Residents of Wrenbury-cum-Frith, fed up with the state of their roads, have put up a sign warning drivers about the potholes. They’ve even renamed their village ‘Wrenbury-cum-pothole’ due to a 200m road with 174 potholes.
The issues with Station Road started around five years ago. Despite promises from Cheshire East Council to fix it, locals say they’ve been ignored. The situation has gotten so bad that they compare it to ‘a third world country’.
Local mum Lauren Ridgway said it was “diabolical” that the road was barely fit for cars. She added: “Everybody has just got really humorous about it now because it’s beyond a joke.” and “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 said the number of motorists needing repairs for damaged tyres had increased dramatically.
And although 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 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.”
In 2022, a frustrated local resident installed a ‘swear box’ on the road, writing “In aid of Cheshire East”, which began the trend of poking fun at its poor condition.
And last year, a local councillor said the whole village had ‘had enough’ of the road, branding it ‘like the surface of the moon’.
Rob said he was thankful for the mystery person who made a funny sign about their bad road. “It’s a laugh, it’s just a joke. If you didn’t laugh about it you’d cry. Everybody is so annoyed, and I think it’s quite funny that somebody has made a sign.”
“We keep on getting fobbed off. Now they’re saying it will be done in April, I very much doubt it to be honest. You lose your faith in it.”
