A SOUTHAMPTON resident has vowed to make “Southampton City Council’s lack of awareness of cyclist safety very much apparent” should there be an accident near to recent roadworks.
Northlands Road resident John Wooler contacted representatives on Thursday in relation to now-completed work done to fill in a pot-hole near to the junction of Northlands Road and Hulse Road in a bid to have the resurfacing extended
Mr Wooler said: “The [resurfaced] patch has left an area of severely rutted tarmac immediately adjacent to the pavement boundary where cyclists would normally be expected to ride. When faced with such a damaged area cyclists will tend to use a smoother surface, and this will be the newly laid tarmac, closer to the middle of the westbound lane, and into the path of road vehicles.”
Mr Wooler described leaving this section as ‘dangerous’ to cyclists and ‘short-sighted’ in terms of costs - believing further repairs to be ‘inevitable.’
He raised the issue with a representative of Southampton City Council leader Christopher Hammond and contractors Balfour Beatty when work was ongoing, but he said he was informed by a spokesperson for Balfour Beatty that the additional section did not meet the council’s “intervention criteria.”
In response to enquiries from The Echo, a spokesperson for Southampton City Council said: “In the case of Northlands Road...while we did not extend our repairs further due to considerations of cost and specific deterioration, we did in fact repair a wider area than that which was originally planned. The area next to where the repairs have been carried out, whilst not ideal, is not breaking up or in any such condition that would warrant road users needing to proactively avoid this particular section of road.”
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