MSE News: Potholes costing £1 million a month in car repairs
Former_MSE_Callum
Posts: 696 Forumite
Potholes are costing drivers and their insurers at least £1 million a month due to massive car repair bills, according to the AA...
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'Potholes costing £1 million a month in car repairs'
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'Potholes costing £1 million a month in car repairs'
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Comments
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Where I live is littered with multiple potholes in the same 4 or 5 ft stretches of road. They are resurfacing some stretches, but they usually just chuck a bit of asphalt in them in three or four times before they actually re-do it.0
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i cant take credit for this as it was something i saw on facebook.
but why do we have to ensure our vehicles are roadworthy by passing an MOT.
Yet the roads themselves that these cars drive on are sometimes not roadworthy.
maybe its time roads were subjected to such strict regimes.0 -
Drivers are to blame themselves for this. They complain about road defects yet how many have taken the time to report a pothole?
Without a report via a third party site, local authorities will sadly be less than truthful about their awareness of the defect.
I've personally reported hundreds of potholes over the past couple of years. These have been reported via my smartphone (the same kind of device people that people spend hours on daily, making Zuckerbeg even richer).
As a direct result of my efforts, the local roads are in a better condition. Shame that others can't be bothered to do the same.0 -
Drivers are to blame themselves for this. They complain about road defects yet how many have taken the time to report a pothole?
Without a report via a third party site, local authorities will sadly be less than truthful about their awareness of the defect.
I've personally reported hundreds of potholes over the past couple of years. These have been reported via my smartphone (the same kind of device people that people spend hours on daily, making Zuckerbeg even richer).
As a direct result of my efforts, the local roads are in a better condition. Shame that others can't be bothered to do the same.
If only it were that simple. Reporting potholes makes practically no difference at all round here - they just put them on a very long wait list and then (and only if they're very deep) bodge them by throwing cold tarmac in and driving over it - edges not sealed, no hot asphalt - so that it lasts a month or two before it's as bad as ever.
The wonderful Conservative Party is responsible for this mess - a complete breakdown in the maintenance of roads, education and the NHS, and all in the interests of lower taxes and re-election. Never mind the country, let's just get re-elected with promises of low taxes - even if it costs everybody ten times the 'savings' in other additional costs.0 -
I agree. Too many potholes to report each one.
Can't blame the consumer if the provider is rubbish. The roads are the worst now in my 30 year driving experience.
Austerity is the cause of potholes, Tories are the cause of Austerity. simples!I think I saw you in an ice cream parlour
Drinking milk shakes, cold and long
Smiling and waving and looking so fine0 -
Drivers are to blame themselves for this. They complain about road defects yet how many have taken the time to report a pothole?
Without a report via a third party site, local authorities will sadly be less than truthful about their awareness of the defect.
I've personally reported hundreds of potholes over the past couple of years. These have been reported via my smartphone (the same kind of device people that people spend hours on daily, making Zuckerbeg even richer).
As a direct result of my efforts, the local roads are in a better condition. Shame that others can't be bothered to do the same.
I have reported potholes in my local area, where I am able to make a mental note of it and then report it later. It's a bit difficult reporting a pothole while you are actually driving!
However, there are so many potholes around that it becomes rather difficult to remember them all and, funnily enough, while driving, I am concentrating on potential hazards, speed and navigating, rather than making a mental list of all the potholes I encounter. Furthermore, when driving outside of my immediate locality, I am less likely to know exactly where a pothole is, or even which authority I need to report it to. My commute to work takes me through six different local authorities, and I don't memorize the exact boundary between them all and the relationship between these to all the potholes.
Your comment is disingenuous.0 -
ValiantSon wrote: »Your comment is disingenuous.
No it isn't.
If drivers simply reported potholes in their own localty, via third party sites, then there would be an indisputable record of the report. Consequently, if a vehicle/person suffered damage/injury as a result of the hazard, they'd have a good chance of successfully claiming compensation from the local authority/their indemnifier.
This would give local authorities an incentive to actually repair the roads. At present, they know they can get away with lying about not being aware of hazards since hardly anyone bothers to report them in the first place. You refer to austerity (and no one can dispute the funding issues from central government) but local authorities still appear to have sufficient resources to pay their management more than the Prime Minister and fund external consultants.
Passengers in vehicles could easily report potholes. I was a passenger today and reported three potholes on a 2 mile journey. It's not difficult.0 -
No it isn't.
Yes it is, and for the reasons that I explained.If drivers simply reported potholes in their own localty, via third party sites, then there would be an indisputable record of the report. Consequently, if a vehicle/person suffered damage/injury as a result of the hazard, they'd have a good chance of successfully claiming compensation from the local authority/their indemnifier.
As I've already stated, even within the local area, there are so many potholes that I cannot keep an accurate track of them. I am driving a car at the time and the most important thing that I have to concentrate on is ot causing an accient that may result in the death or injury of another person. I should not be concentrating on making a list of all the many potholes! You are being completely unreasonable.This would give local authorities an incentive to actually repair the roads. At present, they know they can get away with lying about not being aware of hazards since hardly anyone bothers to report them in the first place.
No, the law should be tougher in terms of enforcing authorities to actively seek to repair roads. Drivers should not be the mechanism whereby this occurs. Your suggestion requires drivers not to give their full attention to driving, which is pretty dangerous, frankly.You refer to austerity
No I didn't, that was somebody else!(and no one can dispute the funding issues from central government) but local authorities still appear to have sufficient resources to pay their management more than the Prime Minister and fund external consultants.
This isn't a point that I was arguing (see above), but as you've raised it, the money paid to chief executives is a drop in the ocean compared to the overall reductions in the direct grant. But, as I said, I didn't say anything about austerity. It would help if you got your facts right about who said what.Passengers in vehicles could easily report potholes. I was a passenger today and reported three potholes on a 2 mile journey. It's not difficult.
Bully for you. I rarely have passengers in my car, and am rarely a passenger. When I am, a passenger, it is never within my local area.0 -
You refer to austerity (and no one can dispute the funding issues from central government) but local authorities still appear to have sufficient resources to pay their management more than the Prime Minister and fund external consultants.
Sorry, but what does the PM's salary have to do with anything? She receives other benefits (eg the use of a flat in Downing Street and other official residences, plus chauffeur-driven transport) more than doubling the value of the salary itself. Add to that the fact that the job leads on to other opportunities offering the potential to earn millions of pounds a year after leaving the job - the salary's just a small part of the overall package. How many local government managers get any of that?
And if you pay peanuts you get monkeys - local councils are large organisations, with responsibility for large sums of public money. That requires particular skill sets, and there are only limited numbers of people who can carry out these duties effectively. Do you want them run by incompetents, saving a few thousands on salaries but wasting millions because they can't do the job?
What relevance does the Prime Minister's salary have to any other job, and why should it imply some basic level of competence? We've had two incompetent Prime Ministers in a row now, both of whom have caused serious damage to the country because of their inadequacies. Do you really want the incompetence displayed by central government politicians spread to local government too?0 -
I think the couple of cold spells we had earlier in the year wreaked havoc on our roads and councils are simply taking too long to do the repairs.0
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