VILLAGERS near Ilminster are continuing their battle against the “worst road in Somerset”, with one of them calling it a “no man’s land of potholes”.

For months, residents of Stocklinch have been trying to get repairs and improvements made to the road south of the village heading towards Whitelackington. Now, although some repairs were made last month, the problems persist.

The residents’ fury comes as figures obtained by the Chard and Ilminster News reveal that South Somerset District was the only district in Somerset where spending on roads increased during the last year.

Rob Rainbow, a Stocklinch parish councillor and resident for more than 40 years, said: “The road between Stocklinch and Whitelackington has been in an appalling state for more than a year. After heavy rain, the road is completely underwater for almost a quarter of a mile and impassable for most cars.

“Is this the worst road in Somerset?

“Even now, after a period of dry weather, the road remains partly flooded and peppered with deep and dangerous hidden potholes. This is a busy road that is used not only by the two villages but also by a considerable number of vehicles cutting through from the B3168 to the A303.

“Numerous attempts by Stocklinch Parish Council and villagers to get the road repaired and the drains properly cleared has had little or no effect, despite visits from council road engineers.

“The road is rapidly becoming impassable and unusable.

“There is still plenty of potholes and the road is covered in rubble. The problem is that the road falls between two work areas. Neither of them will claim ownership of the road. It’s a no man’s land of potholes.

“It was absolutely atrocious for so long. Now we had some of the potholes filled in but the problems remain.”I have just come back from France and there even the most minor roads with the smallest indentations have been filled.

“Wessex Water came out to look at the road, at least three people from South Somerset roads people came out to check something else and it is just a colossal number of man hours have been spent trying to find out who’s it should be. Talking about holes doesn’t fix them.”

A spokesman for Somerset County Counil said that they have set a date in October for road improvements to begin.

The spokesman said: “We’ve always been committed to solving the issues at this location and have been in regular contact with local residents.

"We explained that before doing any kind of resurfacing we need to address the underlying flooding issues.

"We investigated and established the cause, and agreed back in early May that improvements were needed to the existing drainage system. Despite pressures on time and budgets, we have scheduled this work to take place with a provisional start date in October.

"In the meantime we will continue to repair any potholes that meet our intervention levels and would encourage residents to report any problems to us. We will look at a longer-term solution to the road surface once the drainage issue is resolved.”

Figures obtained by the Chard and Ilminster News from South Somerset District Council revealed the council is the only district in the county where the carriageway pothole spending increased from 2014/15 to 2015/16.

Spending increased from £141,304 in 2013/14 to £193,422 in 2014/15, and then to around £250,000 over last year.

This was despite the number of potholes fixed falling from 8,038 in 2013 to 7,607 in 2014 and then to 5,659 in 2015.

Dora Hallet, an Atherstone resident, said: “I have lived in Atherstone for more than 50 years and have never seen it in such a state.

“I now don’t drive along this road fearing that I might damage my car, so have to do quite a long detour through narrow lanes to avoid it. It is now almost impossible to walk along it because you get splashed if a vehicle comes along.”

Rosemary Gallagher, parish councillor, added: “The road has been patched up and there have been talks but I don’t know if anything is being done. Come next winter, when it rains I suspect what they have done will be undone.

“Recently, they were there filling in holes that seem to have immediately come out again. If you saw it, where they have filled the road in those potholes are also going to start opening again. The potholes have to be so many inches deep so they did a job of filling some in but then they went away and the next week the smaller ones were big enough and the problem remains.”

The road also serves the hamlet of Atherstone which is just south of Stocklinch and north of A303.

Another South Somerset resident, Carol Falukner, said: “We recently drove down this road to get to the Stocklinch cemetery and it was terrible. It most certainly is the worst road we’ve driven down.”