Pothole rant

[Velma's Dad]

Here’s the answer to two problems in one go.
There are 12,635,000 state pensioners in UK.
I read somewhere it will take £14 billion to repair the potholes. I suspect that’s an underestimate but we’ll go along with it.
Knock a tenner a week off the state pension, they won’t miss it, that will bring in £6.57 billion a year.
Just over 2 years and the potholes are gone.
Get on with it.

I like your thinking. Building on the theme... form a national service conscription scheme in which all pensioners (below age 80, let's be reasonable) are mandated to donate one week's labour per year to pothole-filling squads. Great benefits in maintaining strength and fitness, will save the NHS £350 million a week (seems like a good number, I got it off the side of a bus). They get a specially minted medal that they can wear proudly around Asda and down the bowls club and the right to sit at a reserved table in every Wetherspoons where they can bang on about what they did for the country in the Pothole War.

 

[Mansfieldman750]

I like your thinking. Building on the theme... form a national service conscription scheme in which all pensioners (below age 80, let's be reasonable) are mandated to donate one week's labour per year to pothole-filling squads. Great benefits in maintaining strength and fitness, will save the NHS £350 million a week (seems like a good number, I got it off the side of a bus). They get a specially minted medal that they can wear proudly around Asda and down the bowls club and the right to sit at a reserved table in every Wetherspoons where they can bang on about what they did for the country in the Pothole War.

Spot on. Rod Stewart to co-ordinate it.

 

[Mansfieldman750]

Plan won’t work. The RAC has come out against it. Shame, I’m sure Adidas would have sponsored the pensioners like they did with Rod.
And I was worried about my wife’s Up. What about the Ferrari?

 

[Parkinjm]

Potholes here in Lancashire are dreadful, especially it seems on the main roads through my city. County Council is blaming the wet weather (73 days of rain in last 90) but their programme of work for next year doesn’t mention the roads that are in dreadful condition. Partícularly peed off because of two punctures on these roads in the last week.

We have the worst of both worlds - highest tax in decades and worst public services on record. Sick of hearing people blaming Covid and War in Ukraine since other countries experienced the same and manage to stop things falling apart.

 

[Corradobrit]

We have the worst of both worlds - highest tax in decades and worst public services on record. Sick of hearing people blaming Covid and War in Ukraine since other countries experienced the same and manage to stop things falling apart.

Timely Panorama this evening

 

[Velma's Dad]

Timely Panorama this evening

Yep, a summary is on the Beeb News site here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68564077

 

[Mansfieldman750]

Potholes here in Lancashire are dreadful, especially it seems on the main roads through my city. County Council is blaming the wet weather (73 days of rain in last 90) but their programme of work for next year doesn’t mention the roads that are in dreadful condition. Partícularly peed off because of two punctures on these roads in the last week.

We have the worst of both worlds - highest tax in decades and worst public services on record. Sick of hearing people blaming Covid and War in Ukraine since other countries experienced the same and manage to stop things falling apart.

It‘s always bad up north. 4,000 holes in Blackburn Lancashire even in ‘67

 

[Mansfieldman750]

What is the Levelling Up Minister doing about it ? Don’t stop me I’m on a roll.

 

[Lee.Van.Cleef]

It‘s always bad up north. 4,000 holes in Blackburn Lancashire even in ‘67

They were rather small as I recall.

 

[Mansfieldman750]

They were rather small as I recall.

Dunno. Enough to fill the Albert Hall.

 

[Borris]

Vale of Glamorgan. I reported an enormous pothole (online) on Sunday. Coned off early Monday. Fully fixed yesterday.

I was cycling and stopped to photograph it.

in the 5 minutes I was there i witnessed 2 cars failing to avoid it, many more would have driven through it previously but obviously none had bothered to stop and report.

a lesson there.

View attachment 120144

What's the point in reporting potholes?

When the authorities do send someone out, it's often a chap in a pick up truck with some black top. If your lucky, the hole will be tidied up, filled and punned flat. That's it! See post #48 for examples. It is rare to find that the hole has been properly prepared by disc cutting clean edges then filled, compacted and flattened, with the join treated against further water ingress with hot liquid pitch. Without proper prep and that hot pitch, the water will enter the joint and frost along with traffic will do the rest. Net result = A 5 minute repair that will last little more than 5 minutes. I see this every year where I live. The only repair that I have ever seen that lasted any time, was carried out by a specialist vehicle which filled the hole with a sprayed resin bonded agrigate mix. I haven't seen it since!

Then there's the sunken man hole cover issue. When roads are resurfaced rarely do they appear to raise these manhole covers to the same level as the resurfaced road. Result = Every vehicle provides a shock load on the sunken cover and pit beneath, eventually leading to it's collapse.

I honestly believe that potholes are now seen as a traffic calming measure by some of our anti car obsessed leaders. Beside discouraging car use, all resultant damage to said vehicles results in more income for the exchequer. Winner, winner..........

I paid out £1200 recently when all four tyres on my wife's car were found to have splits in them following pothole incidents sustained on one trip to the midlands. The car had had it's service the week before with one of those underbody video inspections. The tyres were then all at about 5mm with no splits or faults!

 

[Borris]

I want the potholes sorted but as @WelshGas rightly pointed out I have to be fiscally responsible about it - the money cannot just be magicked up.
I would do away with the triple lock on the state pension. It’s nonsense.
I got a 10.1% rise last year because that’s what inflation was running at.
This year I am getting 8.5% rise because that’s what average earnings increased by this year.
If inflation was to come down to say 1.5% I would get 2.5% because that’s the third part of the triple lock.
Whichever way the dice rolls, pensioners are the winner.
So I’m a turkey voting for Xmas, scrap it.

View attachment 120213

I'm guessing that you are living on more than just your state pension? I suggest you spare a thought for those pensioners who have to live on SP alone.

Due to age and infirmity, people in this age bracket are much less likely to be able to supplement their SP income. If the triple lock is done away with how do you propose that the government ensures that the state pension doesn't fall behind again? The 10.1% rise last year wasn't a massive pension rise for state pensioners, it merely ensured that their SP wasn't devalued.

 

[Mansfieldman750]

I'm guessing that you are living on more than just your state pension? I suggest you spare a thought for those pensioners who have to live on SP alone.

Due to age and infirmity, people in this age bracket are much less likely to be able to supplement their SP income. If the triple lock is done away with how do you propose that the government ensures that the state pension doesn't fall behind again? The 10.1% rise last year wasn't a massive pension rise for state pensioners, it merely ensured that their SP wasn't devalued.

It’s just the law of compounding that if the triple lock exists forever, eventually the state pension will be more than the average wage. Would take a while I grant you but that’s the simple maths of it.
How I would propose to make sure the state pension doesn’t fall behind is to link it to either inflation or the average wage increase. But not the greater of the two.
Why can’t we have both - decent roads and well looked after pensioners ?
Is something wrong with our country ?

 

[Velma's Dad]

Why can’t we have both - decent roads and well looked after pensioners ?
Is something wrong with our country ?

Basically, yes. We have had a stagnating economy (versus that of our main G8 'competitors') for the past 15 years. Top-line GDP growth has been sluggish, with growing inequality, both between income groups and regionally, aggravated by lowering workforce participation rates esp since the pandemic.

This productivity slow-down has gone unrecognised for a decade, while there's been a political/media fixation with Europe/Brexit, immigration etc, so the Government has not been held to account for having no coherent long term economic plan. Meanwhile, demand for public services esp health and social care continues to rise due in large part to simple demographics - the percentage of over-65s went up from one in six to one in five in just two decades 1999-2019.

So yes, unless we start formulating and implementing long term solutions to the growing productivity gap, we will indeed have to make hard choices eg between maintained roads or well cared for oldies.

 

[sidepod]

I’m looking forward to PMQ’s when the other bunch of ***ts get in. The current bunch of ***ts demanding they do something about the state of this third world dump.

 

[Mansfieldman750]

Basically, yes. We have had a stagnating economy (versus that of our main G8 'competitors') for the past 15 years. Top-line GDP growth has been sluggish, with growing inequality, both between income groups and regionally, aggravated by lowering workforce participation rates esp since the pandemic.

This productivity slow-down has gone unrecognised for a decade, while there's been a political/media fixation with Europe/Brexit, immigration etc, so the Government has not been held to account for having no coherent long term economic plan. Meanwhile, demand for public services esp health and social care continues to rise due in large part to simple demographics - the percentage of over-65s went up from one in six to one in five in just two decades 1999-2019.

So yes, unless we start formulating and implementing long term solutions to the growing productivity gap, we will indeed have to make hard choices eg between maintained roads or well cared for oldies.

My God, what have we become.

 

[ArunAlec]

What's the point in reporting potholes?

When the authorities do send someone out, it's often a chap in a pick up truck with some black top. If your lucky, the hole will be tidied up, filled and punned flat. That's it! See post #48 for examples. It is rare to find that the hole has been properly prepared by disc cutting clean edges then filled, compacted and flattened, with the join treated against further water ingress with hot liquid pitch. Without proper prep and that hot pitch, the water will enter the joint and frost along with traffic will do the rest. Net result = A 5 minute repair that will last little more than 5 minutes. I see this every year where I live. The only repair that I have ever seen that lasted any time, was carried out by a specialist vehicle which filled the hole with a sprayed resin bonded agrigate mix. I haven't seen it since!

Then there's the sunken man hole cover issue. When roads are resurfaced rarely do they appear to raise these manhole covers to the same level as the resurfaced road. Result = Every vehicle provides a shock load on the sunken cover and pit beneath, eventually leading to it's collapse.

I honestly believe that potholes are now seen as a traffic calming measure by some of our anti car obsessed leaders. Beside discouraging car use, all resultant damage to said vehicles results in more income for the exchequer. Winner, winner..........

I paid out £1200 recently when all four tyres on my wife's car were found to have splits in them following pothole incidents sustained on one trip to the midlands. The car had had it's service the week before with one of those underbody video inspections. The tyres were then all at about 5mm with no splits or faults!

There’s a good reason to report pot holes…… As I understand it if someone makes a claim against the council for damage caused by a pot hole the council can reject the claim if they can demonstrate that they have an inspection regime .
If they’ve been carrying out this process but a pot hole “appears” in between inspections AND it has not reported to them they can reject the claim on the basis that they were not aware.

 

[Mansfieldman750]

Sadly we have dropped below Kazakhstan in the pothole league table but never mind we’re not as bad as Mongolia. Yet.

 

[Corradobrit]

Sadly we have dropped below Kazakhstan in the pothole league table but never mind we’re not as bad as Mongolia. Yet.

View attachment 122636

Me thinks this is the only answer for safe UK driving

 

[TripleBee]

Me thinks this is the only answer for safe UK driving
View attachment 122637

If you want newer:

 

[Mansfieldman750]

Me thinks this is the only answer for safe UK driving
View attachment 122637

Damn, too late. My wife’s gone and swapped the Up Gti For a Suzuki Ignis. Yours would have been better.

 

[flying banana]

And vote for another bell

There's a general election this year. Use your vote.

end who doesn't even know what a woman is. We are doomed

 

[Mansfieldman750]

As far as potholes go both Labour and the Tories say they are keeping the Triple Lock so there will be no money for fixing potholes.

 

[Laura Hill]

As far as potholes go both Labour and the Tories say they are keeping the Triple Lock so there will be no money for fixing potholes.

Labour and Tories said there is no money for fixing potholes because of the triple lock?

Really?

Do you have a source for this nugget of information?

Or ... did you by chance just make up a load of nonsense and come out with this stupid statement?

 

[Mansfieldman750]

Labour and Tories said there is no money for fixing potholes because of the triple lock?

Really?

Do you have a source for this nugget of information?

Or ... did you by chance just make up a load of nonsense and come out with this stupid statement?

Well, if I can take the Tories first. They have been running the show since 2010 and potholes have gotten progressively worse. So they’ve had their chance to fix them and haven’t done it.
Because there are 12 million state pensioners and old people tend to vote Tory more than Labour the Tories say they will keep the Triple Lock.
So Labour say they‘ll do same because 12 million is a lot of votes.
Now the State Pension costs the taxpayer £120 billion a year and since the last 2 increases were 10.1% and 8.5% thats put another £20 billion on the bill.
There is no giant state pension pot. Current taxpayers pay for current pensioners. What goes to pensioners comes from taxpayers.
So what you have is Robin Hood in reverse.
What will probably happen is Labour will get in and after a year or two they will set up a commission to look at the Triple Lock and say that they will abide by its finding. Which will be that the country can’t afford the Triple Lock.
But the Triple Lock has to stay for the next parliament as promised so the pensioners can still go to the Toby Carvery and complain about er potholes.