Potholes

JohnnyDee

JohnnyDee

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Sir,

I have never known our roads to be in such apalling condition.

Here in Reading potholes are everywhere and there appears to be no ongoing programme in place to fix them.

God knows what visitors and tourists must think coming here. There are better surfaced farm tracks out in the sticks than a lot of our roads.

It's an absolute disgrace.

Yours

Angy of Berkshire.
 
chellie said:
Have you contacted the council about them?
Click to expand...

No, I haven't but only yesterday resolved to do so.

I had been waiting for something to be done but it hadn't been. And now it's not just minor roads, so many of our main roads are strewn with them. You have to start weaving around to avoid some of the worst ones.

I have a mate who works for the roads department in a neighbouring council who tells me that there's simply nowhere near enough money in the budget.
 
JohnnyDee said:
No, I haven't but only yesterday resolved to do so.

I had been waiting for something to be done but it hadn't been. And now it's not just minor roads, so many of our main roads are strewn with them. You have to start weaving around to avoid some of the worst ones.

I have a mate who works for the roads department in a neighbouring council who tells me that there's simply nowhere near enough money in the budget.
Click to expand...

Ours sorts them when they're reported.
 
Rang our council about the rd at the end of our drive being down to the hard core. Got put through to rd dept and spoke to this pig ignorant young kid. He said " we are not responsible for private drives" I kept telling him it's not a private drive, it's the main rd. Eventually I said to him " my grandma used to say shut your cake hole, so shut your cake hole and listen" , " the road at the end of my drive is down to the hardcore ". Get it sorted, three days later it was.
 
Our council has a page on their website where you can report potholes. Once done they fix them within days. If they don't and someone damages their car in one then the council becomes responsible and you can sue them. This has really focused their minds.

I report them quite often as when you think about it if you don't report them how do they know? Get on your council website and report those holes. Be proactive, don't just moan 😀
 
JohnnyDee said:
No, I haven't but only yesterday resolved to do so.

I had been waiting for something to be done but it hadn't been. And now it's not just minor roads, so many of our main roads are strewn with them. You have to start weaving around to avoid some of the worst ones.

I have a mate who works for the roads department in a neighbouring council who tells me that there's simply nowhere near enough money in the budget.
Click to expand...

And it's not always the Council's duty to repair them, but let's lay into them anyway. :rolleyes:
 
JohnnyDee said:
Is there a national agency responsibility too Richard? As I'm thinking more about main arterial routes through towns rather than resedential streets?
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If it's a trunk road it is now HE, or Highways England as the Highways Agency has rebranded itself.

If it's not, then it MAY be the Council's responsibility. Most potholes start as a result of a failed utility reinstatement rather than as a result of any Highway Authority works; we get a 10 year guarantee on our surfaces IF we can keep the utilities out.

From memory, for the first two years after the reinstatement, the utility company is liable for the reinstatement. If it fails it is down to them to repair, not the council. Unfortunately a lot of these will start to fail towards the end of the reinstatement period and if the inspection process doesn't pick them up, they then become a council liability after the two year period. If we can identify a trend of failing reinstatements then we can direct a coring programme towards their works to try & protect our asset long term, but we need to catch first.

For some reason, people don't report them, choosing instead to resort to social media to discuss the council's inability to deal with them. I suppose we could employ more inspectors but then we'd get complaints about wasting taxpayers' money on jobs for the boys; one thing's for certain, we'd be wrong whichever route we took.

And don't get me started on the sort of cretin that thinks it's acceptable to ring up and tell staff to shut their cake hole……….
 
Cheers Richard.

A subject it appears that you have quite a bit of insight on and a bit of experience with too.

It seems to me that having driven around most of my working life and all over the place to boot, the general condition of our road surfaces is becoming progressively worse.

That shiny new motor of mine is getting rattled to smitheteens 👀👀
 
JohnnyDee said:
Sir,

I have never known our roads to be in such apalling condition.

Here in Reading potholes are everywhere and there appears to be no ongoing programme in place to fix them.

God knows what visitors and tourists must think coming here. There are better surfaced farm tracks out in the sticks than a lot of our roads.

It's an absolute disgrace.

Yours

Angy of Berkshire.
Click to expand...
Angy ?:whistle::D
 
The roads in Herefordshire are a disgrace, it's not just pot holes either; many have hardly any surface tarmac left. I cant understand how it has got this bad, surely all this additional tax being paid in by our expanding population should generate enough money to fix the roads.
 
SocketRocket said:
The roads in Herefordshire are a disgrace, it's not just pot holes either; many have hardly any surface tarmac left. I cant understand how it has got this bad, surely all this additional tax being paid in by our expanding population should generate enough money to fix the roads.
Click to expand...

They weren't too bad when I lived down there but they do get a lot of hammer from the farming boys. Up in Shropshire we've reported and had potholes done on our country lane, well say done there ares till plenty left that could have been done, but no doubt down to money again.
 
Lord Tyrion said:
Our council has a page on their website where you can report potholes. Once done they fix them within days. If they don't and someone damages their car in one then the council becomes responsible and you can sue them. This has really focused their minds.

I report them quite often as when you think about it if you don't report them how do they know? Get on your council website and report those holes. Be proactive, don't just moan 😀
Click to expand...

They have a specified time limit in which to start repairing them. Iv fallen foul of that rule before.cant remember how long it is though.
Same old same old though, they won't spend the money unless they are going to be held responsible for it. If no-one reports them and just moans about it on Facebook then they won't ever touch them.
Iv also successfully claimed from the water board who had been repairing a burst pipe and left potholes/ditches on the road.
 
Got called out by my young nephew's dad who'd shred a tyre on country lane after being edged into a pot hole. Great fun in the cold and dark changing his wheel on a busy lane just because no one had repaired the pot hole for some months !
 
The following is third hand and may or may not be true - but it wouldn't surprise me if it is!
About 3 years ago, Bucks County Council changed the speed limit on 2 major roads into town from 40 to 30.
Everyone assumes it was done with road safety in mind, however, I have it from a pretty reliable source that the truth is somewhat different.
Apparently, at 30mph they are allowed to have more potholes per square metre than they are at 40mph.
The Council didn't have enough money to fill the holes so changed the speed limit thus not requiring them to perform the repairs.
Holes were filled the following Spring - I assume they'd gone into a new financial year.....
 
Imurg said:
The following is third hand and may or may not be true - but it wouldn't surprise me if it is!
About 3 years ago, Bucks County Council changed the speed limit on 2 major roads into town from 40 to 30.
Everyone assumes it was done with road safety in mind, however, I have it from a pretty reliable source that the truth is somewhat different.
Apparently, at 30mph they are allowed to have more potholes per square metre than they are at 40mph.
The Council didn't have enough money to fill the holes so changed the speed limit thus not requiring them to perform the repairs.
Holes were filled the following Spring - I assume they'd gone into a new financial year.....
Click to expand...

It would surprise me if it was, and I'd love to see the relevant legislation if it is.

To change the speed limit would require either the making or the rescinding of a Traffic Regulation Order, which needs to be advertised in the press, stating the reasons. I doubt they'd get away with that.

My understanding is that all Councils have to publish intervention levels for potholes, and I've yet to see one that makes any mention of the speed limit, merely the depth of the defect.

I am aware of speed limits being changed that got round restrictions that would have stopped engineering features being put in, and the particular one I'm thinking of broke just about every rule in the book for the use of that limit, so I'm not going to suggest that Councils are always whiter than white, but if this one is true I'd be surprised.

I take it the speed limit has been raised again now they've been repaired then…………. :whistle:
 
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