Council road repairs cash down £400m next year

thirdcrank
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Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: Council road repairs cash down £400m next year

Post by thirdcrank »

I became involved in cycle campaigning about a quarter of a century ago. After some guff in the local (Leeds) papers about the benefits of cycling I wasted my money on a roll of 35mm film snapping some of the potholes on my daily commute and wasted even more having them printed and posting them to the council. I was invited to attend the council's cycling consultation meeting and wasted my time and more money on photographs and correspondence.

The poor state of the roads was largely unaffected by my efforts, although the council was happy to use my participation in their meetings to try to give credibility to their activities.
atlas_shrugged
Posts: 534
Joined: 8 Nov 2016, 7:50pm

Re: Council road repairs cash down £400m next year

Post by atlas_shrugged »

@thirdcrank

You seem to summarise how I feel. My take is what is the point of voting for irresponsible politicians who do *nothing*?

In my case this was to save lives by making very simple safety improvements. They will not even reply to a perfectly polite letter.

I say again - don't vote - it only encourages them!
Teggletone
Posts: 20
Joined: 9 Mar 2021, 1:31pm

Re: Council road repairs cash down £400m next year

Post by Teggletone »

In Shropshire it was going to be sorted. The council is surely one of the most inept in the country has had 5 mentions in Private Eye in the past 2 years. One of these articles concerned the "specialist" the council had hired at £1000 per day to report on the pothole situation - report not do anything about it! Yesterday I rode past a pothole which ,I'm sure, could have had disastrous results had I ridden my 20" wheeled bike into it. Fortunately there was room to pass on the inside and not swerve into the path of a car which was just about to overtake me. As I continued on my way I had the one consoling thought that, if an accident had happened, the pothole was only a few yards past the entrance to the county's largest hospital!
thirdcrank
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Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: Council road repairs cash down £400m next year

Post by thirdcrank »

IMO, this is one of those things where the system is broken. Local authorities are largely dependent for their cash on central government. I know the detail is a bit more complicated than that but it's the broad picture. With all the different local authority budgets, responsibilities, priorities, highway maintenance is always likely to be down the list. I don't for a moment think that town halls across the land are full of senior highwaymen with their feet up deciding what to ignore next.

Neglecting road maintenance is a false economy and I've no doubt that professional highwaymen know that better than anybody else. First, unrepaired defects rapidly get much worse when water gets in, especially when temperatures drop. Then, there have been repeated reports of compo bills costing more than highway maintenance budgets.

Removing it from local authorities seems to be the only way but I doubt it will happen.
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squeaker
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Location: Sussex

Re: Council road repairs cash down £400m next year

Post by squeaker »

thirdcrank wrote:Removing it from local authorities seems to be the only way but I doubt it will happen.

Broadly agree with your prior comments, but do you really think that the DfT or HE would do better? :roll:

LA's are indeed cash strapped, but they should, in principle, be more in touch with local issues.
"42"
thirdcrank
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Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: Council road repairs cash down £400m next year

Post by thirdcrank »

squeaker wrote: ... Broadly agree with your prior comments, but do you really think that the DfT or HE would do better? :roll:

LA's are indeed cash strapped, but they should, in principle, be more in touch with local issues.


Being more in touch with local issues means money going to greater priorities. At the moment, we have a system which allows each level of government to blame the others for either not coughing up or not spending wisely the vast sums of money allocated. Believe who you like but road maintenance is neglected and the trend is for it to get worse. For anybody to do better they would need both an adequate budget and no other responsibilities.
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squeaker
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Joined: 12 Jan 2007, 11:43pm
Location: Sussex

Re: Council road repairs cash down £400m next year

Post by squeaker »

thirdcrank wrote:Being more in touch with local issues means money going to greater priorities. At the moment, we have a system which allows each level of government to blame the others for either not coughing up or not spending wisely the vast sums of money allocated. Believe who you like but road maintenance is neglected and the trend is for it to get worse.

Oh I'm convinced: here's West Sussex' history:

WSCCHighwaysRevenueBudget.jpg


thirdcrank wrote: For anybody to do better they would need both an adequate budget and no other responsibilities.
Or a hypothecated tax - we could call it 'road tax'... :lol:
"42"
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