Plea for cracked footpath to be fixed after child fell and broke his nose

A plea had been issued for a battered pavement to be resurfaced after a child tripped and broke his nose – 14 months after concerns over the state of the path were first reported.

Bridgnorth councillor Julia Buckley put the request to Shropshire Council’s highways chief at a full council meeting on Thursday, presenting photos of the pavement on Queensway Drive showing a patchwork of defects and cracks.

Councillor Richard Marshall, portfolio holder for highways, said work had already been carried out on part of the stretch of pavement and assured Councillor Buckley that more work was scheduled.

Councillor Buckley, leader of the council’s Labour group, was highlighting the footpath as one example of a string of highways issues across the town which she said were not being acted upon quickly enough once reported.

She said the “level of disrepair” was “pretty significant” in Bridgnorth, especially since the closure of the town’s highways depot in 2021.

Councillor Buckley said: “This particular one in Queensway Drive has been waiting 14 months.

“I get so many residents raising it. One resident in particular is a childminder with a double buggy and one of her children tripped on this footpath and broke his nose.

“She made a formal complaint to this council but she has still not heard back after 10 weeks.

“My question to the cabinet member is why do you think this is good enough for Bridgnorth?”

Councillor Marshall responded: “This week alone some work has been carried out on Queensway Drive where the drainage has been replaced, which had been creating a lot of the problems with the water ingress that’s been lifting the tarmac.

“We also had the BT cover replaced and repaired, so work has started.”

He said there were some “technical issues” to resolve before the road closure could be booked for the rest of the pavement to be fixed, due to the path being near a school and having a number of road crossings.

Councillor Marshall added: “There is always this thing that we forget Bridgnorth, but we really don’t forget Bridgnorth at all. It takes as much priority as any other part of the county.”

Ahead of the meeting, a members’ question submitted by Councillor Buckley highlighted a list of reported highways defects which had been waiting for repairs for months and even years, despite the council recording an average of 36 days to carry out work.

She asked: “Could the cabinet member for highways explain why Bridgnorth highways repairs appear to be subject to longer delays than the Shropshire average?”

In response, Councillor Marshall said the average time for repairs in Bridgnorth was in fact better than the county average, at 34 days, so, “any links to lower levels of service being experienced by Bridgnorth residents are not supported by the data”.