Drivers forced to swerve around potholes on Carlton Hill, labelled one of Nottinghamshire’s “worst roads” say it is now like a “dream” after repairs finally took place after months of problems.
Residents travelling along Carlton Hill, Carlton, had been suffering with poor road conditions for months after a weakening section of road, near the Cromwell Street junction and the Tesco Superstore, got progressively worse.
The bottom of Carlton Hill had been getting into an increasingly worse state since the turn of the year, with problems first reported before Christmas 2025.
Reform-led Nottinghamshire County Council, the authority responsible for highways, announced an emergency £2 million pot of money in February this year to tackle roads across the county in the most dire state.
Part of the cash was used to resurface the section of Carlton Hill, where machines left the site last Monday (April 20).
Works across dozens of sites started in March and are due to be completed soon but, since then, the authority has announced a further “record-level” £181.25 million in 2026/27 to start fixing Nottinghamshire’s deteriorated roads.
Standing on the side of the resurfaced Carlton Hill section, council leader Mick Barton told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) it was “one of the worst in the county”.
He said: “We realised what such a bad state it was in the county, this was one of around 45 projects completed, they’ll complete in a few weeks time.
“This has needed doing for years, as part of that £2 million project, this was one of the worst in the county and it desperately needed doing.
“We’ve got these roads all across the county. It’s due to the neglect – it’s nobody’s fault individually – it’s been a lack of investment for the last 20 years, but we are addressing that as much as we can.”
Nearby resident Sharron has lived near the problem road for 10 years told the LDRS she welcomed the multi-million investment into the roads “wholeheartedly”.
Speaking on the Carlton Hill works, she said: “It was awful, there was pothole after pothole in that whole section, from the bottom of [Southdale Road] to just past the [Texaco] garage.
“Literally you were swerving to avoid everything and every morning it was like being on a fair ride, it was awful – now it’s a dream to drive on.”
The pothole situation had been so bleak on Carlton Hill that Sharron said drivers “couldn’t not hit one” as the damage was close together.
Lindsey Greenwood, who has also lived near the works for four years, said the section of road was in a state “well before Christmas” but was at its worst from February.
She said: “There was a lot of swerving, there was a lot of deep holes – horrendous.
“This junction has always been dodgy at the bottom [of Southdale road], so to try and get out and cars are trying to worm their way around all the holes, it was definitely the worst round here.”
Ms Greenwood said she often had to drive onto the other side of the road to avoid any road damage.
Speaking on the council’s boosts of money for road fixes, she said: “It’s good but then you just think what are we going to cut corners on to use that money on?… You can’t fix one thing without causing problems elsewhere can you?”
One man living nearby said one particular pothole on the road was that significant a cone had been placed in it.
He said: “Ever since Reform have been in things have been 100 per cent better – it’s nice to see things being done. Since the resurfacing it’s safer.”
In February, Reform-led Nottinghamshire County Council announced it would be purchasing at least two JCB Pothole Pro machines to help with tackling the declining state of the county’s roads.
Cllr Barton recently told the LDRS he expects the JCBs to be out on the roads within the next two weeks.
The machines have been trialled by neighbouring Reform-run authorities in Derbyshire and Lincolnshire and typically cost between £150,000 and £200,000.
The new machines will be be able to complete 200 to 250 square metres of patching repairs each day which then prepares roads for surface dressing.
