Haverhill company Roadfill offers to repair 'dreadful' roads next to Highpoint Prison in Stradishall for free

Roads on a housing estate that have fallen into a terrible state are to be improved for free by a pioneering road surfacing company in Haverhill.

All of the pothole-damaged roads on the estate next to HMP Highpoint South, in Stradishall, are to be fixed by contractors working for Roadfill, a company at The EpiCentre on Haverhill Research Park that provides the road filler but substitutes some of its bitumen content with recycled plastics, cutting down CO2 emissions and the amount of fossil fuels needed to repair roads and making it cheaper and more environmentally friendly.

The roads are under the ownership of the residents, and not the Ministry of Justice or Suffolk Highways, allowing the private arrangement to be made.

The dire state of the roads and the need for repairs was emphasised by both Matt Hancock MP and Cllr Nick Clarke, who represents the area on West Suffolk Council, after a planning application was submitted to expand the prison.

Cllr Clarke approached Roadfill and the subsequent agreement was reached.

Chris Fallon, the co-owner of Roadfill, described the roads as being in an ‘appalling condition’, adding: “The bitumen has worn away and the concrete (underneath) was not in a great shape, so it’s like a rotten tooth.

“We had previously helped a couple of residents there by filling out some potholes in their driveways, so we knew visually how bad it was.

“We are laying this down at our expense. We can demonstrate to higher bodies the quality of our product and what it does and it’s helping the residents on that estate, some of whom struggle to get out of their homes.

“We were there on Monday with Councillor Clarke and a woman walked past, an elderly lady, and she said she had lived there for 37 years and she had never known it so bad.

“She had a pram and she almost burst into tears and said ‘I can’t take it any more’.”

Announcing it on his blog, Cllr Clarke said: “I was able to find a solution to the long-standing issue of the Highpoint estate roads, which are in a dreadful state.

“We now need to push ahead with forming an estate management company to ensure the roads are maintained after they are fixed.”

A full site survey will be done on May 2, said Mr Fallon, and once the legalities were sorted out it would take ‘weeks and not months’ for the roads to be repaired.