Little Lever & Darcy Lever UKIP Blog: Darcy Lever

Darcy Lever residents are incensed by the state of one of their roads – Lower Darcy St – which has to be used daily by motorists and pedestrians to reach their homes in Clayton St, Clayton Ave, Leaf St and Higher Darcy St.

This stretch of road contains numerous pot holes which are a danger to pedestrians and cause damage to vehicles. The further damage to the road surface is caused principally by the only HGV’s to use the road – ie Bolton Council bin lorries.

Previous representations to the Council have only resulted in them being fobbed off on the basis that the road is ‘un-adopted’ and its maintenance is nothing to do with the Council.

This subject took up a large part of the Area Forum Meeting at St Stephens on Monday 3^rd February.

The result was an article in the Bolton News which I reproduce below.

Darcy Lever potholes are dangerous, say residents

POTHOLES on a Darcy Lever street are a threat to people's safety, argued residents at an area forum meeting.

At the Little Lever and Darcy Lever Area Forum, residents described the bottom end of Lower Darcy Street, which is off Radcliffe Road, as 'dangerous' and 'absolute chaos'.

Lower Darcy Street is the only access point for residents of Leaf Street, Clayton Street and Clayton Avenue.

John Connor, aged 69, of Higher Darcy Street, which runs alongside Lower Darcy Street, said at the meeting: "There's quite literally a big hole in community safety. It's absolute chaos down there."

Alan Gaskell, aged 66, of Clayton Street, added: "These potholes are very dangerous. Something needs to be done."

According to Mr Connor and other residents, the council say they cannot repair the potholes because Lower Darcy Street is an unadopted road.

Other issues to be discussed at the meeting were the building of a new cycleway in Radcliffe Road, along with community safety and the area forum budget.

The meeting, which was held on Monday night at St Stephen and All Martyrs Primary School in Radcliffe Road, was attended by just under 50 people.

This article produced the following comment:-

AdeleTeresa says...

I agree. I lived on Leaf St 10 years ago and my daughter fell when she was 5. She cut all her knees and elbows because of potholes and a raised manhole. We had to walk as I didn't drive then. Had a 2 year old in his pram and shopping bags. I complained and even got a solicitor involved but couldn't take them to court because BMBC claimed it wasn't their responsibility as it's unadopted and used to belong to the railway. The following week the council were fixing the holes around the manhole! They even provide the street lights.

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Councillor Anthony Connell said the maintenance of an unadopted road was the responsibility of the residents. He was somewhat taken aback when informed that there were no houses on that road.

He then suggested that the residents should discover the ownership of the land and direct their complaints to them.

On the residents behalf, I then contacted the Land Registry only to discover that the owners of the land, known as 'Land at Raikes Clough', was in fact ----- wait for it --------Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council

The Title Register states the following:-

Title Number : GM328403

This title is dealt with by Land Registry, Fylde Office.

The following extract contains information taken from the register of the above title number. A full copy of the register accompanies this document and you should read that in order to be sure that these brief details are complete.

Neither this extract nor the full copy is an 'Official Copy' of the register. An official copy of the register is admissible in evidence in a court to the same extent as the original. A person is entitled to be indemnified by the registrar if he or she suffers loss by reason of a mistake in an official copy.

This extract shows information current on 5 FEB 2014 at 13:03:42 and so does not take account of any application made after that time even if pending in the Land Registry when this extract was issued.

Title Number : GM328403

Address of Property : land at Raikes Clough, Croal Valley

Price Stated : Not Available

Registered Owner(s) : THE BOROUGH COUNCIL OF BOLTON of Town Hall, Bolton BL1 1RU.

Lender(s) : None

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Today, Saturday 8^th February, residents met with a representative of the Bolton News at the site and they are confident that the newspaper will do a follow up article.

Here are some pictures I took which illustrate the problem