16 Oct 2024
Potholes in Park Street are plaguing residents trying to navigate ongoing road closures.
The main route through the village – the A5183 – has been shut since August for drainage works, which have overrun beyond the initial six weeks and are now expected to conclude later this month.
The official diversion route is via the A414, A1081 and Harper Lane, but this is a convoluted diversion on already busy roads, so many vehicles have been using Smug Oak Lane as an alternative.
This includes the 601 bus, as well as many haulage vehicles serving the surrounding area, despite the narrow road being unsuitable for heavy traffic.
Frogmore resident Susie Taylor said: “Residents in Frogmore have to use Smug Oak Lane to get out but it is developing loads of potholes. Buses, lorries and vans are using it and there’s way too much traffic on this inappropriate road.
“The edge of the road at the top of Park Street Lane near the M25 bridge is also breaking up as it’s too narrow for buses and lorries to pass.
“I refuse to use Smug Oak and Park Street Lane in the dark as it’s too dangerous – these roads are unlit, have no markings and are too narrow for all the traffic.
“It highlights everything campaign group Save St Albans: Fight the Freight has been saying about lorries always using the fastest route.”
Villager Donna Myerthall said: “This work has been going on since August and the disruption to local people is totally unacceptable with weeks of work still to be done.
“Anyone from the village travelling towards or back from Radlett has to use Smug Oak Lane to get on to Park Street, and in rush hour it’s solid from one end to the other every day now.
“The worst issue is at night when it’s dark. The road is riddled with potholes, especially at the edges and there are no street lights. Driving along there in the dark is dangerous, especially as lorries and large vehicles are using it and this makes it difficult to avoid the ditches.
“It’s an absolutely shocking situation and is endangering people’s lives now.
“Can they not work 24 hours to get it finished? This is a major road artery in the city and it needs to be open ASAP.”
Carol Hardy had to take evasive action to avoid a collision with two fast-speeding lorries, with the incident captured on her dashcam [main photo]: “These two lorries were travelling fast and straddling the white line. The car cam shows me breaking hard and pulling off the road to avoid the first one. I actually screamed.
“If anyone can identify the haulage company I’d be interested. I was too busy trying to get out of the way.”
Another local resident Andy Love said: “I’ve just used Smug Oak Lane this morning to drive to Elstree and back. From Bricket Wood to Frogmore is not bad but on the other side of the road, coming back into Bricket Wood, there are a lot of deep potholes close to the edge of the road.
“Probably at night they could be dangerous and likely to damage the car should you hit one. I’ve checked online using Hertfordshire Highways’ fault reporter application and there are many reported by residents/motorists waiting to be done.
“I suppose with this being used as a diversion route the road is being used by many more vehicles than would normally be the case and probably larger vehicles too. I suspect Highways will say that until the drainage works are finished in Park Street, they won’t be able to deal with all the potholes.”
A homeowner who asked not to be named said: “I live in Park Street Lane and have to go on the diversion to work every day – three times I have been forced off the road by heavy lorries not in their own lane and speeding, once by a double decker bus.
“I have been beeped at so many times just trying to get off my driveway, so I now leave three hours earlier in the mornings as my job has allowed me to change my start time now whilst this is all going on as I was so stressed coming in on my contracted time. Then when I go home, if I have to wait to get on my driveway due to the speeding cars coming towards me, I then get beeped again.
“Potholes, where do I start, these are so very dangerous, I was driving behind a lorry last week and saw the Tarmac come out of the pothole and flick up, if anyone walking past this could have hit them, the lorry driver was none the wiser of this. When it rains, as we all know it’s been a bad couple of weeks with the rain, the potholes fill up and when you can see how deep they are, you are going to do some terrible damage to your car.
“I went for a walk on Sunday to have a good look at the roads and it’s sad as they are starting to look so shabby now, the area has come down so much, we moved there many years ago and are getting our property valued to move as it seems to be a constant problem.”
Resident Matthew Chase said: “I think treacherous sums it up. I have to use this route daily for commuting and the volume of traffic, including HGVs and double decker buses, leads to tailbacks at either end of the road from 7.30am, which whilst annoying is not in itself dangerous. The same cannot be said for deterioration of the road surface which is worsening on a daily basis. The dozens of potholes that have appeared as the road crumbles are of such size that they necessitate crossing into the oncoming lane to avoid them, which is an accident waiting to happen.
“I fear those on two wheels, as nights draw in and potholes fill with water the danger will not be detectable until it is too late.”
Park Street ward Cllr Terri Smith is urging residents to send her photos of the lorries using the road: “The police have specifically asked for evidence and they have promised to investigate. They are also looking at doing a sit and monitor on site.”
Send your photos to cllr.t.smith@councillor.stalbans.gov.uk
A spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council said: “We will soon be undertaking extensive patching to improve the road surface on Smug Oak Lane, and we hope to complete this work by the end of the year.
“We don’t currently have any plans to resurface Park Street Lane, but we would encourage residents to report any issues with the road to us at www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/highwayfaults so we have an accurate picture of any problems. While we may not be able to fix issues straight away we can use the information to plan our future work programmes.”
