Skelmersdale councillors hit out at Lancashire County Council over issue of cracked pavements

Sep 20 2012 by Rob Pattinson, Skelmersdale Advertiser

MOORSIDE councillors have accused Lancashire County Council of “washing its hands” over the on-going issue of cracked pavements.

Cllrs Julie Gibson and Terry Aldridge raised the issue last November after being contacted by elderly and disabled residents.

Cllr Gibson said: “It took till May of this year for the council to agree to do something but we were assured the delay had been due to the bad weather and the possibility of further cracking to the flags.”

Cllr Gibson said she had now been told by Lancashire Highways it doesn’t consider this to be a problem anymore, adding: “I’d like to know, what’s changed between now and May? Lancashire County recently announced it would be fixing some of the pot-holes, an issue I raised with them in May 2010. Must we wait another two years for them to fix pavements also or do we have to wait for someone to have a serious injury?”

A county council spokesman said that beyond emergency repairs it had invested around £706,000 in maintenance of highways in Skelmersdale in 2011/12, including £22,000 on pavements, has invested more into footways this year and expects to spend around £134,000 on pavement works and a further £303,000 on carriageways. Around £75,000 is earmarked next year to flagged pavements in Skem and some may be allocated to Carfield depending on the condition of other footways . He said: “We inspect all roads regularly to make sure they are safe and in a serviceable condition but if people are aware of potholes or defects to paved areas we'd ask they report them so that we can carry out further inspections and repairs.”