Residents mock council with sign saying road will 'break your vehicles and your soul'

Irate motorists so fed up of the crumbling roads in their village have erected a road sign warning drivers its potholes will “break your vehicles - and your soul”.

Residents in Wrenbury-cum-Frith have even changed the village's welcome sign to rename it 'Wrenbury-cum-pothole' after being driven mad by a 200m road with 174 potholes on it.

They say the problems with Station Road, a main thoroughfare leading into the Cheshire village, began around five years ago.

And while Cheshire East Council promised to repair it, residents say they’ve been "fobbed off" by the skint local authority as the issue worsens to the point they say it's like something from 'a third world country'.

Lauren Ridgway, a mum in her 40s, said it was "diabolical" that the road in the village, which she has called home 12 years, was barely "car-worthy".

She fumed: “Everybody has just got really humorous about it now because it’s beyond a joke.

“It’s absolutely horrendous. It’s been going on for years. What started off as a couple of potholes here and there is just a massive stretch now.

“It’s like a third-world country, but I think third-world country roads would actually be better. We’ve got farm tracks that are in better condition than that road.

“We have to pay road tax, our cars have to be roadworthy, but yet our roads are not car-worthy. It’s diabolical.

“You used to be able to weave around them. You can’t even do that anymore because the potholes are joined up, and they are quite deep.

“They have promised us that work is going to start in April. But I don't know whether that will actually happen any more - bearing in mind Cheshire East Council, we’re told, has gone bankrupt.”

Rob Cooper, 42, who owns local garage RC Autos in the village said the number of motorists needing repairs for damaged tyres had increased dramatically.

And although he was seeing a bump in business, he also said regular customers were put off from coming to see him as they were reluctant to drive on the crater-hit road.

He said: “I’m doing no end in blowouts and tyres that have been pinched by potholes. It’s just endless.

“I would normally do three of four tyres every couple of weeks. At the minute, I’m doing three or four tyres a day. It's massive, it’s crazy, really.

“I’m actually losing a few customers because they are not coming over that road.

“It’s quite unfair, really, because I’m only a small business, I need that repeat business to come in… Everybody in the village is sick of it.

In 2022, a frustrated local resident installed a 'swear box' on the road, writing "In aid of Cheshire East", which began the trend of poking fun at its poor condition.

And last year, a local councillor said the whole village had 'had enough' of the road, branding it 'like the surface of the moon'.

Rob said he appreciated the work of the mystery sign maker who had once again made a funny attempt to bring their plight to attention.