Could this be Preston's worst road for potholes?

Yet a month after a national cycling charity reported the road as a major hazard, County Hall bosses have so far failed to act.

City Coun Anis Faruki, whose St George’s Ward includes the eastern side of the city’s heavily used ring road, insists the stretch is so bad it should go straight to the top of the LCC priority list for re-surfacing.

“That patch is in a bad state,” he said. “It is one of the main and busy roads of Preston.

“I believe that it should be made a priority for re-surfacing taking into account the very limited resources highways have due to unfair cuts from the Government.” ​

The state of the carriageway, which runs in front of the Rock FM radio station from the North Road junction down to the prison, has been a major cause for concern amongst motorists and cyclists for some time.

But with the County Council inundated with calls from angry road users across Lancashire over the poor state of the authority’s highways following the floods and the recent icy weather, workmen have been fighting a losing battle responding to all the requests for repairs.

One driver, who uses Ringway ever day to get to and from work in the city centre, called the Evening Post to say: “It is absolutely horrendous. There is a deep channel running down the middle of the carriageway, along with numerous other potholes.

“I know the roads are pretty bad all over the county at the moment after the winter we’ve had. But I don’t think I’ve seen one as bad as this stretch.

“It’s the length of the damaged road that is the problem. Once your on it you can’t get off it. It can’t be safe.”

Cyclists using the road, which is part of a cycleway in and out of the city, have raised so many concerns about safety that the national cycle charity CTC logged a complaint with LCC on February 15 through the website FillThatHole.org.uk.

But with Lancashire only rated 79th out of 214 councils in England and Wales when it comes to repairing potholes, the Ringway troublespot is amongst more than 2,000 still waiting to be tackled, according to CTC.

A second city councillor, Salim Desai, who represents the Town Centre Ward which borders Ringway, also called on the highways authority to make the road a top priority in view of the weight of traffic using it every day.

“I know Lancashire County Council are having budget issues,” he said. “But things like this are not planned resurfacing works which can be delayed, they are every day faults which are ongoing and there should be finance there to sort them out.

“It needs doing urgently, with it being a key road. Repairs should be a priority. Safety of road users is a priority issue and, if there is a safety concern, like there is here, it needs to be done.

“If this section of road is on a list at County Hall then it needs to be moved up that list and completed as soon as possible.”

Phil Durnell, head of highways for Lancashire County Council, said: “We’re aware of the condition of the road along this section of Ringway. We are currently exploring options available to carry out repair work at this location and in the meantime we will continue to check the condition of this section as part of our usual maintenance programme.

“We wish to reassure our road users that whilst the road is not very aesthetically pleasing, it is structurally safe.”