Calls for council to tackle dangerous potholes

Highways bosses in Northumberland have been urged to do more to protect the public after a cyclist “somersaulted” her off her bike after hitting a pothole.
The giant pothole which caused Emma to come off her bike.The giant pothole which caused Emma to come off her bike.
The giant pothole which caused Emma to come off her bike.

The accident happened in Longramlington. The hole was around six inches deep but was missed by Carlton Reid’s son’s partner, Emma, as it was full of rainwater.

Mr Reid, a Newcastle-based journalist, rushed to the scene after the accident happened, and was relived to discover Emma had not been seriously hurt.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

She was lucky to escape with cuts and bruises but her bike was “a write-off”, prompting questions for county bosses trying to promote cycling.

“I’d like the council to fix the roads, but I recognise it is starved of funds by the Government, so this is tough,” said Mr Reid, a keen cyclist himself.

“The Government should be spending the road-building money on fixing what we’ve got, rather than, in the words of the PM, spaffing it up the wall.”

According to Mr Reid, the group of four “experienced riders” were on Villa Lane, when Emma, girlfriend of his son, Josh, was “somersaulted from her bike” when she hit the giant hole.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

A pair of passing doctors stopped to help and helped them to the nearby Village Inn pub, where she was given a “cup of tea and a comfy chair” while they waited for paramedics to check her over.

A North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) spokesman said: “We were called to reports of an injured cyclist on Front Street, Longframlington, at 11.49am on 22 August.

“We dispatched one of our community paramedics and an ambulance crew, and transported the patient to Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital.”

In March last year the Government announced plans to spend £500m a year filling potholes, on top of wider plans for 4,000 miles of new road worth £27billion.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Reid added he had reported the pothole to Northumberland County Council (NCC), which assured him an engineer would be dispatched to assess the road.

Following this, a spokesman for NCC wished Emma a speedy recovery and urged anyone who spots a pothole to report it.

He added: “We have now received a report identifying the location of this particular pothole and we are taking urgent action to make the necessary repairs.”