General Chat

Have got a lot to answer for.

Two weeks or so ago I had to spend £160 on my car due to damage caused by potholes, Today OH's car has gone in, needs new bushes and being a BMW they are expensive and it will be 4 hours labour so we are talking nearly £300.

Gloucestershire are now patching potholes but I wonder how many motorists have had to fork out on their cars in the meantime. I know the weather has not helped but if they didn't have this patching mentality there probably wouldn't be half as many potholes, some of which are dangerously deep. I wonder how motor cyclists avoid them in the dark.

Anyone else live in an area suffering from this?

As a motorcyclist, the fact that the roads are in such an appalling state is a factor that has kept me off the road since Christmas.

It's cost me £100 a week on the trains as opposed to about £20 a week using the bike.

Hitting a pot hole at 60mph on an unlit road is not something which appeals!

that is what I thought Brian, at least in a car it is usually the car that suffers. However I am worried about the motorists that swerve to avoid the craters (and who can blame them), making pedestrians and cyclists so vulnerable.

I have just this morning read in our free paper that our council is spending £500,000 on repairing potholes in the borough. To be honest I don't think this is anywhere near enough as the roads round here (on Teesside) are in a terrible state.

We have a crossroads just up the road from us which has at least a dozen potholes in the middle of it. The council came and filled them in yesterday and my son said this morning that they have made an absolute mess of them and if they last a month he will be surprised. I think the whole road needs resurfacing but I can't see it happening any time soon.

Kath. x

According to somebody writing in our paper they are not sealing them correctly so water will get in and if there are more frosts the tarmac will lift again and crumble. What a waste of money.

Where I live we have just Potholes and a small amount of road. I really do not see that the local councils ( Ratepayers) should have to pay for the repairs, Its time the Government used the Money collected in taxes from the Motorists to put them right.The Seafront road in Hastings eventhough recently tarmaced is more like a Strip road in the Bush.and its time all roads were put right.I wonder how many accidents are caused by this disgrace.**M**.

We have just been out and were alarmed at drivers trying to avoid potholes, near were we live there are two perfectly preserved cobbled streets and they are in very good condition, they are well used lots of traffic, so maybe the answer is go back to the tried and true methods, at least they wouldnt have to keep relaying the roads.they have been filling in some of the holes, but they dont preare them ,just bung stuff in, they will be useless again very soon...the cobbles are so smooth and easy to drive on, Btw, they laid modern roads on top of them so when the roads broke up the cobbles were still there.

Jean x

The recent bad weather has caused chaos to the road repair plans, as many previously repaired potholes have appeared again due to the water getting under the repair and lifting with the frosts. One stretch of roadway not far from here and on the route back from the city was resurfaced completely last year, and because of the ice and snow all the chippings have come loose so there was a go slow sign, saying Loose chippings! It will all have to be done again as well as loads more repairs on the lists. So even doing the whole road doesn't mean it will survive the bad weather.

Lizx

O.h. is not looking forward to cycling again, he hasn't ridden his bike since before Christmas but has to do so on Monday, 6 am to 6pm shift as I need the car to get to my counselling session.

Lizx

Get a 4 wheel drive!
Its the only way to survive out here!

We have to winch our vehicles out of some of our potholes!


xxxxx mick

My OH is a great writer to councils regarding potholes and road signs. One of our councils even gives him an order number for his complaints.

A lot of these potholes are on well traversed/ main arteries and can be a real haszard - a big truck hit one and then jack -knifed and caused quite a mess.

On the other hand pot-holing for snapper can be quite an enjoyable pursuit.

Persey

A few years ago we had some mud wallows in our road which is unsealed. I phoned the council and suggested if they werent fixed soon some car was going to disappear in one and finish up, upside down, in England. (Yes, I know you are not our exact antipodes). The road was dealt with soon after.

I had intended to phone council today and ask for another grading to remove the corrugations, but I forgot. Now it will have to wait till Monday. I suspect the council have decided not to bother with any more maintenance as we are going to be dragged kicking and screaming into Daukland Stupid City soon. It is all part of a plan to enable the big boys to sell off the assets to their mates and get lots of rates out of us to be spent in the big smoke.

Democracy is dead in New Zealand.

Huia.

Just New Zealand Huia?

Well, I suspect it is dead elsewhere too but I dont have any experience of other countries.

I was scanning photos this afternoon, including photos I took of the Severn Bore. Made me think of you - not that I consider you a bore, I hasten to add! Have you seen the bore?

Huia.

i was watching something on tv last night saying that the councils had a duty to make the paths in a good state of repair to avoid mostly i bet from being sued, does this not apply to roads too we all pay enough road tax to prevent things like this xx

Went out on Tuesday shopping lost count of the number of potholes and most very deep. It's not a car you need on the roads now it's a tank LOL
Pat

Hi Huia, I have seen a couple of good bores but not for many years, these were back in the 70s before the idiots started to ride them in speed boats as well as surf boards. Once a speed boat gets involved it breaks the impressive wave up. It is s trange sight when all of a sudden the river appears to start flowing the wrong way away from the mouth towards the source as it were. It attracts a lot of people.
Where and when did you watch it?

Hi Ann. We had spent the night at Moreton Valence camping ground. It would have been near there. I have written on the back of the photo that it was at Stone Beach on 18 Sept '97. There werent any speed boats, just surfers, although one launch was following them, presumably for safety. Although it wasnt due until 10.30 am (if I remember rightly) I warned my brother in law that we would need to get there early to get a good place. He usually slept in until 8am but on that morning he was up earlier. We arrived at the river about 9.30 and parked in a good spot and no sooner had we parked than another car was parked behind us, and then a stream of traffic came along the little lane, parking wherever they could. A big truck that came along was having trouble getting past a lot of them. The bore was certainly an impressive sight. We were lucky we were in the area at the right time of the month as it was something we had wanted to see.

Huia. (returning to bed, after taking some panadol for aches and pains)

You definitely saw it from one of the best vantage points then, right in the 'horse shoe bend. If you are EVER in that part of the world again do let me know, I am about 20 minutes away from there!!