Frustration over ‘huge’ potholes in Bury St Edmunds including Fornham Road at Tollgate Triangle, Station Hill and Mildenhall Road

The state of some roads in Bury St Edmunds has been described as ‘disgraceful’, with calls for one ‘like a patchwork quilt’ to be resurfaced and another to be repaired as an emergency.

Motorists have been venting their frustration over potholes, with Station Hill, the Tollgate Triangle junction and Mildenhall Road being branded as being among the worst in town.

While some defects were tackled by Suffolk Highways earlier in December, the highways reporting tool for the county shows recent reports of ‘huge’ potholes.

The reports reveal numerous cases of damage to cars and people’s concerns over the danger posed to cyclists.

Cllr Diane Hind, who represents Tollgate on West Suffolk Council and is Mayor of the town, said it would be better for Station Hill to be resurfaced, describing it as a ‘patchwork quilt’ of defects and repairs.

And she is in correspondence with county Cllr David Nettleton over the Tollgate junction, which she described as ‘absolutely terrible’ and believes should be an emergency repair.

Cllr Hind said: “It’s disgraceful and sometimes you cannot avoid them [potholes].”

She added: “It’s terrible everywhere and I appreciate the county council have a lot of other things to spend money on, but when you hear they have been given extra money [for the roads], I’m sure it would be more cost effective in the case of Station Hill to resurface it rather than keep patching it.”

In November, the Government announced Suffolk would receive about £108 million over the next decade, including £3.4 million in this financial year, to boost road repairs.

A retired motor trade worker, who wanted to remain anonymous, said Station Hill now looked like a carbon copy of Skyliner Way with ‘potholes that have been either bodged, temporarily fixed or simply missed’. They are also calling for Station Hill to be resurfaced.

A taxi driver who is self-employed with A1 Cars, and wanted to remain anonymous, described the state of some of Bury’s roads as ‘so bad’ and said the cost of repairing the damage to vehicles ate into drivers’ profit.

They said: “Every year I am replacing my front suspension arms as they are damaged by those bad roads and potholes. And that’s not the only damage. I’m talking about drop links, steering rod ends, tyre punctures etc.”

Suffolk Highways, which is part of Suffolk County Council, was approached for comment.