Are councils deliberately not fixing the roads?

DonDaddyD

You know due to the cuts, like a secret protest.

OK so I know we've had some harsh winters of late and I know Boris et al has finally called out the utility companies who don't coordinate repairs, cause traffic jams and don't properly lay tarmac over the part of the roads they dig up. Yes there are many many reasons for potholes.

Pot holes are a feature of British roads. They shouldn't be there is the techonology to reduce or withstand their causes. But it is what it is.

What concerns me is the length of time its taking to repair the potholes.

Borough High street I think cacn just be considered a pothole as oppose to a street or road. Clapham Common, the superhighway, their is a group of potholes that have been there for months. There are more.

It's awful out there and I fear it'll get worse as Councils entrench themselves in cut filled service reductions that sees them only prepared to run services at minimum levels.

Is it their fault or is this another reason to punch Cameron in the face because, you know, you can't keep using the previous Government as an excuse to dick us over and appease your own person greed/ego...

Discuss:

1) How bad the roads on your commute are

And/Or

2) Whose fault is it?

straas

They don't seem to have been repaired with any sort of gusto from before last winter so I'm not sure the blame lies squarely with that pig faced ponce.

On the other hand I have noticed some rather serious holes that haven't been repaired - most worryingly is a hole that's 2ft across by 1/2ft deep and has a massive piece of sharp metal in the middle.

Whoever hits that is in for a world of hurt.

Cuchulainn

Cheltenham council still haven't fixed a load of them from last winter. They are in the process of resurfacing a lot of the roads in the centre at the moment, but I've a feeling some of the worst won't be done...

Sewinman

Arundel Street is actually reverting to soil the holes are so deep! I am expecting lava soon.

mudcow007

Liverpool City Council, totally resurfaced one of the main roads about a month ago, the road surface is glass its fantastico!

hats off to the council.........now just fix the rest of them!

davmaggs

The potholes are getting really noticable on my route and are being left. I'm fairly sure that councils are cutting very public things like road repairs for a couple of reasons.

Firstly if you rub the average person's face in the cuts then they'll moan/not vote for the government so councils are doing some cuts to punish HMG, secondly it is simply far easier to cut front-line things than reform how an organisation actually works.

rick_chasey

Who to blame?

Selfish voters who give gov'ts mandates to cut taxes and neglect UK infrastructure for decades

In fairness to the councils, the current state is the result of a long long period of insufficient funding for that kind of thing.

Hence why the roads are the type of surface which suffers from cold weather more than some of the road you find on the continent.

I may be bullsh!tting on the latter...

CyclingBantam

Without being smart, are you reporting them?

Fill that holeon the CTC website makes it easy to report them and, unless there is a bizzare set of coincidences, whenever I report them they get filled within a day or two. (including one whole stretch of road being re-surfaced).

At the end of they day it is a lot easier for them if they are told where they are as opposed to simply having to find them.

The standard of the filling isn't always great I admit and can only really be classed as temp. but it is better being a little uneaven as opposed to lethally deep.

jds_1981

I was up near Wigan the other day. Driving along a good road surface and went past a sign saying there may be delays in a few weeks due to road surfacing work. I would love roads in London to even approach the quality of the road they were planing to rip up and replace!
I can only presume it was some sort of budget burning going on :?

Ginjafro

The roads in my part of SE Cornwall and Plymouth are definitely getting worse and I blame those miserable bastards in power (as well as harsh winters).

Bikequin

DonDaddyD wrote:

Is it their fault or is this another reason to punch Cameron in the face because, you know, you can't keep using the previous Government as an excuse to dick us over and appease your own person greed/ego...

Why on earth not? Labour spent 13 years blaming the previous government.

People need to accept that we a country have run out of money and can't afford all the things that we'd like in an ideal world.

DonDaddyD

CyclingBantam wrote:

Without being smart, are you reporting them?

Fill that holeon the CTC website makes it easy to report them and, unless there is a bizzare set of coincidences, whenever I report them they get filled within a day or two. (including one whole stretch of road being re-surfaced).

At the end of they day it is a lot easier for them if they are told where they are as opposed to simply having to find them.

The standard of the filling isn't always great I admit and can only really be classed as temp. but it is better being a little uneaven as opposed to lethally deep.

You see here's the thing, Borough high street - as are most roads in London - are very busy. I think it very dangerous to get off my bike, walk into the middle of the road and take a couple photos of potholes. I may not make it back to curb....

essex-commuter

The road where I live was riddled with potholes. I continually complained via fill that hole but nothing happened. About 2 months after I started complaining I came home from work one day to find they had repainted all the white lines down the middle of the road and all the residential parking bays! Where the potholes were they just painted across the rough holes, where they were really bad they just stopped painting and started the other side!

I phoned to the council to complain, 1 month later they came along and whacked some porridge in the holes (they are now mole hills), now I'm just wondering when the white liners will come along to paint the porridge. It's a joke!

Cafewanda

I could guarantee you wouldn't make it back to the curb. However, if you happened to be in the area in the twilight hours with a suitable camera, that might work.

While you're at it, take a snap of the rough bits at the Clapham Common/Clapham Park Road lights. Tonx



*I made those suggestions as you are more likely to be seen than me

Aguila

DonDaddyD wrote:

CyclingBantam wrote:

Without being smart, are you reporting them?

Fill that holeon the CTC website makes it easy to report them and, unless there is a bizzare set of coincidences, whenever I report them they get filled within a day or two. (including one whole stretch of road being re-surfaced).

At the end of they day it is a lot easier for them if they are told where they are as opposed to simply having to find them.

The standard of the filling isn't always great I admit and can only really be classed as temp. but it is better being a little uneaven as opposed to lethally deep.

You see here's the thing, Borough high street - as are most roads in London - are very busy. I think it very dangerous to get off my bike, walk into the middle of the road and take a couple photos of potholes. I may not make it back to curb....

You dont need to take photos, I've never included a photo when using fill that hole, just a description. Worked fine.

CyclingBantam

DonDaddyD wrote:

CyclingBantam wrote:

Without being smart, are you reporting them?

Fill that holeon the CTC website makes it easy to report them and, unless there is a bizzare set of coincidences, whenever I report them they get filled within a day or two. (including one whole stretch of road being re-surfaced).

At the end of they day it is a lot easier for them if they are told where they are as opposed to simply having to find them.

The standard of the filling isn't always great I admit and can only really be classed as temp. but it is better being a little uneaven as opposed to lethally deep.

You see here's the thing, Borough high street - as are most roads in London - are very busy. I think it very dangerous to get off my bike, walk into the middle of the road and take a couple photos of potholes. I may not make it back to curb....

I have not photographed one yet. So long as you put the location on the form they can't really miss them. They are the potholes!

I must admit I always tick the box that says I fell off and had minor injuries. The way I see it is, if they then don't fix it they are risking liability once it has been reported.

Seriously, report it. If they are not told, how are they supposed to know?

gtvlusso

Roads in Bristol have always been rubbish, poorly patched up and knackered after a hard winter.

However, I am on free shock absorber #2 on the car! First one was destroyed by a reported pot hole before winter, second one died when a pot hole opened up after council lighting works - £275 each + £120 each labour to fit.

Council have paid out for both.

Maybe it is some scheme to secretly support car dealers.....?

Kaise

there is one on southmead road in bristol that is aweful and its been there about 8 months!

W1

The general surface of the roads has been terrible for years now, particularly where they've been constantly dug up and badly re-laid. Some of the roads on my commute are attrocious, largely due to the man-hole covers, trenches, dips etc, let alone the pot holes (putney bridge springs to mind!).

At least that fresh bit heading west on the Embankment provides some relief.

Clever Pun

CyclingBantam wrote:

Without being smart, are you reporting them?

Fill that holeon the CTC website makes it easy to report them and, unless there is a bizzare set of coincidences, whenever I report them they get filled within a day or two. (including one whole stretch of road being re-surfaced).

At the end of they day it is a lot easier for them if they are told where they are as opposed to simply having to find them.

The standard of the filling isn't always great I admit and can only really be classed as temp. but it is better being a little uneaven as opposed to lethally deep.

Same here when I report them as a rule they're fixed fairly quickly

notsoblue

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notsoblue

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windsorwise

I've used the http://www.fixmystreet.com/ with some success having 2 what I called potentially fatal pot holes (the ones 6 inches deep with the rocks showing underneath!)

I think the turn around was about a week (Windsor & Maidenhead Council) but the moan about the general disrepair of the same stretch of road has gone un noticed

I can only see the situation getting worse with my personal favourites of:
pot hole 'fixes' that get re-fixed every year like a perennial weed!
surface dressing :shock: that excellent idea of rolling chippings and bitumen over the top of an already shot road - called HRA (hot rolled asphalt)

Anyway rant over - happy thoughts, happy thoughts...

Marin_County

It's important to remember that most local authorities contract out their repairs to the private sector (companies like FM Conway, Morrison etc.) and as such these companies are paid substantial retainers from the public purse and theoretically could be censored by the local authority if they consistently underperform on their contractural reponsibilities. Obviously from the point of view of the private contractor if they can take this retainer and do as little work in return then this = maximum profit!

In reality it seems that whereas most local authorities are over zealous in using their powers to punish and fine soft targets, namely private individuals and households, for infringements of any kind (be it using recycling bins, parking violations, etc. etc.) when it comes to enforcing their powers on these big private companies they are timid in the extreme. It seems to me that there are two problems. Too offten those in the public sector responsible for negotiating or enforcing these contracts seem to be naive in the extreme when dealing with their private sector counterparts. In other cases I suspect that more left leaning councils maybe even see leaving road surfaces in a bad state of repair as another means of attempting to deter motorists from their choosen transportation choice (achieving traffic calming by another method, a big pot hole has the same effect as a sleeping policeman!) but without considering the very real danger they represent to both cyclists and motor cycles.

Anyhow that's my 10 pence worth and my first post on this site!

snailracer

Marin_County wrote:

...In other cases I suspect that more left leaning councils maybe even see leaving road surfaces in a bad state of repair as another means of attempting to deter motorists from their choosen transportation choice (achieving traffic calming by another method, a big pot hole has the same effect as a sleeping policeman!) but without considering the very real danger they represent to both cyclists and motor cycles...

Surrey has the most potholes per mile of road of any council, and is a Conservative stronghold. The rich tory knobs who live there all drive massive 4x4's, they barely notice potholes

Soul Boy

There was a bit about pot holes on Inside Out the other evening (link below @ 11 mins in)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... 8_02_2011/

You'll love it DDD, Borough High st. gets a special mention (apparently the oldest known pothole). No. 2 Putney Bridge and at no.1 Halliford St, Islington.

Maybe some of the money gets swallowed by compensation claims, so less money for repair, more holes, more claims, less money for repairs, more holes...... :roll:

Monkeypump

Clever Pun wrote:

CyclingBantam wrote:

Without being smart, are you reporting them?

Fill that holeon the CTC website makes it easy to report them and, unless there is a bizzare set of coincidences, whenever I report them they get filled within a day or two. (including one whole stretch of road being re-surfaced).

At the end of they day it is a lot easier for them if they are told where they are as opposed to simply having to find them.

The standard of the filling isn't always great I admit and can only really be classed as temp. but it is better being a little uneaven as opposed to lethally deep.

Same here when I report them as a rule they're fixed fairly quickly

I've just used the website for the first time (last week), so we'll see if the repairs are ever done. Nothing yet though! The offending potholes aren't in Town though, so maybe the process isn't as speedy in rural Bucks.

georgee

I have continually whinged to Wandsworth about Priory Lane, after I started 9 months ago with the assistance of the local cycling campaign.

I got some action after about 3 months though they missed loads and it took two more attempts for them to sort most of them. Finally the representative at the council, Steve Jolley stopped replying to any correspondence.

There are two main ones which I have complained about numerous times and then wrote to the three relavent councillors.

1. Adrian Knowles - questions from him why it should affect me as I don't live in his borough, then silence
2. Peter Jon Carpenter - initial help, said he looked at the road and got wandsworth to tackle the worst one (neither the two most hazardous and I don't know where the hole was!?) then said the rest would be picked up by their annual programme (doubtfull)
3. Jennifer Nicholls - silence

This morning I lodged an official complaint with the council about Steve Jolley and i'll wait and see if there is any action.

MonkeyMonster

DonDaddyD wrote:

1) How bad the roads on your commute are

And/Or

2) Whose fault is it?

1) Really bad in places, fine in others
2) Yours for wasting tax payers money on here all the time

Hee hee hee

notsoblue

Theres one at the Queen's Ride/LRR roundabout that you could see from space if it wasn't for the tree.... http://goo.gl/maps/vIOM

jonginge

notsoblue wrote:

Theres one at the Queen's Ride/LRR roundabout that you could see from space if it wasn't for the tree.... http://goo.gl/maps/vIOM

Pah! teeny tiny compared with the one on the corner of Mill Hill Rd and Rocks Lane...