It seems that every road I drive on at the moment has potholes, potholes and more
potholes. There were literally dozens of them around every corner I turned today, some quite enormous ones. I spent a couple of hours swerving all over the road to avoid sinking into them and damaging my car on my weekly drive to visit my mother out in the Fens.
Am I alone in thinking that driving on a road without potholes is a rarity at the moment? Why are our roads not built to withstand the British weather? Why do they melt in the summer and disintegrate during freezing winter conditions? Why are they not made to be durable and fit for purpose? Does it defy our skills and technology in this day and age to build a road which can be used all year round without suffering major problems and causing potential risk to road users? And those lethal potholes must make road conditions treacherous for cyclists and motorcyclists.
I sympathise with local authorities who have to foot the bill for these countless repairs, estimated at a shocking £10 billion; surely all the more reason to discover why we are building such poor roads. Which country is there that we can look to for best practice on this?
Here is a link to a website called potholes.co.uk where you can report pothole damage – there is a pothole map of the UK – and also find out how to claim if your car has suffered pothole damage.
And do let me know if you find a pothole-free hole road in the UK!
Well we have lots of potholes too. What is a great contrast is the fact that we just spent a billion dollars to improve the road from Vancouver to Whistler for the Olympics. So we get to pay for that but suffer the potholes in our own area. Grumble, grump.
Last year I complained about the potholes in our road to my MP..as I was sick and tired of reporting to the council…MP got in touch with me and the council .he also enclosed letter he sent to them and the reply from them..oh yes they were done, but now since the bad weather, a couple more have appeared!!
This pothole business, Ellee, is an indicator of an authoritarian, central planning government. This is precisely what it was like in Russia – the government had far more important things to spend it on, like smoking inspectors and glossy pamphlets, telling us how much they’d been doing.
The potholes are getting worse…another costcutter.
It just proves that life is full of pot holes, doesn’t it! Some can be fixed; some can be dodged and then some are difficult to see or avoid!
our roads are absolutely full of the wretched things!
It’s a national problem
Norfolk County Council seem to build roads that get potholes within days sometimes. I don’t know what they do !
No, our road is just the same and the only way out of our cul-de-sac. I doubt the council will pay for the wrecked car suspensions though. Thanks for such a useful link, Ellee.