MOTORISTS are driving on pavements and grass verges to get around roadblocks set up to keep residents and pedestrians safe on a notorious stretch of road in Darby Green.

Hampshire County Council set up barriers at the junction of Sandhurst Lane and Darby Green Lane for resurfacing and retexturing work, suspended when the surface cracked up.

The road is still closed but residents say drivers move the barriers to use it as a rat run, endangering cyclists and pedestrians including children walking to school.

Work began after cars had ploughed through front garden walls for 20 years, with the aim of stopping them skidding.

Since August three motorists have demolished garden walls.

Five homes have been hit, some more than ten times.

Yateley Town Council leader David Murr, of Darby Green Lane, said: “Road closed signs have been put across, sand bags have been laid out and we have had water-filled barriers set up, which are really hard to move, but people are continu-ing to move them. Someone has actually taken a pickaxe to one of them and I have seen some people drive up the grass verge to get past the barriers.

“On Sunday, I walked to the top of Sandhurst Lane and on my way back I put the barriers back because they had been moved. I went inside and I watched the road for five minutes.

Sure enough a car came down the road and the driver could not get through, he could not go up the grass verge, so he drove up the pavement. About 20 minutes after that a van pulled up. The passenger moved the barriers. It’s ridiculous.”

Geoff Jones’ wall was knocked down on September 1 and a month later a car demolished his gate. He said the barriers had reduced the traffic flow in Sandhurst Lane but drivers moving barriers were a threat.

Mr Jones said he would like to see concrete bollards set up in the middle of the road so both entrances could still be used but motorists could not use it as a cut through.

“People can get to the houses at each end then,” he said. “People are just moving the roadblocks and people are now driving on the paths. It is such a danger to people.”

Cllr Murr added: “The road is dangerous and the residents are still contacting me about it.
“When you have three cars demolishing walls within a month it shows you something needs to be done.

“We have the road closed signs and the barriers across. It could only take someone walking nearby, thinking the road is closed, and a car comes on the pavement and hurts them. It takes 90 seconds to go around the other way.”

County councillor Adrian Collett said: “When Hampshire County Council did the texturing the road surface broke up so they will now have to do a complete resurfacing of the whole road. That’s going to inconvenience other areas because work will have to be cancelled elsewhere to free up the money.

“We are waiting until contractors are available so the road closure will be there for some time. I’m furious with the people who are moving these barriers for their own convenience, which would only save half a minute. We are talking about possible life and death situations. It makes me very angry.”

Cllr Collett wants immovable concrete barriers.

A county council spokeswoman said: “The retexturing failed in Sandhurst Lane. It started to pull up the whole surface. The first section of the resurfacing has already been completed.”

She could not give a fixed date for the rest of it to begin.