What are your roads like?

[jimharri]

Country lanes are the worst, I visit farms all over the country/world and can say for certain that the UK country roads are embarrassing. Glad I only drive the company van down them.

They're not ridiculously potholed per se (at least around the locality). But there's plenty of bumps, hollows and ripples.

 

[Bluemanc100]

They're not ridiculously potholed per se (at least around the locality). But there's plenty of bumps, hollows and ripples.

Watched a programme the other day about a farm that was looking for new tenants.. the woman from the National Trust said “when driving around here if you see a puddle assume it’s a pothole”

It’s getting like that on A roads

 

[idahoblues]

 

[CJH]

Wigan council seem to have a program of resurfacing been going on for a few years. Our road was done during the first lockdown and there has been quite a lot going on since. Can certainly tell the difference when you cross the border into Salford. That said, theres still loads of potholes everywhere. Work in Wilmslow and theres been a series of potholes they keep superficially filling in outside the honey bee for ages

 

[bluenova]

Don't get me started.

The roads on a national level are a disgrace and outright dangerous.
What exactly are local councils playing at ?
In my opinion,it's little bit too simplistic to say there is a lack of funding from central goverment / the local councils are skint etc.

Take a look at the top executives/ bosses at local councils the country over...these people are drawing basic salaries of £150k to £180k !! If you can find the figures online each council has at least 10-15 top earners with these incomes. Why ?

In London their income figures are even more obscene.

The push to reduce the number of car drivers on our roads is one thing ,but cyclists are risking their lives every day, as hitting a pothole on two wheels is incredibly dangerous.

The situation is an utter disgrace.

I'm not going to defend every wage, but you're talking about organisations that are spending hundreds of millions of pounds a year. Manchester City Council's budget this year is over £800m.

They've had to make funding cuts of nearly half a billion since the Tories started cutting Council funds in 2010, so even if we're looking at £2m a year on senior management it's not the reason why the roads are full of pot holes.

The reason is simple. Many of the councils in Manchester have around 20% less funding that they did in 2010, but they still have mostly the same legal responsibilities. Nearly the entire budget has to go on schools, adult care services, and children's services. Once you add in other things that have to be provided like bin collections, you end up with almost no money left over, so the cuts to everything else are way in excess of 20%.

So, I'd suggest that pot holes are very much more likely to be caused by a lack of funding, than the pay of a few senior Council employees.

 

[lefty goldblatt]

Don't just whinge on here.
Send an email to your local council.
3 weeks ago, a huge pothole opened up in my street, and there were a couple more, nearby, so I emailed the council with the house numbers where they were. Two days later, they were marked up, two days after that, they were filled. My only pisser, is that there were a few smaller potholes (which will only get worse over time) left untouched, that were about 6 feet away from the treated ones

 

[Betterdeedthan red]

Absolutely awful.
Had 4 new tyres 6 weeks ago as two were really ready and two would have lasted 6 months.
I thought fuck it I'll have all 4 .
2 weeks later hit a pot hole 2 tyres fucked .
300 fucking quid.
The pothole has its own claim number.
While I was taking a picture of the hole for the claim two more people hit it.
The roads are better in gambia than here

 

[Deleted member 13905]

the road-menders woke me up at 9:45 am today.
cunts with noisy machines right outside.
i've been grumpy all day from not enough sleep.

 

[city2]

I don't live in Manchester, but I do come to City games often and to the City itself.

BUT not seen enough to judge what the state of the roads are like. Trying to navigate the Leodisian roads is like driving a fire engine around London after the latest Blitz attack by Ze Germans. Potholes everywhere. Becoming a joke.

Are Manchester roads the same?

The whole countries roads are all the same.

 

[inbetween]

I'm not going to defend every wage, but you're talking about organisations that are spending hundreds of millions of pounds a year. Manchester City Council's budget this year is over £800m.

They've had to make funding cuts of nearly half a billion since the Tories started cutting Council funds in 2010, so even if we're looking at £2m a year on senior management it's not the reason why the roads are full of pot holes.

The reason is simple. Many of the councils in Manchester have around 20% less funding that they did in 2010, but they still have mostly the same legal responsibilities. Nearly the entire budget has to go on schools, adult care services, and children's services. Once you add in other things that have to be provided like bin collections, you end up with almost no money left over, so the cuts to everything else are way in excess of 20%.

So, I'd suggest that pot holes are very much more likely to be caused by a lack of funding, than the pay of a few senior Council employees.

There's obviously a funding problem indeed but there will always be a limit on funding eventually. The excuse of lack of funding doesn't mean that other things aren't also at fault, extra funding just masks these problems. The public sector in many respects still operates like it's the 1970's and you'll need far more than money to fix that.

Go on the M6 between Standish and Warrington, they've been building a 10 mile stretch of smart motorway there for about 3 years. You'd think that because it has taken 3 years that must mean that it's a lot of work which is fine. However, go on tonight and nobody whatsoever will be working. How is it cost-effective to start a job and then take years to finish it? Apply this across all infrastructure and this is why nothing works and why it costs so much and nothing is achieved. Look at HS2, 15-20 years and £100bn to build an 80 mile railway line, 90% of it will be built purely on flat fields!

If you want to see the con that is our country then look at it this way. Go into any 50mph zone on the motorway at night and you will notice the high-powered flood lights as you pass the average speed cameras. These are there purely to ensure that the cameras can capture your reg at night.

So somebody somewhere spent money and time on planning to ensure that your reg could be captured by a speed camera at night. This means that there is no funding problem, they just chose to afford high-powered flood lights for the speed cameras instead of turning on the street lamps which would ensure that you don't have a crash!