A STRETCH of road in Marston has been the subject of months of discussion about who should repair it.

Old Marston Parish Council has been debating the ownership of a small section of Butts Lane because chairman Charlie Haynes believes it is dangerous.

Now the parish council has finally discovered its answer and will push Oxford City Council to carry out repairs on the potholes riddling the area behind the Bricklayers Arms in Church Lane.

Mr Haynes said: “We have been in touch with the city and county councils once or twice because we would like to know who owns it.

“Nobody has ever looked after it and we felt that if it was adopted by one of the councils they would do that.

“With the development going on at the Bricklayers Arms we thought it would be a good opportunity to sort this out.”

In November plans to turn the Bricklayers Arms into a house were given to go-ahead by city councillors. The pub closed in December 2010.

The stretch of Butts Lane has been on the agenda at the past couple of monthly parish council meetings with the intention of lobbying both the city and county councils to do something.

Oxfordshire County Council, the highways authority, has confirmed that the city council is responsible for that stretch of road, which is riddled with potholes.

A spokesman for the city council said they hadn’t yet received anything from the parish council and could not comment until they had.

Pursuing the issue hasn’t been universally welcomed.

Old Marston resident Malcolm Everton thinks the parish council should be worrying about more important things.

He said: “I wouldn’t say it was dangerous. I think they should be concerning themselves with more important things.”