Huge delay expected to repair Devizes' busiest road sparks anger

Devizes Town Councillors were horrified to hear on Tuesday night that the rut-ridden road will not be repaired before The Queen celebrates her 100th birthday.

And councillors fear the already-crumbling main road will not last that long.

Pothole-pockmarked London Road, Devizes. Photo: Jonathan Hunter.

Wiltshire Council’s road repair priorities were called out by Cllr Jonathan Hunter at a meeting of the town council’s planning committee, when he exposed the shocking details of Wiltshire Council’s highways maintenance programme for the Devizes area.

It also reveals that the nearby villages of Poulshot, Potterne, West Lavington, Market Lavington, Bishops Cannings and Worton won’t get some of their roads resurfaced until 2027.

Cllr Hunter, who has quit the Devizes Conservative councillors to serve as an independent, said: “Whilst the problem is clearly widespread and involves many local roads, I would like to raise a concern in particular about London Road, which needs urgent attention.

"And yet according to the highways update report London Road is not due for resurfacing works until 2025-2026.”

He added: “It is a well-known fact that the Devizes road network is in a very poor condition.

"Many local routes are substandard with scores of dangerous potholes, crumbling road surfaces and some road markings that are barely visible – including the recently-resurfaced Roses roundabout.”

Other councillors shared Cllr Hunter’s fears for the state of London Road.

Cllr Ian Hopkins said: “London Road is only going to get worse, it really needs to be sorted out as a priority.”

Cllr Chris Greenwood deplored the quality of the resurfacing material. He said: “The state of London Road is appalling but often the resurfacing breaks down and has to be done again, it is poor quality. Microsurfacing doesn’t work, it is inadequate, a joke.”

Cllr Hunter called on Cllr Iain Wallis, the town council’s representative on Wiltshire Council, to “bat on a Devizes wicket” and to press for London Road repairs to be made a priority.

Cllr Wallis said that he “shared the frustration of the community” but pointed out that Wiltshire Council would spend £687,000 on Devizes roads this year and by 2027 it will have spent £3.4 million on repairing roads in the area.

"And he revealed that it is Wiltshire Council staff, not its councillors, who have the say on when which roads are done.

He said: “I can assure everyone in this room that Wiltshire councillors lobby hard for their patch all of the time, but it is the highways engineers who make the decisions. We have to allow the officers to set the priorities based on their criteria for safety and urgency.”