People have been left frustrated by the road surface in and around Carleith Quadrant, in Drumoyne, which is so treacherous it has left some fearing for their health.

Nell Wright, 87, who has lived in the area for 50 years, said: "Every few months another big lump comes out and there's another hole, then another hole – they all just join up."

Mrs Wright, a widow who has recently undergone a hip replacement, is worried that she could be seriously injured if the car she is travelling in hits a large pothole.

She added: "Having to sit through bump, bump, bump doesn't do me any good.

"I have to be very careful. It can be very painful."

Mrs Wright has attempted to report the state of the area's roads to Glasgow City Council's Roads and Lighting Faults department, but gave up when she could not get through.

Ronald Black, 73, of nearby Balbeg Street, has lived in the area all his life and believes the city council has allowed the roads to fall into a state of disrepair.

He said: "When I was young, 10 or 12, every eight years or so they'd spray the road with tar, put stones on it and steamroller it but they haven't done that for about 40 years.

"You never see them repairing and rolling the road out around here."

Damage to roads in the area has become such a problem that four households we spoke to in Carleith Quadrant – three of which rely on pensions while the other is a family with two babies – said they had to replace at least one damaged tyre over the past 12 months with costs ranging from £70 to hundreds of pounds.

In Glasgow, claims on vehicles damaged by potholes have shot up by more than 800% in the last four years.

In the last five years, the city council has paid out more than £335,000 in compensation for damaged vehicles, and Glasgow accounts for half of all the money paid out by local authorities to motorists in Scotland.

Christine Stewart, 64, a retired nurse, who lives in the street with her sister, believes the road surface has been affected by large numbers of staff from the nearby Southern General Hospital parking in the surrounding streets.

She said: "The staff park here because they can only get four hours parking in the hospital. We are getting a lot more traffic and it looks like a farm track.

"It was never like this until the parking laws came in at the hospital.

"There's a whole stretch of road which is just full of cars owned by hospital staff. They even park on double yellow lines which are almost invisible because of dirt and bits of the road which have been torn up."

As reported previously in the Evening Times, bosses at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC), who are responsible for the Southern General, have introduced a parking policy which limits staff to a four-hour stay in the hospital's car park.

When presented with residents' concerns, an NHS spokeswoman said there would be no review of the four-hour stay policy.

She said: "While NHSGGC has no authority or responsibility for on-street parking, we are sympathetic to the concerns raised.

"We recognise that inconsiderate parking on the streets outside our hospital sites causes disruption but, unfortunately, we have no authority to monitor parking on public roads."

A Glasgow City Council spokesman also sympathised but admitted there is nothing that can be done.

He said: "As part of the public network the streets are open to public parking."

He also suggested the damage may be caused by construction vehicles going to and from the hospital as part of its upgrade.

He added: "Land and Environmental Services hold ongoing discussions with the developer of the new Southern General Hospital regarding the scope and extent of resurfacing they are required to carry out.

"We will carry out remedial works on the surrounding roads to ensure the integrity of the surface is maintained during the construction period. We will also carry out surveys with a view to including them in future resurfacing schemes if required.

"This work would be scheduled to take place once the development is substantially complete and the volume of traffic has decreased."

chris.taylor@ heraldandtimes.co.uk