The budget

UpTheWall

Did anyone notice the 100m allocated to "potholes" in the budget?

My initial thought: hallelujah!

My second: hang on, most times they repair a pothole, it's so shoddy it crumbles within weeks...

Fingers crossed.

ride_whenever

isn't the pothole requirement after the winter almost an order of magnitude greater than that

bails87

Yep, and I'm sure they'd already cut the budget to councils to repair potholes by a lot more than that. Then they give them a little bit (yes £100m is a lot of money, but not for every council to repair every pothole) and make it seem like they're being generous.

But finally the War On The Motorist is starting to end, wahey :roll:

desweller

I reckon they're holding off repairing the London ones until just before everyone starts to arrive for the Olympics next year. Otherwise they'll do them now, then have to do them again after next winter.

Drysuitdiver

DesWeller wrote:

I reckon they're holding off repairing the London ones until just before everyone starts to arrive for the Olympics next year. Otherwise they'll do them now, then have to do them again after next winter.

there is a huge amount of infrastructure work currently being done in the 5 host boroughs.

the work to improve routes both for cars ( boo) and cycles (yay) has started and needs to continue at a tremendous pace if its going to be complete for the 2012 olympics.

a quick botched repair job costs over twice that of a proper repair 1st time.

bails87

Drysuitdiver wrote:

DesWeller wrote:

I reckon they're holding off repairing the London ones until just before everyone starts to arrive for the Olympics next year. Otherwise they'll do them now, then have to do them again after next winter.

there is a huge amount of infrastructure work currently being done in the 5 host boroughs.

the work to improve routes both for cars ( boo) and cycles (yay) has started and needs to continue at a tremendous pace if its going to be complete for the 2012 olympics.

a quick botched repair job costs over twice that of a proper repair 1st time.

God, there's some new "repairs" on my way home from work, that look like the tarmac just fell off the back of the lorry when it bumped through the pothole. Properly atrocious, lumpy tarmac, spilling over the edges and only filling 3/4 of the hole, so it's still got the sharp edge.

Frank the tank

£100,000,000 Very nice but it's a drop in the ocean, nowhere near enough. There's plenty of pot-hole ridden tarmac on our fair isle.

bails87

Frank the tank wrote:

£100,000,000 Very nice but it's a drop in the ocean, nowhere near enough. There's plenty of pot-hole ridden tarmac on our fair isle.

And the pothole repair budget was cut by £130 million, so the "£100m extra for pothole repairs" could be seen as a £30m cut.

Cressers

Wasn't that sum of money announced before some weeks ago? I doubt if it's new money.

rick_chasey

Indeed.

Rather like the apprentice schemes which were announced - loads more were cancelled last budget, and they're now funding much fewer than they were before the emergency budget.

Still - at least there is a formal recognition that it is an issue > it essentailly forces councils to spend money on it.

bails87

Rick Chasey wrote:

Still - at least there is a formal recognition that it is an issue > it essentailly forces councils to spend money on it.

Yep, that would be 'localism'. Take away a load of money, then give the councils a bit more freedom on what they spent the remaining money on. What's that, potholes haven't been mended? Wasn't us guv, it's the nasty councils. :roll:

rick_chasey

bails87 wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Still - at least there is a formal recognition that it is an issue > it essentailly forces councils to spend money on it.

Yep, that would be 'localism'. Take away a load of money, then give the councils a bit more freedom on what they spent the remaining money on. What's that, potholes haven't been mended? Wasn't us guv, it's the nasty councils. :roll:

Indeed.

They may be sh!t governers, but they're good at politics.

Stewie Griffin

Drysuitdiver wrote:

DesWeller wrote:

I reckon they're holding off repairing the London ones until just before everyone starts to arrive for the Olympics next year. Otherwise they'll do them now, then have to do them again after next winter.

there is a huge amount of infrastructure work currently being done in the 5 host boroughs.

the work to improve routes both for cars ( boo) and cycles (yay) has started and needs to continue at a tremendous pace if its going to be complete for the 2012 olympics.

a quick botched repair job costs over twice that of a proper repair 1st time.

Are they still going to have an Olympic only car lane? That's going to be funny.

UpTheWall

bails87 wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Still - at least there is a formal recognition that it is an issue > it essentailly forces councils to spend money on it.

Yep, that would be 'localism'. Take away a load of money, then give the councils a bit more freedom on what they spent the remaining money on. What's that, potholes haven't been mended? Wasn't us guv, it's the nasty councils. :roll:

That's a good poitn and something that's been bothering me for a while.

Blame shifting is a very easy interpretation of so many government initiatives at devolving powers, from the MPC to issues above.

I've never really understood this drive towards localism that both the current and previous administrations have lauded...

sheffsimon

Hard to imagine why Sheffield council have no money to fix potholes....

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/local/nea ... _1_3193430

:roll:

Cressers

...and how long before the true costs of the olympics are revealed...?

neiltb

you'll never know

daviesee

I am not sure about the exact year but Montreal finally paid off their debt within the past few years - for the 1976 olympics! :shock:

simonaspinall

bails87 wrote:

Yep, and I'm sure they'd already cut the budget to councils to repair potholes by a lot more than that. Then they give them a little bit (yes £100m is a lot of money, but not for every council to repair every pothole) and make it seem like they're being generous.

But finally the War On The Motorist is starting to end, wahey :roll:

The war on the motorist won't begin until the clips from AK47s are unloaded in driver's doors across the country and Jeremy Clarkson's screams are drowned out by the all-encompassing bonfire flames he has been consumed by.