The long 'ongoing saga' of Spalding's Pinchbeck Road
Motorists have endured about 200 sets of roadworks and closures on one key route in to Spalding town centre in the last decade.
Figures released to the Lincolnshire Free Press under the Freedom of Information act show 199 instances of works carried out to Pinchbeck Road between the start of 2011 and the beginning of this year.
Gan Seta, general manager of the Woodlands Hotel - which is based on the road - said: “It’s a nuisance - it does cause traffic jams and it’s affected me.
“It’s been going on for 10 years, I am not sure why they haven’t resolved it by now. It’s an ongoing saga. I am surprised they haven’t got to the bottom of it.”
The road suffers from problems with the sewerage system, soft sediment underneath the surface which sinks into dips and bumps and the sheer volume of traffic - with shoppers, commuters, buses and lorries all using it.
Coun Gary Taylor, who lives around the corner in West Elloe Avenue and represents the area on the district council, said: “When there are traffic lights on Pinchbeck Road it does put pressure on the whole town.
“There are problems with different parts of the roads at different times and for different reasons.
“It’s a fact of life - particularly as we come out of lockdown - that there’s more pressure on the road.
“If you need to access the town centre, that’s the road.”
All 199 instances relate to the one-mile stretch between the junction with New Road and the bridge over the Vernatt’s Drain, where it turns into Spalding Road. Of those, 63 relate to work carried out by Anglian Water.
There were 350 sets of works and closures in total - with some dates seeing several works carried out in one go.
'Let's have some forward thinking'
Frustrated residents are calling on the authorities to be proactive to fix Pinchbeck Road’s problems for good.
Rodney and Elizabeth Britten have lived in Castlefields – off Pinchbeck Road – for 35 years and say there have been missed opportunities over the decades to reshape the town’s road network to take the pressure off the street.
Housing developments have gone up over land that could’ve been used for new roads – and have also added traffic demand onto the street.
Mr Britten said: “There’s no forward thinking or forward planning at all. They wait until it falls to bits and then try to put it back together again.”
Today we have revealed figures that demonstrate the scale of the issue in Pinchbeck Road – with 199 instances of works or closures in the last decade.
While a handful relate to closures for events – such as the Flower Parade or a Santa Fun Run – there were 63 cases for Anglian Water and many for electricity works and BT.
Smaller scale works – including pothole repairs, tree pruning and ‘signing and lining’ are also included.
Issues with the sewer system and the soft sediment under the road surface still persist, meaning that no end is in sight for the cycle of works.
The problems plaguing Pinchbeck Road have also been echoed in Park Road and Halmergate too.
Mr Britten added: “You just grin and bear it don’t you? There are other parts of the town affected in the same way. Where do you go in Spalding where there are no roadworks?”
He believes that the district and county council need to
invest in the town and its infrastructure.
Mr Britten said: “They brag about us having the lowest council tax in the country, more or less, but you pay peanuts and get monkeys.
“I just feel all the time as though South Holland is bottom of the list as far as the county council is concerned.”
Coun Gary Taylor represents the Pinchbeck Road area on the district authority and has just been elected to the county council – which is responsible for highways matters – for the neighbouring Spalding South division.
He said: “I am lobbying for increased highways investment in Spalding and South Holland.”
Coun Taylor hopes that the new Spalding Western Relief Road – currently being built – could eventually help to ease the pressure on Pinchbeck Road.
He said: “We want to encourage the economy and the wellbeing of businesses but if it’s unnecessary to come into the town then traffic can be diverted on the bypass. It would help.”
He also said there’s ‘room for improvement’ when it comes to scheduling works by different bodies at the same time.
Jackie Stanberry, who runs The Ropewalk B&B in Pinchbeck Road, said the closures do not impact on her or her business too much. She said: “It looks like it’s going to happen again soon because the bumps are getting worse.
“I think you do learn to live with it. I think it probably affects people living around as much as people living in Pinchbeck Road.”
A county council spokesman said: “The county council highways works we’ve seen on Pinchbeck Road over the past decade we would expect to see on any major urban road, including routine gully cleansing and drain cleaning, tree pruning, signing and lining works, footpath repairs and pothole filling.”
Water board says it tries to ease disruption
Water board chiefs say they do try to avoid disruption at Spalding’s Pinchbeck Road.
Anglian Water is responsible for about 63 instances of the 199 works on the key route in the last decade.
An Anglian Water spokesman said: “Our teams working in Spalding have successfully completed repairs on a number of sewer collapses on Pinchbeck Road over the last few years. We have also worked closely with the local council and highways team on several occasions to investigate subsidence in the road to ensure our assets are still working as they should.
“The nature of the job we do, the location of our vast pipe network and the need to dig underground to access it, means some disruption is unfortunately unavoidable.
“It’s also essential to respond rapidly to keep toilets flushing and taps flowing. We always aim to piggy-back on other ongoing jobs and work closely with the local highways team so that they can coordinate this and we can keep disruption to minimum.”