Published: 23 January 2025
Graham Hopkins and David Kearney met on 15 January with Anne Johns and Craig Church from Gloucestershire CC Highways on behalf of Elkstone Parish Council.
The meeting had been arranged to highlight the concerns of many Elkstone residents about the state of the road though the village (the 3/190) and the regular flooding of the underpass at the A417 junction.
The following key points were discussed
- Until at least the start of the new financial year (FY) (April ’25) pothole repairs will continue although more regular monitoring by GCC will be undertaken as it is recognised the route is a diversion for the missing link works.
- GCC highways will design and implement an improved drainage scheme for the Pike Hill dip, which has the most potholes. Following this work the GCC capital team will assess the state of the road from the A417 underpass to High Cross and arrange for full or partial resurfacing, depending on the condition meeting their criteria for such work. This is planned for the 2025/26 FY although no exact date was given. Both works are likely to mean temporary road closures and will need to be coordinated with the A417 missing link work.
- A full survey of the drainage from the underpass will be undertaken shortly to establish what short term works can improve the situation with longer term repairs being passed to a capital ‘highways drainage’ team at GCC. However, it was pointed out that capital drainage repairs tend to prioritise areas where homes are at risk of flooding, which is not the case with the underpass.
- All villagers are encouraged to continue to report potholes or other road dangers on the ‘Fix My Street’ website. The more reports are submitted the greater the chance of meaningful repairs being carried out.
To summarise then, it is unlikely that significant improvements will be seen in the short term, but we can hopefully expect some better-quality repairs in the next 12-14 months.