Sheffield Council finally makes good on pledge to repair road near sports centre

Members of the city council’s communities, parks and leisure policy committee voted 5-2 to spend £16,7000 on repairs to Mortomley Close, High Green which leads to Thorncliffe Football Hub.

The committee heard that the council wrote to residents in 2015, ahead of starting work on the football hub, explaining that “we do accept that our construction traffic will increase its wear and tear more than usual, so we will resurface the carriageway once our construction work is complete”.

Ruth Bell, council head of parks and countryside, read out a report on behalf of a sick colleague which said: “At the time of writing to local residents, officers were of the opinion that the road was already in a poor state of repair and that the use by construction traffic was likely to cause further damage.

“However, due to some construction traffic accessing the site from Packhorse Lane and the fact that the proposed removal of soil from the site, did not happen, considerably less construction traffic used Mortomley Close than was first envisaged.“An assessment of the road surface after the redevelopment did not identify further deterioration. For these reasons officers at the time took the decision not to progress the work to resurface Mortomley Close.Unfortunately, there was no communication with residents to advise them of the change to the original plans.

Multiple questions

“This has led to the council receiving multiple questions from a range of sources, including in writing and at a range of public meetings (Cooperative Executive, Full Council, Local Area Committee etc) with residents and local groups expressing frustration about the lack of communication and transparency regarding the decision not to progress with the work.”

The report said that £16,500 of the budget is still left over from the Thorncliffe project.

Ms Bell was unable to explain to Coun Karen McGowan why the issue has remained unresolved for so long. She said that the proposal was to repair sections identified as needing repairs.

Coun Sue Alston said: “We’ve promised to repair a road which is not actually the council’s responsibility to repair as it’s an unadopted road. It could be an issue in other areas.

“Hasn’t any learning taken place from this to make sure we don’t end up in this situation again, where we’re making promises without being clear about the whys and wherefores?”

Coun Marieanne Elliot said: “It is entirely proportionate to decide to not carry out the works. There is no extra damage to the surface and it is an unadopted highway.”

She suggested that the money be used on other council services instead.

‘We did make a promise’

Coun Bernard Little was concerned that the cost could be far higher than anticipated because of the rising price of construction work. He was told that the estimate was recent and believed to be accurate.

He also suggested a site visit.

Coun Paul Wood said: “I accept that we did make a promise. Areas around the sports centre are affected.” He said that could clearly be seen on Google Maps.

“We should do repairs up to the money allocated,” said Coun Woods.

Read this: Christmas bin collection changes

Read this: Popular park cafe set to reopen