POTHOLES on a very busy road constructed just over ten years ago are ‘beyond an emergency’ according to a motorist who uses the road every day.

Patrick Holder said the 200-yard stretch of Whinby Road at Dodworth between the Fairway and Higham Lane was the worst stretch of highway he’d ever seen.

The council is still grappling with a major backlog of potholes after a harsh winter and the recent period of snow and ice, but a spokesman said the road was ‘on the radar’ and would be repaired as soon as possible.

“It’s beyond an emergency, it’s absolutely ridiculous,” said Patrick, 53, of Inchburn Crescent, Penistone.

“It’s not an old road, it was only built a few years ago. And it’s such a major road, it’s the A628 which becomes the Woodhead Pass.

“The worst part is, and I’m guilty of this myself, people are zigzagging round them to try and avoid them. When there’s so much traffic on both directions, it’s dangerous, there’s going to be an accident.

“I sometimes go through Dodworth the old way to avoid them when I remember.

“It’s been like it for at least a month I’d say. The council seems to be ignoring it.

“I used to live in Sheffield, and generally, I think Barnsley Council doesn’t do that bad a job. The roads are generally better. And we’ve still got libraries.

“But this is particularly bad. I passed my test in 1982 and I haven’t seen a stretch of road as bad as this in all my years.”

When the Chronicle’s photographer went to inspect the road this week, he found what looked like a piece of broken spring from a car on the edge of the road.

The road, part of the Dodworth bypass, opened in 2008. It closed for a couple of weeks in 2015 to reconstruct the roundabout at Higham Lane to make it easier for large vehicles to negotiate.

The council spokesman said the majority of Barnsley roads are in good condition, but that the recent cold weather has caused significantly more potholes than expected.

This is because the water gets into cracks in the road, freezes and expands. It weakens the surface by expanding over and over again. The weight of traffic hits these weak spots in the road and creates potholes.

A new programme of works to remove clusters of potholes is now underway ‘starting with the worst affected roads’.

The spokesman said it was difficult to give an exact date for when the Dodworth potholes would be repaired because ‘emergency repairs might come in and overtake priority’, but it would be done ‘as soon as possible’.