WHEN is an old cart track not an old cart track?

When it’s used as a short-cut to and from the A30!

For those puzzled by this riddle, the “cart track” in question is the road that runs from Gunstone Cross, down though Gunstone and up to Neopardy.

Once a stony track it’s now a tarmac road of course, well used by cars, vans, lorries and enormous farm vehicles.

But the highways authority still sees it as a minor road and shows no urgency in trying to maintain it.

As a result the surface is covered by potholes (in some places the original track is visible), the sides are crumbling away, and the road is becoming difficult and unsafe to use with drivers forced to weave from side to side to avoid the deepest ruts.

For us, the residents of Gunstone, it has become a source of deep frustration – particularly when the costs start to mount up.

One couple have had to replace three tyres which have burst on these roads in the last couple of years, another lady is tired of having to pay to have her car wheels re-aligned.

The highways authority accepts that the road needs attention, but we recently discovered that it may be three years before the surface is repaired to a decent standard.

In the meantime we’re expected to keep reporting the potholes. But after several years of doing this, we all agree that is has made no difference: all that happens is that temporary patches are laid, which come apart within months – and we’re back to square one.

Now we have the rains of winter to look forward to which will mask the potholes making them even more treacherous, especially on a section of road near the railway bridge which is flooded each year for weeks on end. The highways department is well aware of this but has done nothing to try to sort it out.

The problems we are facing are not going to go away. They are going to get worse:

• More and more traffic is cutting through Gunstone from the A30 thanks to satnavs;

• Vehicles are becoming larger, especially lorries and farm vehicles, which are wearing away the roads and destroying the verges (unfortunately the council does not accept responsibility for the verges, it takes responsibility only for the area of tarmac that covers the old cart track);

• Exceedingly wet winters are now the norm with rain pouring off the fields and down the road, washing away the surface;

• The existing drainage cannot cope;

• The local population is gradually rising (and with it, cars) as more new homes are built.

Meanwhile, the road through Gunstone gets worse and worse as the years go by and soon there won’t be much left that’s worth repairing.

That’s why we are tired of being ignored by the highway authority.

As council tax-payers, we should not have to brace ourselves for what has become an assault course every time we need to go out.

Over to you Devon County Council.

Jacqueline Wadsworth

Ralph Dunn

Helen Smith

Claire Turner

John Turner

Catherine Janion

Celia Smith

Jo Webber

(Gunstone residents)