Pothole swallows ‘double-decker bus’ in Colne's Birtwistle Avenue
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Colne town councillor Andy Bell placed a model Burnley, Colne and Nelson coloured double-decker to measure up potholes on the main road in Colne outside Farmfoods and on Birtwistle Avenue, a notorious shortcut in the town.
He wants to raise awareness with highways authority Lancashire County Council that more needs to be done in improving the standard of road surfaces locally.
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Hide Ad“If you can get a double-decker bus in a pothole, it definitely needs filling,” said Coun. Bell. “It's a new standard in sizing potholes. Measuring tapes just aren't up to the job nowadays.”


“The Farmfoods' Old Faithful pothole is pretty famous in Colne. It's so popular that it comes back year after year. It's by a busy bus stop on the Mainline route through the town. It gives bus passengers a free roller-coaster experience,” said Coun. Bell.
“With it being a bus stop, the idea of using bus sized measuring came to mind. With the size of craters nowadays, single deckers just wouldn't be up to the job, and the county council would probably insist on holes being double-decker size before they'd do anything.
“The quality of Birtwistle Avenue's potholes is so good they are now officially classed as vintage. There for a decade, they were veteran holes before Lancashire County Council added a certain je ne sais quoi over the years.
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“The patching has added different flavours of bitmac, with layers of interest for passing travellers as they bounce along the road."
Coun. Bell said Birtwistle Avenue had been listed for full resurfacing several years ago, but the county council had axed the scheme, “presumably so they didn't spoil the fun of the annual pothole outbreak.
“LCC could also strengthen the road at the bus stop outside Farmfoods to prevent Old Faithful coming back, but I guess they consider that cruelty to potholes?”
Councillor Bell and his Liberal Democrat colleagues have now embarked on a double-deck tour of Pendle's Pothole Parade in the search for more outstanding examples of the genre.