Council cost-cutting reached a new level of low today when it was announced that in a cynical bid to head off pothole related claims only potholes greater than 1.57 inches (previously it was 0.98 inches) will be repaired. This procedure has been put in place by Lambeth Borough Council in London. On top of this road inspections have been reduced from every 4 months to once every 6 months.

This is a worrying trend considering that already Britain’s roads are a mess and more akin to surfaces you might expect to see in a third world country. It is one that is expected to be adopted across the country by more councils as their budgets are further reduced.

According to recent parliamentary research UK roads require £13.4 billion to be brought up to a reasonable standard – this was previously thought to be around £9 billion.

A perfect illustration of the situation was Kirklees council’s comment on their maintenance programme as their focus has moved from resurfacing and long term repairs towards quick fixes and patching roads which “will naturally increase the backlog of repairs in future years.”

The opinion of potholesnews is that these new changes are unacceptable, the UK roads are already a major concern due to their neglect over an extended period of time. To further cut repairs and ignore this is madness. This is something that needs to be reviewed urgently – it will need to be addressed at some point and the longer we ignore it the more painful it will be to eventually fix it.

Figure quoted from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/8528107/Pothole-problem-sinks-to-new-depths-amid-13bn-repair-bill.html#dsq-content

Check this out! A new addition to the Pro Golf Tour possibly?

A new type of pothole has been launched in Sheffield with the council street teams (who must be short of asphalt) resorting to using roadkill – in this instance a nearby rabbit – to help fill a pothole.

Unlucky Peter Rabbit

The timing right after Easter Sunday is suspicious – perhaps this was some sort of sick protest against the Easter Bunny?

Experts have indicated that roadkill will likely not prove as long-lasting as regular tarmac. This could mean that we soon see Sheffild Council reverting back to the tried and tested asphalt filling of potholes.

A council hosting next year’s Olympic cycle race is refusing to resurface the roads – putting one of Britain’s best chances of glory at risk. Surrey County Council says it can only afford “patchwork and pothole filling” on the olympic cycle route.

 The road race starts near Buckingham Palace but 130 miles of it head through Esher, Leatherhead, Dorking, Guildford, Woking and Weybridge in Surrey before the cyclists head into the final stretch.

 Team leader David Stempfer said: “In terms of the roads around here, they are C or D class and get inspected once a year” 

 Tory councillor Ian Lake said while £34million was earmarked to improve Surrey’s roads this paled in insignificance coompared to the estimated £400 million required to get the roads up to scratch.

The news comes after a district councillor said she was demanding compensation from the county council after her car was damaged by a pothole.  Bridget Lewis-Carr, of Mole Valley District Council, lodged her claim for £101 after running into a pothole she needed a new tyre and had to have her steering realigned.

 She said: “I could have careered into something or someone, it was just so awful. It was ghastly.”

 A Surrey County Council spokesman said: “We have twice the volume of traffic of any other county on our roads.

 “We have been seriously under-funded by the Government and many potholes have been caused because our winters are now so severe.”

We could be facing ‘Third World’ roads costing us £1billion annually, according to website Potholes.co.uk.

Using partner data the website analysed 150,000 of Warranty Direct‘s policies over a three-year period.

It found that nearly six percent of vehicles suffer axle or suspension damage linked to potholes or road defects each year.

The average cost of repair stood at £312, although some individual bills were as high as £4,000.

Besides the risk of major mechanical failures, motorists could also end up paying out an average of £277 to replace damaged wheels and burst tyres.

Duncan McClure Fisher, of Warranty Direct, said: “Back in December, we predicted that a gloomy combination of a very cold winter, huge underfunding and mediocre repairs to roads could potentially lead to the worst ever pothole season – unfortunately our forecast was largely correct.”

Anyone can report a road defect using Potholes.co.uk, which has contact details for councils across England, Scotland and Wales.

Figures for February 2011 show that 39 percent more potholes were reported to the site than in the same month in 2010.

Funds will be found from council budgets to patch up potholes that spring up across Wokingham, according the borough’s transport chief.

Potholes appeared in Blakes Road, Wargrave, this week causing drivers to lurch dangerously across the road to avoid them. Deteriorating road surfaces have also been reported to the council in Winchcombe Road and Station Road, Twyford.

“I’m not saying there hasn’t been any potholes,” said Cllr Baker. “But we haven’t had as many reports as last year. Certainly if any serious potholes are reported to us we will get there and repair them very rapidly.”

Potholes, the bane of motorists appear after spells of cold weather when water gets into the road cracks, freezes and expands. A possible reason roads haven’t been ripped up this winter is money was spent on several road resurfacing projects last year. Though we can’t start counting our chickens just yet – the pothole season is by no means over as last year displayed that a cold snap can hit well into the New Year.

A water main frozen during the recent cold snap has burst in Manchester, leaving a 30 ft by 60ft hole in it’s place. The pipe froze as a result of the recent cold snap and has since had emergency repairs to get the road up and running as quickly as possible.

Your suspension may have an issue with this...

More on international potholes here. Ireland’s take on the pothole problem (not too distant from the UK’s by the sounds of things!)

After seeing this Russian pothole I can’t wait for the 2018 world cup! Great infrastructure they have over there !

A story has gone round the globe of a Malaysian man obsessed with the state of his local road. He will sweep a kilometre of road twice a day before he can enjoy a good night’s sleep!

75-year-old Chen Guo Hua was a lorry driver for 50 years prior to his retirement. His cleaning habit has benefited the local residents as he sweeps away the nails, glasses and other types of rubbish that fall on the road every day to prevent passing vehicles from getting punctures.

He gets up at four every morning to sweep the road. When he sees potholes on the road, he will fill them up with sand and gravel. He will also sweep the road a second time at noon to put his mind at ease.

This strange activity stems from his experience as a lorry driver. While he was driving his lorry down the slope one day, one of the tyres was punctured by a nail and as a result the lorry skidded around and crossed the opposite lane. Fortunately, there were no incoming vehicles at the time, nonetheless the experience awakened him to the serious dangers that could be caused by a tiny nail.

After he saw a local resident’s car swerving across the road after being punctured by a nail a year ago, he started to worry that his children could have an accident driving home. So he picked up his broom and began to sweep the nails, broken glasses, iron plates, etc. to one side of the road so that the drivers would feel safe driving on it.

He said even though his daughter and some residents were puzzled by his actions, he chose to ignore them as he thought it was his responsibility to clear the road of sharp debris or he would be constantly in fear of cars puncturing tyres by nails or broken glasses.

As he has had no income since his retirement, he hopes the public sponsor him for some brooms so that he can carry on with his duty more efficiently. He said the brooms get spoiled easily because he used them to sweep the road every day. However, he said he would fix two woodblocks on the broomstick to make them more durable.

I say we need to get Chen Guo Hua over to the UK as soon as possible! We need as many people as possible who are as passionate and hard working as him if we are to be able to sort out the mess that is the UK road network!