RUBERY residents have branded work to widen the service road on New Road ‘pathetic’ and a ‘waste of time and money’, claiming the extension does not fulfil its intentions.
The plan was to widen the service road outside the village’s Post Office so there would be sufficient space for cars to park either side and safe for vehicles to carry on down the centre of the road.
But people say, after weeks of works and disruption, not much has changed and the road has only been widened by a few inches.
Martin Emin said: “Whoever agreed to this and whoever signed off must have been doing so through closed eyes.
“Surely measuring two car widths and then widen the road accordingly would have been better.
“Next time maybe spend the money more wisely at the end of the financial year and do something that would benefit Rubery.”
Bob Capp added: “We have now ended up with a service road that still isn’t wide enough for vehicles to pass parked cars and the public footway reduced which makes it even more hazardous to navigate.”
And Julie Earles, who sent us the picture above, said the service road outside the Post office had been widened more but the central gap had been closed off and new bollards installed close to the service road.
Worcestershire County Councillor Peter McDonald said: “The highways have widened the road but I agree with residents that it is nowhere near as wide as it should be.”
He added the problem was the BT Openreach cabinet on the pavement which prevented the road being widened any further.
“The council approached BT Openreach to move the box but was told it would be at least £30,000 to carry out the work which would have well-exceeded the budget.”
A spokesperson for Openreach said: “Moving a cabinet is not as straightforward as it sounds, with potentially hundreds of phone and broadband connections relying on any one structure.
“But we are happy to take a closer look at this with Worcestershire County Council to make sure we have a full understanding of the issue and to see if anything further can be done.”
