collected 559 signatures calling on the council to act. 

The petition titled ‘Enough is enough – all talk and no action’ warns that ‘failure to comply with the request will result in more drastic action being taken’.

It was given to Cllr Gordon Craig to hand over to the lead commissioner of the highway authority, Scott Tompkins, at a meeting at Shire Hall on Thursday arranged following a letter sent to council leader Mark Hawthorne.

In it, Cllr Craig raised his concerns about ‘the human consequences’ of the potholes which have effectively created a ‘chicane’ with the amount of ‘zig zagging’ required by drivers to avoid them.

He wrote: “I have followed vehicles as they zig zag along the A38, the B4066 and Alkington Lane to avoid potholes and am seriously concerned about the human consequences of this chicane.

“Cyclists and motorcyclists are particularly at risk and [a] number of local people I know, particularly the elderly, feel unable to venture out at night lest they crash into an unseen pothole.”

Mrs Pritchett said that the petition showed the town’s strength of feeling about the issue and that hopefully it would spur the council into action.

“Hopefully once they see the number of signatures they may get something done,” she said. “People feel very, very strongly about this.

“It really is a killer. The roads are particularly terrible for motorbikes and cyclists.

“What are the council going to do? Wait for someone to get killed before they do anything about it?”

Potholes in the town centre were marked for repair by council workmen the afternoon the petition was handed over to the county council.

Cllr Vernon Smith, GCC cabinet member for highways said, “Last week I received a petition from Cllr Gordon Craig which asks the county council to look at road improvements in Berkeley. 

"I understand that residents are concerned about some of the roads in the area.
“We’re currently looking at patching along parts of the B4066 from Cattle Country to the roundabout and we’re also looking to make some improvements along Canonbury Street in the near future.

“Our safety inspectors regularly check the roads in the area and any safety issues are scheduled for repair. Residents can also let us know of any issues by reporting them to us at gloucestershire.gov.uk/reportit or by calling 08000 514514.”