Pothole go slow to calm traffic!

Big Wib
Big Wib Posts: 363
edited April 2009 in Commuting chat
The wonders of town hall thinking

An essex council wants potholes to be left unfilled for longer as a "natural traffic calming measure" :shock:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/8001310.stm

I'm struggling for words to describe the stupidity of this, but on the plus side villagers etc. recognise the negative impact on cyclists.

Comments

  • always_tyred
    always_tyred Posts: 4,965
    Its not a council doing this, its a village council (i.e. a groupd of retired people with too much time and too much self importance on their hands). They have simply determined to stop reporting defects to their council. You can see a certain logic to it, but it won't change the liabilities associated with damage/accidents caused by potholes.
  • roger_merriman
    roger_merriman Posts: 6,165
    i can kinda see why they do that, there are few private roads around here that are very worn, and the cars that do use it, go slowly but there is big difference from riding down a rough track/private road etc which you'd expect to be so, and finding a large pothole on the road.

    as expected this county council sees other wises, bets on the parish staying in next time around?
  • El Gordo
    El Gordo Posts: 394
    I've always thought it sort of ironic that one week potholes are filled in and the next week speed humps installed.

    This suggestion though is ridiculous. Potholes are too haphazard and vicious to act as traffic calming and a small hole rapidly turns into a big one which will lead to huge maintenance problems. It's a relief to see Essex county council are ignoring the idea.
  • Sirius631
    Sirius631 Posts: 991
    Village councils, parish councils, just how many levels of amatures does it take to run our local services? Or more relevantly, how many does it take to ruin things? Why do we even have parish councils when the majority of us don't even subscribe to the foundation from which parishes spring, ie the church.

    This is madness and needs to be challenged. To start with, any riders that pass through this village need to register every pothole that they come across. The weight of reports could act as a protest.
    To err is human, but to make a real balls up takes a super computer.
  • Harry B
    Harry B Posts: 1,239
    The pratts will get their @rses sued off them once damage to cars/bikes occur. Not only do they need legal advice, they also need pyschiatric advice :?

    Still it is Essex, the land of the white stilletto. :lol:

    But just wait until Suralan damages his Pinerello :shock:
  • prj45
    prj45 Posts: 2,208
    I think this is a classic case of the media using the perception that state organisations are affiliated to the government, and are therefore automatically representative of Labour policy.

    You see this often on Daily Mail stories where it brings up say a "draconian" regime for rubbish collection, most of the the comments under the story state how terrible Britain is under a Labour government, but if you look at the composition of the council it's 99% Tory.

    Bit of a non story really.

    Or the parish council is being very clever because apparently the council is now prioritising the fixing of the potholes.
  • always_tyred
    always_tyred Posts: 4,965
    prj45 wrote:
    Or the parish council is being very clever
    This is simply not possible.
  • prj45
    prj45 Posts: 2,208
    This is simply not possible.

    I know, stupid suggestion.