Islington residents have expressed concern this week over several alleged injuries and vehicle damage due to the deep potholes on Liverpool Road in Barnsbury.
Nakisha Nicholls, from Canonbury, said she crashed her bike after swerving into one pothole while trying to avoid another, bruising her coccyx bone in the crash.
“The bruising is very painful,” she said. “These potholes are obvious for all to see but are increasingly getting worse.”
“I try to stay off the main road as much as possible to reduce anxiety, but potholes are inevitable on most roads in Islington,” she added.
One resident of Upper Street, who drives a wheelchair accessible vehicle for her disabled son and who asked to be anonymous, said she was afraid to drive down Liverpool Road.
“Liverpool Road is a nightmare with all the dangerously deep potholes,” she said. “If I go into one of them, I am not only left with a burst tyre, but my son is stuck in the car.”
“It is like driving a dodgem car at the fairground,” she added.
Islington Council is responsible for upkeep of the road and has encouraged residents to report potholes on the LoveCleanStreets app since 2015.
The app had 27 independent pothole reports filed for Liverpool Road in the last 30 days which have been logged as completed or in progress.
Last month, Islington resident Charlie, 39, set up an Instagram account which seeks to embarrass the council into long-lasting solutions for potholes across the borough.
He said he set up the account after becoming frustrated with the app system.
“The report says they have been filled in but I am standing there looking at these things. What does complete mean, then? They have a robotic response on the app, and it doesn’t feel that there is any real engagement from their side,” he said.
“The tarmac they use just blows out after a period of bad weather which means they are short term fixes which becomes deeper after five or six times,” he added.
Dr. Mark Pack, a Lib Dem life peer in the House of Lords and Islington resident, said: “The 1 kilometre of stretch of Stroud Green Road has had 164 pothole repairs in 5 years. Those repairs are simply not lasting long enough.”
According to their own data, last year Islington Council filled 1,896 potholes which amounted to 4.40% of their total revenue spend.
Cllr Claire Zammit, Labour Councillor for Holloway Ward, said: “We are going to be undertaking carriageway resurfacing works in Liverpool Road form outside number 317 to outside number 335 Liverpool Road.”
She added: “We have requested that our term contractor put out advance warning signs at strategic locations ahead of works beginning.”
Phin Hubbard is a City St Georges student on the Newspaper Journalism MA. He works casual shifts at the Sunday Times.
Martha is a MA Newspaper Journalism student with a desire to craft well-reported, insightful and original stories on cultural, environmental and local issues.