'I'm filling potholes at 81 - it's never ending'

An 81-year-old man who has been filling potholes for more than 20 years says he will keep going until he is "pushing up daisies".

Pete Thexton, from Langley Mill in Derbyshire, has been helping maintain Aldercar Lane since he opened a fishery business on the road.

He said the surface had always been in an "absolutely horrendous" condition because it was an unadopted road, which meant it was the responsibility of landowners and residents, such as himself, to maintain it rather than the local authority.

"I have no idea how I do it," he said in reference to his age. "It's just something that's got be done... the holes have got to be filled in and you've got to muck in and help out."

Pete has been doing his own pothole repairs since 2005, when he purchased land down the lane and built Aldercar Lane Fishery.

His daughter Michelle Thexton described the fishery as "his dream" in life, with him digging out the ponds himself.

But she added in order to keep that dream going, the road simply had to be in a good enough condition so people could access it.

"He's not one to sit down and let others do it for him," she said.

Pete, and other nearby businesses and residents, repair the road by purchasing bulk bags of tarmac, filling the holes in using a shovel, then "whacking it down" with a wacker plate - a piece of equipment which compacts material on the ground, such as gravel or asphalt, to create a solid and sturdy surface.

However he said it came at a cost, with each tonne of tarmac selling for roughly £150.

"In the last fortnight we put six tonnes of tarmac down, which stretched probably only half a mile," he said.

Pete said the temporary repairs worked out far cheaper than a permanent resurfacing but acknowledged the makeshift surface did not last in poor weather conditions.

"It gets washed out with the rain and when it freezes it blows it, it's just never ending," he said.

He also questioned why Derbyshire County Council could not help with a permanent repair.

"There's 27 dwellings down here that use this lane, plus six businesses, so surely the rates that we're paying ought to warrant a little bit of help," he added.

Clare Yorstun, 49, who runs one of those other businesses in Aldercar Lane, described repairing the road as "a losing battle".

"We try and maintain it as best we can, although we're businesses, we're not made of money, so we can only do what we can afford," she said.

She praised Pete's efforts, saying it was "hard work".

"A road like this has got millions of holes, so it takes quite a lot of tarmac and manpower," she said.

The council said responsibility for the repairs lay with property owners on the road.

The authority said it had not received any formal approach recently to take on the responsibility itself - a process known as adopting - but the road would need to meet specific standards if that was to happen.

"Residents must agree to bring the street up to adoptable standards, including drainage systems, street lighting, and pavements, at their own cost before adoption," a spokesperson said.

"If residents wish to undertake works on their private roads, there are contractors who do road maintenance, and these can be found on our Trusted Trader scheme."

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