RESIDENTS living on an unadopted street in Girlington say they feel “neglected” after being told they have to pay for expensive road repairs instead of Bradford Council.

Walker Drive is one of several unadopted roads in the district, meaning responsibility to repair roads and keep up maintenance falls on the residents, not the Council.

But with deep potholes and residents facing never-ending cheques to fix broken tyres, locals say it is impossible to expect them to foot the bill.

Bradford Council said funding that would normally allow them to adopt streets 'no longer exists', leaving residents on the search for solutions such as decreased tax or help from others living on the same street.

In 2019, people living on Vine Terrace in Fairweather Green, which is another unadopted road, launched a petition for Bradford Council to adopt it. In the end, only 27 people signed the petition.

One family, who has lived on Walker Drive for more than 25 years, said it had gradually got worse over the years with tyres now being replaced every two months.

They claim Bradford Council used to fill potholes decades ago but they stopped "last year".

Speaking to the Telegraph & Argus, the resident, who did not want to be named, said: "It's a really difficult situation. The people living on this street, it's really hard for us. My mum's car is getting damaged.

"We're paying council tax, paying road tax. Either they'll have to put our tax down and we can pay for it.

"It's for us. We do want to get this street sorted but what are we going to do? If it's too much we won't be able to afford it.

"It's really, really bad. It's been about a couple of years it's got worse. The holes have gone really deep."

Another resident, Mareena Khan, has been renting a house on the street for almost five years.

Mareena, who runs a cake business from her home, is now looking to move away after spending so much time asking customers and friends to park away from the street too much.

"We just feel really neglected," she says.

"It's not really a rich area. They shouldn't make us feel like that, you should all be classed equal. There's no equality here."

One of her customers, Noreen Hussain, said she was worried when driving down the road. She's left with one question: Why are certain roads unadopted?

A Bradford Council spokesperson said: “Unadopted streets and roads exist all over the country, not just in Bradford. When a road is unadopted, responsibility for maintenance and repairs falls to the residents whose properties front on to the road in question. Residents would normally be made aware of their street or road being unadopted when they purchase their property. An unadopted road is not the same as a private road.

“As a Council, we have limited responsibilities for an unadopted road. Under the Highways Act 1980, we have a duty to ‘protect the public’s right to enjoyment of the highway’ i.e. ensuring people can access the road and co-ordinating road works on those roads, but do not have responsibility for maintenance and repairs.

“The process of getting streets or roads adopted by a local authority is set out in the Highways Act 1980 and is known as the Private Street Works Code. However, before a street could be adopted, residents and other owners of frontages on to the road would need to fund the necessary repairs to bring it up to adoptable standard.

“The use of the Private Street Works code, which has, in the past, helped us to adopt private streets throughout the district, requires a significant budget provision to fund the initial construction works. This funding no longer exists, so we are not currently adopting any roads.”

While a spokesperson for Incommunities, which owns some properties on Walker Drive, said: “As a housing association we are not responsible for highways. We are aware of some maintenance issues on the road and our Neighbourhood Housing Officer has raised the matter with the local Ward Office.”