RESIDENTS celebrating the resurfacing of a severely potholed road will be forced to wait further for a decision on its long term future.

Blandford Road North was so badly damaged that residents in nearby Blandford Close complained of children suffering falls and injuries and cyclists having to walk through when they used it.

The road is a popular cut through from Langley Road for parents on the school run to Ryvers School in Trelawney Avenue.

But it has always technically been a private road, and resembles a bridleway, leaving the responsibility for its maintenance up in the air.

However, in the last month Slough Borough Council (SBC) resurfaced the road completely via its housing budget - under a technicality. This is because it is not currently a public road and therefore the council cannot treat it as such.

Rajinder Kaur, 39, of Langley Road, said numerous people had had accidents whilst walking on the road, including her son Taman.

She said: “I even hurt my ankle once - I’m not worried about that - I was worried about my son and the other kids.

“We had to buy new shoes regularly because of that road.” Parents often park their vehicles on the road and walk their children to Ryvers as it is closed at the opposite end.

Mrs Kaur added: “We are so happy now, it looks great.”

Barry Swadling, 67, of Blandford Close said the battle to get the road surfaced had taken at least 18 years.

He said: “I can now go out there and walk with my stick and wheelchair - no problem.”

However SBC has said that a final decision over the status of the road is still to be made.

In 2015 SBC requested it be turned into a public bridleway with restricted traffic - allowing residents access but reducing its use as a cut through. But due to objections, the decision had to go to the Planning Inspectorate. The Planning Inspector then made an interim decision in December last year, that the road should instead become a byway open to all traffic, effectively a normal road. As this went against what most parties wanted, SBC have returned to the inspector to ask for the decision to be reconsidered.

It says it is still waiting on a final decision and the road remains private in the meantime. as the decision is yet to be made into a traffic order.

An SBC spokesperson said: “We are very pleased residents have a new surface - unfortunately the longer future is yet to be decided and in some way it is out of our hands.”