My house is falling apart and ‘POTHOLES are to blame’ – the council has failed to help
A MAN whose house is falling apart says "potholes are to blame" - and slammed his council for failing to help.
Lee Boardman, from Up Holland in West Lancashire, said that his home is physically shaken when HGVs and buses bounce down the road every day.
He said that the tremors have left a huge crack in the gable end wall - and that the floor is ripping away from the wall in his bedroom.
A stolen car crashed through the front of his house during a police chase - forcing him to move out for six months.
Lee told : "The state of the road is absolutely horrendous.
"They've been occasionally repaired over the years but just spot repaid.
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"The holes are back within a couple of weeks. When the HGVs go over, it's quite frightening really.
"In our house, we don't keep anything on the windows because it just falls off. It's that bad.
"I'm worried about subsidence, we can see where the wall is moving, there's a crack in the wall."
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Outside of rush hour, Lee says an extra problem is caused by cars failing to stick to the 30mph limit.
He said there are regular crashes along the road as a result of speeding drivers, including one house which has been hit multiple times and another where a car crashed into an external gas pipe.
Lee is among those affected by dangerous driving as he was once forced to move out for six months when a stolen car crashed through the front of his house.
As well as effectively leaving him homeless, the damage required £50k worth of repairs which took effort to ensure the insurance company covered.
He said: "It was a stolen car that was being chased by three or four police cars.
"They came off the M6, a car was coming up the road as the other car was coming down the other way.
"That car was hit by the stolen car and shunted into our house."
"I was in the lounge when the crash happened. When you hear the car speed now, you cringe.
"We were going to move out at one point, it got that bad."
He has lived in the house since 1993 and says the state of the road and traffic conditions have got much worse in that time.
HOLED UP
Lee has made efforts to ask for help from the council and contacted Lancashire Constabulary over problems with cars speeding down the road but was left frustrated with the response.
Now he is desperately asking for the problem to be properly addressed before the worst happens.
Lee estimates the crack in the gable end to be around 40" in length and says it is now the only place where damage can be seen.
Police and Crime Commissioner Andrew Snowden is among the officials who have visited the street to see the problem but so far no solution has followed.
Lee said: "The police say it's the council's responsibility, the council say it's the police's.
"You get fed up but the same time you know something needs doing."
With the speeding issues seemingly stuck in deadlock between the police and county council, Lee is first focusing on his continued to effort to have the road surface repaired.
He said: "All we're asking from the council is to come and have a look and do a proper resurfacing.
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"The surface of the road is genuinely horrific. It's going to do something structural to the house."
A spokesperson for Lancashire County Council's highways department said: "We are currently investigating Mr Boardman's concerns on this matter, and we can confirm that we will respond in due course and as a matter of the utmost priority."
