After driving around Grantham, it’s clear why the town is dying...it’s the roads!
There is one approach road to the town that is not collapsing or rutted or full of potholes. Can anyone provide a reason for this? I have heard people say it is because most of the people who will have influence over such things live along the road. Now, I don’t know if that is true, but it would appear Manthorpe Road does have an amazingly well maintained surface as opposed to any other in or out of town. Even as far out as Barkston, the road is being relaid to a considerable depth.
This is where I come to a point for the highways department of the county council to consider: surface dressing is just that - it doesn’t repair crumbling wreckage of what used to be a road underneath. Neither does it fill the gaping holes left by years of patching, freezing, patching and underspending on maintenance. Nor does it help the motorcyclists who have fallen ino the gaping chasm never to be seen again. All it does is hide potholes from the vision of motorists, so we can’t tell where they are in time to take avoiding action and give the authorities the ability to say: “but that road was resurfaced last year”. No it wasn’t! It was covered over with a tanker full of wet tar and a bucket of gravel which is now stuck all down the sides of my car.
Come on highways department, sort our roads out or this town is never going to attract any shoppers.
Especially if we do, ever, get a bypass.
Steve Foster
By email