Can we talk about potholes please? Why are there so many?

[Irememberwhenitwasallfieldsroundhere]

Motorways seem to be reasonably well maintained but I recently drove from London to Oxford and the state of the roads is a disgrace.

Does anyone know why? Are councils or the highways agency not responsible for repairing the roads?

It's really shocking - my Waze tells me about a pothole every 10 minutes it seems.

Also, is there anything anyone can do about it? If enough people complain will councils fix the roads?

You'd emigrate due to pot holes ....

Our local council isn’t keen on fixing potholes but fucking LOVE to dig up the roads. Constant temporary traffic lights on at least three roads in the area at any given time. MIL works for the council and basically said if the don’t use their budget up before April, they don’t get as much the following year so that’s why it gets to winter time and they just start randomly digging shit up. It drives me insane. It isn’t just roads either, they dig up pavements then they sort of patch over the holes which looks shit.

They definitely don't round here. There can be potholes damaging multiple cars a day that take a week plus to be repaired.

Also are you saying potholes can't be repaired in the dark? Is that in case the workmen get darked on?

Is that you Tom harwood? 'Our potholes aren't getting fixed because kids get taxi transport for mild anxiety to mainstream schools'

I'm sure I saw somewhere that they mend them in March because it's the end of the financial year and maybe the weathers a bit better, though I may have been hoping for this to happen

No, this is bollocks.

It’s simply that our roads haven’t been properly maintained for decades now. When I was a child we lived down a rural lane and it was resurfaced every couple of years!

Now where I live the roads are so bad some of them are genuinely like off-roading. People here are always having to replace their tyres due to punctures. The council come and draw white around them then eventually come and patch up any that are big enough (have to be over 40mm deep) and leave the others. Then within a month or so they are all back because the patching is only temporary.

It really has to be seen to be believed.

They’re definitely using up their budget before April here, but not on repairing potholes. Instead, they’re putting up temporary traffic lights and barriers and then apparently going away.

If I could ever see any work being done, anything being better than it was before or any reason for roadworks, it might be acceptable. But I don’t, it isn’t and there isn’t. A road locally was closed for six months last year for gas works. Apparently they didn’t get them finished for some reason, so it’s closed this year for six months.

No one seems to be accountable. Meanwhile, the verges are full of brambles and the pavements are reduced in size, as well as slippery from the wet leaves.

We pay loads of fuel duty in this country! It needs to be ringfenced for potholes. Outrageous to just hand it over to the Treasury to do as it pleases. It is paid for the purposes of roads and vehicles primarily. Otherwise just another scam.

People should start class actions for vehicle damage, that will make them have to fill these potholes. It is quite outrageous right now and unsafe.

Just covered 9 hours on motorways earlier this week and noted that potholes were plentiful. I was glad of long 50mph stretches.

My guess - decades of austerity and the general shittification of things.

But I actually passed a couple of chaps fixing some in the town yesterday. A small group of observers had gathered to witness the miracle.

They get 25 billion a year fuel duty. Fuel duty is almost 53pence per litre so like 25 pounds every time I refuel plus VAT on top of that I think. Call it 63 pence per litre they are hogging and not putting towards road maintenance. Absolutely outrageous. That is the real issue, do not blame the Councils, blame the Treasury for just pocketing this 25 billion.

There was a good Panorama programme on potholes. Apparently Blackpool council have invested in machinery to detect holes early on and use recycled asphalt and this has good results. OH works in the industry and for years councils have only paid for the cheapest quality asphalt.

I’m sure our council fill ours with porridge. They’re back again within days.

Cars are bigger and heavier.
Stupid amounts of rain.

Not enough able bodied people using their legs for short journeys.
Town planners not putting in safe, well lit, footpaths for active travel.

Cheap contractors using even cheaper materials
Also the same stretch of road being dug up and repatched several times doesnt help. Week one, BT digging a hole then patching it up. Week two, Cadent digging a hole then patching it up. Week three, Water company digging a hole then patching it up…. And so on. Why can’t these companies coordinate their work when there’s a frigging giant hole in the road 🙄

It is absolutely horrendous, worse than ever.

One road near us crucial really for using to get in and out of where we live has become pretty much impossible to drive down without constantly swerving.

Awful!

It is a disgrace. As is the constant fucking supposed roadworks with road closures and yet no one manning them or doing actually any work .
And if there is a person- nine times out of ten they’re sitting in the work van and are on their phone.
Not in the least bit acceptable- especially when I am trying each day to get to the hospital to see my elderly, frail , incredibly poorly beautiful Dad x

In my area there is no incentive for the firms who are paid to fix the pot holes to do it properly. They get paid to do a bodge patch up job then, when that fails, they get paid to repair the bodge with no follow up from the council.

Road near us has been resurfaced in November and already has had to be patched for potholes and small sinkholes. Cheap job done first time around!

It’s awful where I live every road has potholes and deep craters, you are having to avoid them so much and when you do go over them you are gritting your teeth worrying about the damage it’s causing your vehicle.

1 cyclist a week killed or seriously injured due to potholes - UK Road Patch https://share.google/W1VJ6ANP3Dc68A4fl

Potholes are also dangerous.

Locals in a town in Bedfordshire have put up a sign on one road which reads:

"Welcome to Potholesville"

MOT: pass, cars are roadworthy and safe to drive.

Roads: fail, not carworthy or safe to drive on.

Another issue round our way is that the roads are constantly being dug up for utilities - laying broadband, water leaks etc. Which is fine, but they then don't fill them in properly again so the roads are even more prone to development of yet more potholes.