A DRIVER claims huge potholes near where he works could lead to a death.

Doug Johnston says Foxhall Road in Southminster is an accident waiting to happen.

He uses the road every day to get to and from work at LJ Anderson and Sons – a construction company which specialises in asphalt.

Mr Johnston said: “The potholes down here are ridiculous – it’s treacherous.

“It’s right outside our offices, so it’s a road we use every day.

“Someone’s going to get killed before long and that’s not an exaggeration.

“All the big lorries and farmers with their vehicles use it and now the rain has got into the potholes it is just so much worse.

“An inspector has been out on Tuesday morning and inspected it and doesn’t think there’s an issue.

"How could they deem that to be safe?”

Mr Johnston says the minimum tripping hazard for a footpath is 25mm but claims the potholes are up to 70-80mm deep.

He added: “You must go slow along the road for the simple reason that if you come up that road and there’s a lorry come the other way then you’re going into the potholes.

“I just think it’s disgusting. I work in construction and we’re a Tarmac company.

“I know the rules and regulations, so I know it’s bad.

“If it wasn’t this bad, I wouldn’t have called the council about it – I wouldn’t have bothered.

“There will be a serious accident here.”

An Essex Highways spokesman said: “We have investigated and risk-assessed this issue.

“Every report we get is treated as very important and we aspire to repair all highway defects in good time.

“Essex is a large county and across a network covering more than 5,000 miles of road, more than 1,500 structures and 127,000 streetlights, we need to prioritise how we spend your council tax money to best effect for all residents.

“At present we prioritise our principal road network, the repair of the worst potholes and other safety critical work such as flooding and bridge repairs.

“Our recent inspection of this issue has prioritised it as not as serious as some of the other defects we are aware of, so we have recorded it and will consider it when we are planning future works in the area.

“Consequently, you do not need to report this issue again.

“This does not mean that this issue is not important to us; we will repair it just as soon as is humanly possible given the constraints explained.”