Road to ruin: Councils warn they may have to ignore pothole repairs on some roads

What infuriates me is that much of the time the potholes occur where previous repairs have been badly done. At least that's recognised ("One problem highlighted is that constant patching up of repairs") but in my humble opinion contractors just seem to do poor jobs as quickly as they can. And no one polices them. I'd fine the buggers if the repair doesn't last, say, more than a year. And it's my money that pays them!!

One reason it's getting worse is HGVs, which have increased in size, weight and number over the years, drastically increasing the harmful impact they have on the road network.

In rural areas farm traffic has a similar effect. Tractors get wider and heavier. They damage the verge, exposing the edge of the road to damage, and bring even more soil from fields onto the road, which blocks both natural drainage and sewers. Dairy farmers are the worst offenders; to make money you need to produce more and more milk, meaning more cows and lots more feed, manure and slurry being carted around.

Another is the quality of repairs. In Shropshire many potholes and other damage to the road surface are poorly patched and not sealed so they break up very quickly.

While councils are under pressure to make big budget cuts they are unlikely to have a more proactive policy towards road maintenance. Ultimately the blame lies with the selfish bastards who voted for this bunch of millionaire muppets in the first place.

In a way the DfT is right about funding. Councils get lots of cash in the form of maintenance and transport plan grants. the trouble is that many see these as a way of implementing shiny, new, pet projects rather than keeping what they've got up to scratch.
Follow this up with utility companies not filling their holes properly, councils not actively chasing for rectification (is that even a word?) and, dare i say, the end of the financial year so the councils haven't allowed enough budget for the winter months, you have a disaster. As for that third point, don't know why they don't budget properly; it's not like autumn and winter come at different times every year.
And my final moan. i agree with markfireblade's comment. Too often they spend money on bike paths on straight roads yet omit any decent safety measures where they are really need; junctions and roundabouts. God forbid that the through-velocity of a motor vehicle is ever reduced.

"Pulling the legs from under the Cornish economy" - No perhaps indicating that the Cornish economy has been built on the shaky foundations of dependence on cheap transport by road on a roads network which is not 'robust' enough to carry the traffic, because it is under-maintained, and under-specified for the traffic loadings.

Minor road links might be maintained for light traffic, with heavy vehicles permitted under special conditions, running at reduced speeds (road damage is magnified by a factor of the square of the square of the vehicle speed double the speed and 8 times the damage)

One way to reduce the repair bills in town is to only repair the roads which the law requires the Council to repair. Check your local town or city - especially after a fall of snow, and see just how much road is actually needed to move the traffic. Potentially lless than 50% of the road surfaces are actually needed - much of the rest is used to park cars (often for no cost to the owners) when they sit idle for typically 95% of the time. So by not repairing road space used for parking, a council might save up to 50% on road repair costs. The mechanism does exist s.69 or 70 RTA 1988 if I recall it right, to stop up the road not required for moving traffic and (normally) return the ownership to the frontager, as the land titles usually include the solum of the road outside. The potential is huge - frontagers might extend their gardens with a mini-plot in the street outside, or work co-operatively to rent out their land as parking space, at a stroke removing the perennial arguments over councils making a profit from parking (which is technically illegal - s.1.9 prohibits making any profit from use of the land on which the road sits, as it often belongs to the frontagers)

Now I'll bet that's got you all checking your title deeds!

Bloody awful news, having just 'finished off my 90% tired' road wheels both dented rims on a huge pothole in the dark I'm now on a crusade to report very pothole I pass. One day I'll satisfy the time period and win a claim. I'm hanging onto my damaged wheels. Fraud yes but honesty doesn't pay when the one sided councils operate on their own terms.

As long as councils continue to waste money on unsafe, badly designed and implemented "traffic calming" schemes like they do in South Somerset, the roads will continue to fall apart, like they do in South Somerset...

Two things I don't understand -

(a) Why aren't private utility companies obliged to _properly_ restore the road surface after they dig it up (at their own expense)? Time and again you find half-fixed "trenches" across the road that you have to brace yourself for once you learn where they are...or botched fill-ins that will obviously fail very quickly

(b) Why, when potholes _are_ repaired by the council, do they do such an obviously shoddy job that usually return to being a pothole within a year? (Like several in the road near where I live, that are now back to being worse than they were before they were 'repaired' only a year or so ago - they started to fall apart within months of being 'fixed'). Its seems a complete waste of resources to do it badly.

Two councillors live down a posh country lane, near where I live, and the tarmac is as smooth as anything I have ever seen

Yeah, I don't see the problem. Why doesn't government simply announce 'road tax' increases to plug the gap.

I tried working out 10.5 billion (road repair cost) by the number of UK registered vehicles at 34.5 million but the calc struggled and I'm not sure I believed the number I got.

Either way it's a lot of money for each vehicle but at least the road tax brigade would be right for once!

So...any councillors out there want to grow a pair and actually propose it?

One for Mr. Cameron perhaps.

To all those motorists who claim that they pay for the roads through their 'road tax', ask yourselves why the roads are no longer maintained despite you paying just as much 'road tax' as ever!

This article is perfect evidence that local roads are paid through council tax not 'road tax' and because the councils are not able to raise council tax (both a blessing and a curse) they do not have the funds to fix the roads.

YOU CAN’T CUT BACK ON FUNDING! YOU WILL REGRET THIS!

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/you-cant-cut-back-on-funding-you-will-regr...

I'll put up with some pot holes if there going to close the roads to cars.

A local road I use for my day commute was close to all traffic for a couple of months last summer. I was able to get round the building work on my bike and it made 5 miles of my commute just about car free, it was brilliant.

I see that West Sussex CC plans to allocate an additional £30m to its unclassified roads over the next 2 years, so you know where to head for:

http://www.westsussex.gov.uk/your_council/news_and_events/news/2013_arch...

Ever since the industrial revolution productivity has been increasing. The average worker still doesn't get to go home with more than what they need to just get by. And yet we keep being told there is less and less money available for education, infrastructure and health. Where exactly is all that money going? I want to know because I increasingly feel like picking up my pitchfork and going to get it back.

I hope they at least prioritise the cycle network rural roads. A lot of them are a disgrace, but all too often the rural road down which you can find a councillors house is nicely surfaced.

I know plenty of roads that haven't been touched for years, and now those roads are failing. trenches cut by utility companies where the repair has never really bonded to the original surface and now the patch is coming out, or the join is failing.

With the current wet weather, as soon as the tarmac has failed the holes opens up in minutes, literally!!

“The problem is that for 100 years we’ve been maintaining the roads to the very best standards we can.

Rubbish, you've been slipping repairs for the last ten years or more and it's finally catching up with you...

Does that mean us living in rural areas can look forward to a reduction in council tax?