A mystery sign maker has erected a cheeky new hoarding on a road ravaged by 174 potholes – inferring the stretch has ‘gone t*ts up’.
The triangular sign in Wrenbury-cum-Frith comes after a previous billboard warned drivers the ‘diabolical’ state of the road would “break your vehicles – and your soul”.
Locals – who dubbed their Cheshire village ‘Wrenbury-cum-pothole’ – said the heavily rutted 200m stretch of Station Road had “gone beyond a joke”.
And they supported the ironic sign, put on the side of the main thoroughfare, which reads: “It’s all gone… up” with a picture of rolling hills in the shape of a pair of breasts.
One nearby homeowner commented on Facebook: “Superb – love the humour and community resilience.”
Another added: “Someone deserves an Emmy award!”
While a third said: “Brilliant. I ran down that road the other day and it’s got a lot worse than I remember. Impossible for cyclists now.
“The footpath is also impassable down there. What a mess! That road and the bypassing road that takes u past the flooding to get to cholmondley.
And another simply wrote: “legendary.”
Lauren Ridgway, a mum in her 40s, previously said the road running through the village, which she has called home 12 years, was barely “car-worthy”.
And she blasted her local authority, Cheshire East Council, for not doing more to repair the road when it first started to deteriorate roughly five years ago.
She fumed: “Everybody has just got really humorous about it now because it’s beyond a joke. It’s absolutely horrendous. It’s been going on for years. What started off as a couple of potholes here and there is just a massive stretch now.
“It’s like a third-world country, but I think third-world country roads would actually be better. We’ve got farm tracks that are in better condition than that road. We have to pay road tax, our cars have to be roadworthy, but yet our roads are not car-worthy. It’s diabolical.
“You used to be able to weave around them. You can’t even do that anymore because the potholes are joined up, and they are quite deep. They have promised us that work is going to start in April. But I don’t know whether that will actually happen any more – bearing in mind Cheshire East Council, we’re told, has gone bankrupt.”
Rob Cooper, 42, who owns local garage RC Autos in the village also said that the number of motorists needing repairs for damaged tyres had increased dramatically.
And while he was seeing a bump in business, he also said regular customers were put off from coming to see him as they were reluctant to drive on the crater-hit road.
He had previously said: “I’m doing no end in blowouts and tyres that have been pinched by potholes. It’s just endless.
“I would normally do three of four tyres every couple of weeks. At the minute, I’m doing three or four tyres a day. It’s massive, it’s crazy, really. I’m actually losing a few customers because they are not coming over that road. It’s quite unfair, really, because I’m only a small business, I need that repeat business to come in… Everybody in the village is sick of it.”
Councillor Craig Browne, chair of Cheshire East Council’s highways and transport committee, said that repairs would be carried out in April after the last protest.
He had commented: “Naturally, we are fully aware of the condition of Station Road in Wrenbury and agree that it requires resurfacing.
“There will be a £600,000 scheme starting in April, which will significantly improve drainage to this location.
“The only alternative to waiting until April would be to resurface now at an additional cost of £65,000 only to have to do this again after the completion of the primary works.
“With our current budgetary constraints, this is simply not affordable. Additionally, all works need to be agreed in partnership with the Environment Agency and Network Rail.
“We apologise to residents and road users and would like to assure them that we are prioritising this work being carried out as safely and in as timely a way as possible.”
Cheshire East Council Has been approached for further comment.
