Award-winning village left with multiple potholes
BBCResidents of an award-winning Wiltshire village say the main road through it has been damaged due to a traffic diversion.
The B4696 diversion, which has now ended, directed drivers along High Road through the village of Ashton Keynes and has left potholes 3.6metres (12ft) in length.
Local residents told BBC Radio Wiltshire one pothole is nearly 12 inches (30cm) deep, and say it has caused some punctures.
Wiltshire Council confirmed the road was damaged by the diversion route, adding it is seeking compensation from Thames Water so it can be repaired.
Thames Water has been approached for comment.
Campaign to Protect Rural England Wiltshire crowned Aston Keynes as the winner of the best-kept large village competition in 2024.
Mike McMurtry, a local resident, said High Road is now "very badly eroded and corroded".
"It [the diversion] was weeks and they actually finished early but for the duration of those four or five weeks there was very heavy traffic into the village," he said.
"It was a rat run for people going to and from work."
Cath McMurtry, another local resident, said: "We had huge articulated lorries coming through. [We had] dual carriageway traffic coming through the village for weeks.
"It's the verges that have now gone a metre or more back. The road has been widened by all this traffic without any proper kind of sub-surface, so now it's just a series of potholes."
Samantha Howell, Wiltshire Council director of highways and transport, said: "This route was used as a diversion for the nearby Thames Water work and it has been damaged.
"During the past year, we repaired 14,758 potholes following reports from the public and our own inspections, with 89% of top-priority potholes repaired within one day.
"We have also resurfaced, surface dressed and retextured around 114 miles of roads over 154 sites, while our Bobcat machines, which can repair large sections of roads – and several potholes – at once, have repaired more than 7.3 miles of roads across 575 sites."
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