Residents furious as local pavements in 'terrible disrepair' at St Anthony's Close

These pavements create a danger to those with mobility impairments, and to everyone who walks on them because they are uneven and overgrown.

One residents son even fell of his scooter while travelling on the road, leading to injuries.

However the Council have said the repairs are not a priority.

The group of residents campaigning for repairs are spearheaded by local councillors Steven Lambert and Mike Smith who is also Aylesbury Town Mayor.

Speaking to the Bucks Herald, Mike said: "Myself and Cllr Steven Lambert have been trying to get Bucks CC to do repairs since the summer of 2018, but amazingly BCC continually claim the pavements aren’t bad enough to need it.

"If you take a look I’m sure you’ll be as stunned as we were that BCC could possibly think that.

"You can see the photos for yourself and make a decision."

The pavements in question are on St Anthony's Close in Aylesbury, outside of houses numbered 21 to 31.

They are used by hundreds of primary age school children who travel to Bearbrook School via the network of back alleys running through the estate.

They do this to avoid the very busy Fowler Road for their safety.

Mr Smith continued: "When the local Cllrs first complained, BCC told us they were going to do some repairs – then a few days later all they was put a very shoddy and lumpy bit of “patching” on one small strip only, completely ignoring the rest.

"This bit of work by the contractors was actually so poor that when shown a photo of it that I had taken, BCC did get the contractor back in to re-do this.

"Surely a proper replacement of the whole surface that will last for years is going to be much better value for money than continually incurring costs in coming back to do a bit at a time."

The rest of this section of pavement includes large patches with literally no tarmac remaining, others where huge clumps of large weeds are growing up through it and breaking it up.

Councillor Mike Smith said that the money being saved by the 'new unitary council' should be invested in local issues, as there should be more money available to fix local issues like the above.

He added: "It would be great to see local people getting a return for eh council tax they pay.

"For the new Buckinghamshire Council, maybe to get off on the best footing in the public eye, the new Council should make a commitment to quickly address issues like this one?

"Or even better, maybe the existing Bucks CC could get it done before April, to 'go out' on a positive note with our local residents?"

Responding to this story, Transport for Buckinghamshire said:

"Transport for Buckinghamshire (TfB) maintains 2,500km of footway across the county.

"Each year, we receive enough funding to complete between 20 and 30 full footway resurfacing schemes.

"Often, this means that keeping a footway open and safe by carrying out patching work, is all we can do until the footway can be added to a programme of works to be completely resurfaced.

"There is a long list of footways in Aylesbury that require resurfacing.

"This list was presented at our Members meeting and no concerns were raised with regards to St Anthony’s Close, Aylesbury.

"When determining which footways need resurfacing, we take a number of factors into consideration, including number of complaints from the public, asset condition, foot fall and defects filled.

"The defects on St Anthony’s Close, Aylesbury, are approximately 5mm in depth, which falls below our immediate intervention levels.

"As a result, other footways with more severe defects have to take priority on our programme."