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?

Councils are not allowed to run on a defecit. We are ☹️

I've reported two to our local county council. One was supposed to be sorted by 16th this month, so far it hasn't and in the meantime it has grown in size and there are more potholes appearing.

The second is the road near to my house, a large pothole right in the centre of the crossroad, also reported but has not been inspected yet.

I have two more locations that I am going to report as the danger to cyclists and motorcyclists is serious, especially at night and when they are full of rainwater and can't be easily seen.

He'll be very far from alone in that.

Do the councils not suffer deep shame that people are being forced into buying off-road vehicles to use the main roads that they are supposed to maintain?

What do they do in countries like Germany and Japan? Do they have crumbling, unfit-for-purpose roads as well? Or do they find a proper solution? And why on earth do people keep buying cars with low-profile tyres for British roads? Why do they even sell them here - when they're only really suitable for countries with developed road systems?

I live in Oxfordshire and my car currently has broken bushes (?) thanks to the crater-size potholes locally. Many of them are an absolute death trap for motorcyclists as the rider will catapult over the handlebars.

I live in Oxfordshire and my car currently has broken bushes (?) thanks to the crater-size potholes locally. Many of them are an absolute death trap for motorcyclists as the rider will catapult over the handlebars.

This. The costs to fix are now astronomical due to health and safety, inefficiencies, out sourcing etc etc. Same with pretty much anything these days. There needs to be a root and branch reform of they way we do things in this country or very soon legislation and expense will grind everything to a halt.

Hairbear- I know it looked like a rubbish dump. I drove to Wales from the Midlands the other day and the rubbish on the verges was awful 😞

Road mtce has been underfunded for years now - we all prefer tax cuts.

Far less resurfacing so now the fabric of the road itself is in a poor state, all that happens now is a series of "repairs" that don't last and we get more and more potholes.

Then there is the quality of repair (lasts weeks) or even a full re surface, within a 2 or 3 years, road starts to wash away.

A390 near me, sections have been repaired several times over the last 12 months... just a few wheel barrowful's of tarmac, no sealant or compaction, lasts weeks.

Councils out source roads and their mtce, another privatisation failure.

How can an Alpine road with snow ice, rain & blistering summer temperatures, last for decades, yet an A road resurface in Cornwall lasts 2 or 3 years because significant damage?

Where's mine then?

They ought to be honest about it and scrap the requirement for MoT tests, as the authorities clearly don't care about having safe, roadworthy vehicles on our roads anymore.

Road mtce has been underfunded for years now - we all prefer tax cuts.

But there's so, so much waste and shockingly poor financial decision-making in all local and county councils.

Which tax cuts have we actually had in the last few years? When do we actually start to demand accountability for the responsible use of all the money we're already paying?

Surely the labour must be a significant chunk of the cost of road repairs? How can it be so much cheaper to keep sending a truck full of staff/contractors back to the same pothole again and again, rather than sending them once with quality materials and a realistic time budget to do the job properly?

I had one right outside my old house a huge one and I had to go in it to pull in my drive. Warned the council with measurements about 3 times and then it burst my tyre. They paid up as they have to if they have had it reported and haven’t fixed it and - magically it was fixed two days later.

IMO the bloody enormous cars like tanks that have been proliferating over the past few years, should pay a significantly higher road tax. They are bound to cause more wear and tear on the roads - and they take up too much room in car parks!

Yep, not sure about cuts the tax burden is the highest in 70 odd years.

Its not enough, cost of living has sky rocketed, councils have that to contend with.... materials, wages, estate management.

Look at Govt funding for councils? its so bad that agencies hand back council care contracts because they cannot make any profit at all, meanwhile CT keeps going up and up and up!!

What waste are you talking about?

Tax cuts? well, we had £11 billion of unfunded NI cuts 2 years ago, that would would fix a great deal of our roads.

We voted 4x for Austerity, 2010/15/17/19.. each time the Tories promised tax cuts.

Yes tax burden is highest for 70 years, much of which in smaller hidden tax rises, less efficient to collect than income tax, that used to be 30% plus... & Govt costs have risen just as much, if not more than our own household ones.

We do. The councils have been saddled with legal obligations that are impossible to financially fulfil given the increased number of people with ‘needs’.

The comment from @MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack seems relevant IMO. Nothing to do with Reform-bashing... any group that campaigns on an issue, then doesn't tackle it when in power, should be held to account.

Apologies, duplicate post!

Then we will hold everyone to account for everything, including the Greens who support relentless immigration and accuse everyone of Nimbyism but opposed building in their own areas

Well that goes for all parties then. Have Labour done better?

The drivers are paying 25 billion in fuel duty! That is where the money needs to come from to fix potholes in a proper way. We paid for it, the Treasury just takes it!

Next, the Treasury has just charged millions and millions for interest rates on savings calculated ahead that they will have to repay next year! And Reeves is going to claim they have extra money. It is all a lie. People know this. Some people sold their assets upfront to avoid higher CGT rates. Many have been pushed into higher tax brackets.
People are not fools.

Personally, as someone who has just paid a massive tax bill that I can ill afford so the Treasury charges me in advance - well, happy to give them a free loan if they pay down the sovereign debt. But not if they spoof it on backbencher vanity projects and then next January and ahead we are all utterly screwed when they have to repay me and many like me.

Once again, we demand Fuel duty to stay the same for years at a time (a tax cut in real terms) yet demand better roads.....

We have some of the highest car usage stats in Europe & increasingly terrible weather, using road materials not fit for purpose.

All this comes at a cost.

Midway through watching this and it’s really good - I think it says that the current government have increased funding but there are issues with both local & central government. I think it needs more reporting as it’s really relevant to the local elections.

The woman who has trying to embarrass her council by taking photographs of Barbie dolls having fun in the potholes was fantastic though - great campaigning!