Residents in West Hougham are fed-up with potholes

Residents in West Hougham, near Dover, are fed-up with potholes

Transcript

00:00 There's four roads into the village, but because of the steepness of some of them,

00:05 in bad weather, particularly snow, only one road out of the village is accessible.

00:12 On the occasion when we had snow a couple of years ago, my wife was seriously ill and

00:17 we called the ambulance out and unfortunately they couldn't get to her.

00:22 We ended up with a paramedic fortuitously being given a lift in a tractor by one of

00:29 the local farmers who managed to get to her.

00:32 But they had to send out a 4x4 and a six-wheeled ambulance to be able to get to her and transport

00:39 her in that way.

00:41 And this is just one example really of the problems that occur.

00:47 She was in a wheelchair and daily if we went out in our wheelchair accessible vehicle,

00:55 she would be crying in the back of the car because the potholes were so deep and she

01:00 was bounced around so the pain was unbelievable.

01:04 We drastically and dramatically need something done about it and KCC can't sit on their

01:11 hands any longer.

01:12 They must address this issue as a matter of urgency.

01:16 I joined the pressure group to demonstrate about the lack of action by KCC over the potholes,

01:24 the flooding that's been in the village.

01:27 Every year, annually, it reoccurs and only a temporary solution is made to some of the

01:35 potholes but those potholes open up time after time and we drastically need something done

01:41 before an accident occurs in the village.

01:45 It's been going on for three years at least.

01:48 The state of the roads are appalling.

01:51 There are four ways into the village and they're all blocked for one reason or another.

01:56 The matters have been reported to the highways agency and absolutely nothing has been done

02:01 and basically we've had enough.

02:04 We get the same platitudes time and time again that there's no money, there's a war in Iraq

02:10 and we understand all that, we'll go and find the money.

02:14 Out of all the issues in Kent, the roads is the biggest one.

02:18 Divert your financial resources onto that at the expense of whatever and if you haven't

02:22 got the money, go and whinge to central government like we're whinging to you.

02:26 There's one particular pothole that's over two feet deep.

02:31 It's been reported to KCC, they've done nothing about it.

02:33 I personally, as a parishioner of this village, went along with a cone and placed it in there

02:39 and it was so bad you could only see the top ten inches of the cone.

02:45 It's disgusting and we've had enough.