'The road to our home must be the worst in the UK'

A farming family in one of the most remote corners of England say they have become almost "cut off" by the state of the road to their home.

The Byatt family, who live at Philhope Farm, in Upper Coquetdale in Northumberland, said the unclassified route along the valley was "the worst it's ever been".

Harry Byatt said: "Delivery vans have refused to come up here, we don't get visitors, our girls can't even have friends over."

Northumberland County Council said it was "currently carrying out a mixture of structural patching works and safety related repairs to ensure the road is brought back into an acceptable and safe condition".

Dry stone waller Byatt, 43, and his wife Megan, 39, a sheep farmer, moved to Philhope nine years ago.

Their home is 12 miles (19km) from the nearest village, Alwinton, on a road used by residents, walkers and military vehicles accessing the Otterburn Ranges beauty spot.

The area is so remote they do not have mains electricity, although farms further down the valley are being connected, in a project due to finish in summer 2026.

The family said they loved where they lived for its "isolation and beauty" and accepted the long distances they had to travel.

But what they did not accept was a road where "bits are falling into the river".

"Every year they carry out temporary repairs and I do appreciate they are spending a lot of money but it gets worse and worse," Byatt said.

"If there's a worse stretch of road in the UK, I'd like to see it, and if anyone thinks I'm overreacting I'd be happy to show them."

He said the taxis that pick his daughters up to take them to school have had "countless number of punctures".

"One time it was in an area with no phone signal so my youngest had to stand by the side of the road in the middle of winter with the driver and wait to flag down the next vehicle."

The couple said their daughters did not have friends to visit because they did not feel able to ask people "in normal cars" to drive to their home.

"Nobody visits any more, we haven't had anyone here for more than 12 months, we feel completely cut off," Harry Byatt added.

Sam Wood, who lives at Shillmoor in Upper Coquetdale, agreed the road had become "almost undriveable" but acknowledged there had been "recent repairs which have made things a bit safer".

"On my way home from work in Newcastle one night I took 40 photos of individual potholes on just the three-mile (5km) stretch between Alwinton and my home," she said.

"Delivery drivers were leaving parcels at my house as they refuse to drive higher up the valley to deliver them to residents."

Byatt said seeing "well maintained" military roads on the adjacent Otterburn Ranges which had "proper drainage" added to their frustration.

"The repairs we get initially are like a speed bump but then they sink and water gets in and the repair breaks down.

"Whole sections of the road are failing, how is this cost effective for the council?"

The issue is complicated by plans to remove at least 260,000 tonnes of timber from the remote Uswayford Forest using seven miles (11km) of the road to Alwinton.

The cost of widening and strengthening it to take timber trucks was estimated in 2015 to be at least £2m and in a statement Northumberland County Council confirmed it was looking at "funding opportunities for this over and above the safety-led maintenance works currently being carried out".

A spokesperson added it had one of the largest highway networks in England and had invested "over £21m of capital investment specifically for U and C roads across the county since 2015."

"Our Highways Team is currently at the Upper Coquetdale route carrying out a mixture of repairs, and ongoing inspections to prioritise further intervention if required to ensure the road is brought back into an acceptable and safe condition following the damage caused over the winter period."

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