A Cwmbran road in poor condition could be resurfaced and adopted by the council.
Brook Street in Pontrhydyrun is classed as ‘unadopted’. This means it doesn’t come under the ownership of Torfaen Council so they don’t have any responsibility for its repair and maintenance.
A report has gone Councillor Mandy Owen, executive member for environment, ready for a meeting on Friday 2 July 2021. She will be asked to make a decision on:
To seek approval for the making up of Brook Street Pontnewydd to an adoptable standard and that following completion of works Brook Street will become highway maintainable at public expense.
If the report is approved residents will be consulted on the details of the work that will take place.
In his report Paul Wheeldon, group leader, highway development control, said: “There has been a significant amount of correspondence from Local Members, Senedd Members and residents of Brook Street over many years about the deteriorating condition of Brook Street. The street is in need of significant remedial work that will bring the most benefit to residents and allotment users.”
A £194,000 grant application was made to the Welsh Government in February 2021 and the council was told it had been approved on 14 April 2021.
Andrew Bowen has lived on Brook Street since 2018. He said: “It was really bad when I bought the house here, but obviously when I bought the house I knew the road was bad but it’s got worse and worse. Since then it’s had some tarmac put down but within a month of that it’s started wearing and now the holes are deeper than they originally were with the second-hand tarmac over there.
“The bottoms of cars are just scraping really bad. A couple of neighbours had to come out in the week and we had to get poles etc to smash these humps down to stop our cars dragging on the bottom.
“I’ve had the front drive shaft go on mine and the back drive shaft. It’s not good at all here.”
He said it would be “absolutely brilliant” if the work could be done to bring it the road up standard before being adopted.
“It would be nice if they did have some money for it because it’s absolutely diabolical. I’ve lived in Cwmbran all my life and it’s got to be one of the worst roads I’ve ever seen in Cwmbran and dangerous as well. I saw someone come up here on a bike a couple of weeks ago and how he didn’t come off I don’t know. He just managed to keep his balance. He was going fast as well. He would have hurt himself but he was very, very lucky.”
