Threlkeld Quarry Road History

 

Pretty much all residents and business owners agree that the maintenance of the Quarry roads should be organized and funded by the Local authorities as with 99% of other local roads. But it isn’t. This letter is to give you some of the history of why and what has been done in the past to try to change this.

I first moved to Threlkeld Quarry some twenty years ago, the road back then was in a very very poor state, local taxis would refuse to drive up to the houses. The road was littered with potholes and large washed-up gravel areas.

Over the years many people put in many many hours trying to bring the authorities in or to find a solution to the road problems, at a community, local and national level. It was deemed impossible to solve, despite everyone agreeing it needed to be.

The key hurdles were:

  1. Road ownership
  2. Legal access
  3. Number of houses, businesses and organisations using the roads
  4. Current road state vs state at which the Council would consider adoption

Road ownership. No one appeared to own stretches of the lower road, investigations were made to the Ministry of Defence, as it was thought that the military first put in this road during the war when the military used certain areas of the quarry. Without clear ownership, no grants were accessible or adoption possible. 

Legal Access. As the road was created in WW1 (prior to many of the houses being built) it’s private and not a ‘real road’, historical legal access was over the Fly Bridge from Setmabanning. However, this is not designed for modern vehicles; to strengthen this sufficiently would be a huge, costly and unsightly undertaking. As well as not necessary given we have another option.

Number of houses, businesses and organisations using the road.

The main road through is used by 64 households, the BEC business units (23 units), the Quarry businesses, the Mining Museum and the LDNPA depot. This is a considerable amount of traffic and every journey over the road surface causes damage. The historical Victorian drainage systems are not maintained, and rainwater runoff is worse, which together cause increased damage.

The current state of the road vs state at which the Council would consider adoption.

The road surface has been so poor at some points in the past that car suspension and tyres were regularly trashed, even walking on it in the dark was dangerous.

Six years ago, planning permission for a large factory at the Units spearheaded a fresh assault on the road issue. Again, many an hour and many a day were spent organizing and pushing to get as many people involved as possible, forming the Threlkeld Quarry Road Management (TQRM) Company to give the group a legal entity so funds could be raised for road repair. 

TQRM was formed as a pragmatic solution to a complex problem. The main aim of the group is to get the road/roads up to a sufficient standard so that the local authorities will eventually adopt the road in full.

Funds are raised primarily from an annual call for donations from residential properties and businesses.

Currently, these are used purely to maintain the surface. The ultimate aim is to improve the roads to an adoptable standard, but this will take time and money.

 The TQRM team are always welcoming to new members and new members are always needed. The tqrm.org.uk  website has a lot of useful information. if you would like to become a part of the team making a positive difference please email rosemary.v@icloud.com (current Chairperson)  

Currently, the local directors are: Rosemary Vidler, Peter Thurrell, Ian Hartland, and Richard Siddall, with admin support from Denis Frost and Wendy Thurrell.

Please keep this document and pass it on to anyone new who moves in, it’s a good ice breaker to meet your new neighbours or use it to start a conversation with anyone who needs convincing that it is of great benefit that we all chip in with the project.

We are a great community and together we can do great things.