Villagers fear they are being forgotten about "out in the sticks" as the roads surrounding the village continue to deteriorate. Residents of Hawksworth and neighbouring villages of Thoroton and Scarrington have expressed concern over the state of the roads.
The remote villages rely on a few narrow Nottinghamshire roads to connect them to other villages, towns and the nearby A46, but residents feel the poor quality of the road is deterring visitors from Hawksworth and making it difficult for residents to travel elsewhere.
Retired Sarah Hadfield, 72, of Hawksworth said: "The problem is when they repair these holes they just patch it with a bit of tarmac on the top and then we are back to square one. They don't do it properly as we are out in the sticks.
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"There's one right outside of our house and when we take the dogs out for a walk my husband falls in it." Speaking of the driving conditions on the nearby roads, she added: "If a car is coming the other way you have to pull over and then you could hit one."
Retired Margaret Maddison Von Schomberg, 75, added: "We have lots of cyclists here and its terrible for them. The roads have always been bad here."
Retired Purdy Peter, 79, of Thoroton, is also frustrated with the conditions of the roads. He said: "The road from the A46 to here is suitable for about half a mile. It one of the roughest roads in the country."
He explained he believes the condition of the roads is "the result of regular HGV traffic" as the roads were not built to cope with large heavy goods vehicles. Author John O'Reilly, 73, of Hawksworth, said he is concerned the roads could deter people from visiting the village.
John said: "Three times this year we have had the hall open for people to come around, and yesterday we had 50 ladies come down and they wanted to go for a walk around the village afterwards. It's full of history this place."
He explained that the poor condition of the roads makes it harder for some people to get about, such as walkers and cyclists, but that it could also stop people from visiting the village due to the number of potholes and damaged roads.
Describing the roads, Thoroton resident, Neil Smith, said: "They are sort of falling apart a little bit. This is a very big cycling area.
"In the last year the council have been good and have this new machine that one guy comes with and does the pot holes, but the pot holes just keep coming. All of these roads are old cart tracks and only about 60 to 70 years ago they were metaled."
Retired Nigel Maddison-Rowe, 73, said: "I think in the last 10 years it has got a lot worse. Now there are the heavy vehicles that use the roads as a rat run so you get these heavy vehicles coming up here."
The County Council has stated an increase in potholes is to be expected following the levels of rainfall in recent weeks, and that the winter weather means residents could see an increase in urgent repairs to keep the roads safe. Regarding the potholes near Hawksworth, the council has confirmed that an inspection of the area is being organised.
Councillor Neil Clarke MBE, Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment at Nottinghamshire County Council, said: “Winter conditions always take their toll on highways across Nottinghamshire, but I would like to reassure our residents that we are not alone as an authority in experiencing this. We’re open about the fact that we have seen an increase in the number of pothole reports in recent weeks, but we also want our residents to know that this isn’t unusual at this time of year.
“At the start of December, Nottinghamshire experienced a period of severe cold weather with road temperatures dipping as low as minus seven degrees at times, and it is this coupled with the effects of salt as we grit the network and the exceptional level of rainfall over recent weeks which has caused potholes to form. The RAC said themselves last week that this has been the coldest start to a winter in 12 years and that because of this they have seen a rise in the number of pothole related breakdowns in the last three months of 2022.
“With over 3,000 miles of roads to maintain in Nottinghamshire, we’re doing all that we can to take action following the bad weather and our teams are working hard to keep up with repairs. We know that potholes are of great concern to local residents and that is why over the last 18 months as part of our Highways Services Review, we have increased the productivity of our repair teams by over 100% and have moved to a right first-time approach, decreasing short term pothole repairs by 61%.
He added: "We ask residents and road users to bear with us as they will likely see an increase in emergency repairs as we keep roads safe through the winter until larger scale permanent repairs can be made, however we’ll still be undertaking permanent repairs wherever we can and are continuing with our large-scale patch repairs, as part of our four-year programme. I would like to thank Nottinghamshire residents for reporting potholes to us and I would like to ask that they continue to do so either through our website or the My Notts App."
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