Concerns that Leighton Buzzard street print isn’t a patch on original block paving

At the end of February, shoppers spotted that after nearly seven months the street print outside Wilko had started to crack and wear away, with the black asphalt underneath the surface already visible.

The work was originally completed in August last year, with Central Bedfordshire Council’s Highways team informing residents that the new initiative aimed to save money and ensure that future maintenance was “easier and more efficient”.

The CBC Highways team wrote on its Facebook page: “Street Print is a decorative system designed to imprint patterns and colour into asphalt. The process allows a new surface to blend into the surrounding environment and produce realistic alternatives to traditional block, slate and stone effects.”

However, at the beginning of March, resident Neil Cairns claimed: “I overheard talk on the bus that the new brick-effect in the High Street was breaking up already. So, I had a look outside Wilkinson’s and, true enough, the surface is all breaking up.

“It’s not been down a year yet.
 The patch in the photograph is the only area to suffer from wear and tear but I am sure that more will places will be affected soon, too.”  

The section that has started to lose its brick effect is in the unloading bay outside Wilko, and Neil argued that this was poor planning on CBC’s part because the street print can’t cope with all the lorries parking and driving across it.

CBC originally said that after time the street print would weather to match the other brick paving, but residents are arguing it hasn’t changed at all, and that they don’t like the clash. 

Neil claimed: “The contractors from August left around 20 to 30 bricks and about 10 to 15 broken up barriers around a tree in Church Square. CBC has still not cleared them up and there are weeds growing on them.” 

A Central Bedfordshire Council spokeswoman said: “The previous block paving in this location had become uneven and damaged by vehicle movements and was costly to fix, which is why the street printing option is currently being trialled.

“This trial will be reviewed in August 2020 and if it’s considered necessary, we will bring the specialist back in to discuss further options available.

“We apologise for any materials that have been left over by our contractor. We will make sure these are cleared as soon as possible.”