A monster pothole has claimed several victims in an Oxfordshire town after people tripped on it, some of them twice.
Potholes and uneven road surfaces are usually the enemy number one for drivers and cyclists, but in Farringdon, Oxfordshire, one spot became infamous for catching pedestrians out.
The hole became a bugbear for the residents after at least six people reportedly tripped on it in the middle of the road on Market Place.
CCTV footage shows a dog walker faceplanting on the concrete after getting his foot caught on the bump outside The Old Crown Coaching Inn, while another man had two painful-looking falls back to back.
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The pub’s landlord, Seb Evans, raised the alarm after multiple falls on the dent in the heart of the town.
He claimed one local was so badly hurt they needed a walking stick for months after a fall.
After a wave of complaints, Oxfordshire County Council fixed the road.
But the repairs have been accused of being ‘shoddy.’
Mr Evans said: ‘There have been at least six people who have come in and complained about falling in the road. Some people have even fallen over twice.
‘Even one of our local councillors fell over around a year ago. She reported it to the local and county councils, but nothing was done about it.
‘Elderly people have fallen, and it was only a matter of time before someone broke their hip or something.
‘One of our locals was really badly injured – he needed a walking stick to get around. It affected him quite badly for a number of months.
‘It’s at the bus stop and the weight of the buses must have moved the surface of the road around.
‘There’s also some water pipes and drainage underneath that have collapsed.
‘All of these temporary fixes had destroyed the road surface and created a massive bulge.
‘It was like that for a year and a half, but the six we’ve seen have only been in the past six months.’
Mr Evans claimed the workers fixing the surface did a ‘shoddy job’ and the road now looks worse, which the council denied.
Pothole damage on the rise
The RAC, the motoring expert known for its breakdown service, said there were 9% more call-outs linked to poor road surfaces between April and June compared to last year.
It said the challenging road conditions were due to cold winter weather worsening potholes as water gets in the cracks before freezing and expanding the holes.
The government has earmarked almost £1.6 billion for local roads repairs – £500 million more than in the previous year.
The publican claimed: ‘It looks really ugly. They’ve managed to make the place look even worse.
‘They’ve done a pretty shoddy job. It’s just shoddy workmanship. They have taken away the concrete and [filled it].
‘They have done stuff like this in the past and things reappear really quickly.
‘Since they have fixed it, it’s currently holding, but we will see if it will continue to.’
A spokesperson for Oxfordshire County Council told Metro: ‘The surface was resurfaced and rolled properly, according to the prescribed specification to a recognised industry practice. The surface will soon tidy itself up with wear as the new tarmac weathers down from black to grey.’
Potholes are infuriating people across the UK as the cost of repairing them has soared for councils.
Repairing all potholes would cost a whopping £17 billion – and take more than a decade to complete.
While potholes can cause serious injury and even kill, people in pothole-riddled areas have resorted to dark humour to help them bear the situation.
In one Hertfordshire village, a cheeky sign appeared telling people to ‘tighten your pants’ and ‘adjust bra straps’ on the ‘free village pothole experience.’
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