Just who owns Exeter's 'pothole road'?
A CITY road is so full of potholes it is wreaking havoc on tyres – but no one seems to know who owns it.
Some local residents believe the road, leading down to Station Yard behind Exeter's Queen Street, has not been repaired since at least 1986.
St David's county councillor Phil Brock thinks it is at least 50 years.
Jubilee Court resident Louise Snell wants it repaired as soon as possible. She said: "I had a brand new tyre on my car and have to buy another one because it has been ruined by a pothole.
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"The man at my garage said that the damage, a two inch slash on the inside wall of the tyre, could only have been made by a pothole.
"This bit of road is the only way in and out to Jubilee Court. All the residents are fed up with it as there are four or five really deep potholes but we can't find out who owns the road.
"The new tyre being ruined was the last straw – every car we have ever owned we have had to get new exhausts for."
John Payne, who owns Eveleigh's Garage in Station Yard, said: "I have lots of my customers who complain about the state of the road.
"It got worse when they were building Richmond Court because of all the heavy lorries that were coming down with materials."
Any time highways are repairing roads in the vicinity Mr Payne asks the workmen if they have any spare surface dressing and if they would just pop it into the largest pothole which is at the top of the road.
He said: "I have also gone to B&Q and bought some myself to put in it. Workmen last week repairing Richmond Road filled the biggest pothole up but it will come out in no time with the cold weather."
Cllr Brock has contacted Devon County Council which is the highways authority and Network Rail and other agencies trying to find out who owns the land, but has so far drawn a blank.
A spokesman for the county council said: "It's a private highway, which means it's not the county council's responsibility. "It's also therefore not maintained at the public's expense, and is the responsibility of whoever owns it.
"We can see that it's private, but our records don't say who owns it. Because it's a private road, it's not inspected by highways inspectors and we don't have any jurisdiction to ask whoever owns the road to fix the potholes."
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