AN EXASPERATE  resident dusted off his golfing irons to take on a “100-pothole” course on his road.

Stephen Aylen, who lives in Wooodside, Leigh, claims there are “121 road defects and potholes” on his road.

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The 65-year-old, exasperated following his “fruitless efforts” to get Southend Council to act, took out his golf set to demonstrate the extent of the issue on Wednesday morning.

“It was a nice morning for a spot of golf, and why travel to a course when I have so many holes right outside my house,” he quipped.

Echo: Stephen Aylen plays a round of gold using road defects in Woodside, LeighStephen Aylen plays a round of gold using road defects in Woodside, Leigh (Image: Stephen Aylen)

“It’s not only this road, the whole area is littered with potholes and no matter what it seems the council refuses to fix them.

“To us residents, we feel like the council is sticking two fingers up at us.”

Southend Council bosses contest whether the road defects strictly qualify as potholes - defined as a hole that is at least 40mm deep.

Independent councillor Steven Wakefield, responsible for highways, transport and parking, said: “Whilst these photos do not appear to show potholes, we would encourage local residents to report road defects or roads that need resurfacing or patch work, via MySouthend.

The Shoeburyness Ward councillor added: “We prioritise repair and resurfacing works by going through a strict quality check in line with the council’s procedure, which is based on various risks, and in accordance with the Highways Code of Practice.

“This procedure considers various items including road condition, bus routes, key routes, claims made, incidents, and flood risk.”

Mr Aylen says residents are fed-up with the council’s attitude to the road defects.

“We have the council vandalising the pavements, when residents do not want the paving stone to be replaced, yet he have all the potholes in the road that we want fixed that are being ignored,” he said.

“All the while their work teams are on the road tearing up the pavements and replacing them with asphalt.”

In August Southend Council begun work to replace the paving slabs along the road. Residents reacted with fury saying they had not been consulted on the changes.

But Council bosses defended the works stating there is no legal requirement to consult residents on road and pavement resurfacing programmes and insisting the old slabs were unsafe trip hazards.