Residents' fury over West Berkshire tarmac 'debacle'

AN experimental new tarmacking material trialled in West Berkshire has caused uproar.

One town mayor has said: "I've never seen anything so disgraceful in my entire life."

And residents claim the uneven surface, apparently poured straight onto street debris, is already cracking up with weeds growing through just days after being laid.

The Newbury Weekly News has learned that the offending tarmacking has been laid using a new material that combines micro asphalt and slurry sealing, which reportedly saves on material.

The results, on several roads in Newbury and Hungerford, have been described as "shocking".

Last week this paper revealed how Hungerford mayor Helen Simpson told town council colleagues: "These are services which West Berkshire Council has paid for – it's just atrocious.

"They've poured tarmac over leaves and branches and left bare patches.

"I've never seen anything so disgraceful in my entire life.

"I'm shocked."

Since our initial report, readers have expressed similar views.

Helen Muir said: "The pavements on Digby Road in Newbury were resurfaced a few weeks ago.

"The surfaces are incredibly uneven – grass and weeds have been tarmacked over and it's already crumbling and cracking, leaving the area unkempt and unsafe."

Another Newbury resident, Stefan Mason, said: "We have exactly the same in Montgomery Road – grass is coming through already.

"It looks awful and it's a complete botch job."

Also affected are Coldharbour Road, Clarks Gardens and Bulpit Lane in Hungerford.

Charmaine Puffett said: "Clarks Gardens is now worse than ever...everyone is afraid to walk on the paths and feels safer on the road.

"Coldharbour Road is just as bad; anyone with any common sense would know that holes and uneven surfaces should have been filled before the top coat was put down."

Sarah Hayter from Hungerford added: "The pavements melt in the sun and grass is growing through already – what a debacle."

The NWN has learned that VolkerHighways laid 32,000sqm of the new material across four sites in West Berkshire, where it has a seven-year highways maintenance contract with West Berkshire Council.

The company boasts that, as the new material is more open-textured, "it allows grout to penetrate through the material..this means less raw material is required, and leads to a saving of approximately 40 tonnes of material".

Following our enquiries, the district council issued the following statement: "West Berkshire Council has been working with its contractor in recent days to address complaints from residents about the standard of pavement resurfacing.

"Over the past couple of weeks several residents have written to the council to highlight problems with the finish of several pavements which have recently been resurfaced.

"The council has been working with its long-standing partner VolkerHighways to raise the issue and understand why it happened, and to arrange for the work to be redone.

"As a result, the work will be redone at no expense to the taxpayer."

Operations director at VolkerHighways, Kunle Kolaru, said the new material was designed to reduce the district council's carbon footprint.

He added: "Unfortunately, while the majority of the programme was completed with no issues, in certain locations and in some instances the work that we carried out fell short of our usual high standard.

"We are aware of the issues and have already scheduled our specialist contractor to revisit the site to carry out remedial work, which will not be at the expense of the council.

"We apologise for any disruption that this return visit will cause to local residents whilst we work in their locality."

West Berkshire Council's executive member for planning, transport and the countryside, Richard Somner (Con, Tilehurst South and Holybrook) said: "VolkerHighways consistently do a great job supporting our road and pavement resurfacing programme.

"It was disappointing to receive complaints from our residents because it's unusual for problems such as this to arise.

"I’m grateful to VolkerHighways for looking speedily into the issue for us and taking action to resolve it and I look forward to the successful completion of the corrective works."