To think landowners should keep their roads in good condition?

[IroningThrone]

Sorry for the long title!

Been visiting a new house for an interview for a new job and it's on a farm in the middle of nowhere down country lanes. The lane/drive to the farm is terrible - really bad potholes, a couple that are probably 8-10 inches deep!

I like the house and loved the family but the thought of driving up and down the lane is really putting me off. I have a nice but older car (12 reg) that's quite low and I'm worried about damage to it.

Aibu to think the landowner should keep the road in good condition?

In an ideal world - but farmers are likely to be up and down in tractors and 4x4s and the farm tracks are simply not up to that kind of heavy traffic because they are not constructed that way! They can fill the potholes, but some bad weather and a few tractors later and you're back to square one. (Life time spent driving on farm tracks so I feel your pain but they are not highways!)

It's their road on a farm, with heavy equipment etc. If you're expecting smooth as silk you're going to be disappointed.

Lol 😆 waste of money, any new surface would just get trashed again with all the machinery. Money best spent elsewhere.

It's their land they can do what they want

Actually it isn’t up to the landowner. It is up to those with frontage and who require access. So it is up to the family and not the farm. They obviously don’t think it is worth doing, so won’t pay.

Easier said than done. Once a month we refill holes. They quickly reappear with tractors zipping up and down

I live down a dirt track. I don’t own it, but I am expected to maintain it. We’ve had it scraped and relaid 3 times in the 17 years I’ve lived here. Filling in the potholes does not work, because the filling does not bind with the road surface and is easily bounced back out again. The issue has become worse over the years - wankers in delivery vans belt along the lane to our neighbours further down. Even the postman drives like a lunatic along it. Every time they hit a little bump hard it knocks it a bit more into a pothole. Eventually the potholes are so big they cannot belt along, so they drive up on the grass verge to drive around them, turning it too sloppy mud. We also have 4x4 drivers who drive up and down especially when it’s wetter than normal, as the lane is a byway (a green lane.)

I would dearly love not to have such big potholes, but the road surface is not really designed for regular fast traffic. Living in an AONB we must use historically and locally correct materials which are traditionally used for minor tracks. It costs several thousand pounds each time we do it, and when we’ve repaired it the delivery vans drive fast again. I would rather see them break their axles than keep funding their racing car tendencies. However, we are on a 12 month waiting list with the local track repairer to get it done yet again. They say madness is doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for a different outcome. I’m hoping that one day the delivery drivers and midnight mud pluggers will be a bit more respectful to the road I pay for but don’t own nest time, but I know this is a mad and forlorn hope.

Hopefully you’ll appreciate what the council do to maintain roads

Look, if this is an issue for you then you aren't cut out to live on a farm.

This is what living on farm entails - shitty bumpy roads wrecked by tractors/feed wagons/ milk tankers

Shit everywhere all over and in your car from splashing through mucky puddles

Big vehicles doing annoying noisy, dirty, dusty things frequently, near your home.

Animals with the sole aim to escape into your garden or bash your wing mirrors

Spiky hedges that you will be expected to pull into to pass other vehicles

If an unmaintained road is an issue then its not for you.

@Scrowy spot on 😆

Not sure why everyone is assuming I have no idea about the Ways of the Farm.

I grew up on one. Live in a small village. I know what country roads/lanes are like.

This lane is something else - I genuinely have never seen such big deep pot holes and the person currently doing the job I've applied for said he's damaged a wheel/tyre (can't remember which) on the potholes.

Could you negotiate provision of a suitable vehicle as part of the benefits package for this job?

I didn't assume anything. I grew up on a farm (and still live on one now) and I have siblings with the exact same childhood experience as me. One of them would absolutely refer to 'landowners' rather than farmers and complains about the potholes and the muck on her car when she visits our parents.

It's not about your background its about your mindset!