Angry Dilham villagers want council to pay for pothole damage

The lives of locals in the rural village of Dilham, near Stalham, have become plagued by potholes ever since lorries and HGVs started using the narrow country roads as a route to a nearby farm. 

For the last six months dozens of lorries have been using Oak Road and Broad Farm Lane every day to transport hundreds of tonnes of maize to and from the farm, where the crop is being stored in a huge pile. 

The villagers say the lorries have destroyed the road, creating hundreds of potholes - some several meters wide and up to 20cm deep. 

Roy Jones, who lives in Oak Road, says the potholes have cracked the alloy wheels and torn the tyres of his Porsche Cayenne (Image: Adam Barker)

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Roy Jones, who lives in Oak Road, says the potholes have cracked the alloy wheels of his Porsche Cayenne and torn its front tyres. 

He said a new set of tyres could cost him around £2,000. 

"These roads aren't built for this," he said.

"It has got worse since the maize pile has been there and the lorries have been driving through. 

"It's not good enough - we've reported the issue and the council has done nothing about it. It's not just us who have reported it, it's the whole road. 

"Why should we have to pay for the damage the road is causing?"

Some of the potholes are metres wide and up to 20cm deep - becoming hidden by surface water (Image: Adam Barker)

The pile of maize at the Oak Road farm which lorries have been using the roads to get to (Image: Roy Jones)

Aiden Scoles, who also lives on the road, has had to repair the oil sump on the underside of his car after it burst when he hit one of the potholes on Sunday - spilling six litres of oil into the road. 

He says it cost him £100 to replace the oil - taking two days off work to make the repairs.

The pile of maize from above (Image: Roy Jones)

Norfolk County Council has said its engineers have inspected the potholes in Oak Road and Broad Farm Lane, which are now scheduled for repair - but this could take around six weeks from when the report was made.