Council Paints Road Markings Over Potholes
A council has been ridiculed for painting road markings through potholes rather than fixing them, with critics branding it an “epic waste” of taxpayers’ money. The Telegraph has the story.
Hampshire county council was accused of an “epic waste” of taxpayers’ money after painting road markings over the potholes near a primary school in Basingstoke.
The council is already facing scrutiny from its residents after denying thousands of motorists’ compensation claims for damage caused by potholes.
The Conservative-led council rejected 5,508 of the 6,519 claims it received last year, paying out in just 14% of cases.
Councillors and parents were dismayed about the “shoddy job” and complained about the “utter hazard” the holes were creating.
Andy Konieczko, a Liberal Democrat councillor for Brighton Hill Ward in Basingstoke, said: “Not only are these potholes a huge inconvenience, they’re also dangerous.
“Drivers are being forced to focus on navigating large holes in the road as well as looking out for other road users and pedestrians.
“That’s worrying, particularly when there’s a school nearby.”
He added: “We’ve ended up with a ridiculous situation where the new lines have been painted into the potholes and will need to be repainted again when the potholes are eventually fixed.
“If there’s one picture that illustrates why residents have lost faith in Hampshire county council, then this must be it.”
After a series of complaints, a number of the holes were filled in with tarmac, leaving the freshly painted road markings, warning ‘school keep clear’ obscured by the newly laid black tarmac.
Worth reading in full.
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Obviously the council tax is too low. You get what you pay for.
/s
I remember seeing mention about 5+ years ago, that road workers would stop using hot tar to conduct repairs, (net zero and cost I think was the excuse) I have not seen any of them going along with a boiler since then like when I was younger, and the pathetic excuses for repairs are the result.
There is no bond, they just shovel cold tar into a hole and role it flat. Later that day it explodes again, and the same company is paid to do the same again, its a total council complicit scam.
Last night I saw a local council team repairing a small hole in a road using the usual abysmal cold asphalt method that will last a few weeks if they’re lucky. This morning I drove along the same road and counted at least 25 more unfilled holes in the few hundred yard stretch. It beggars belief.
The roads around Hastings and East Sussex are truly abysmal, I’ve driven for 20 years with no damage to my vehicles, this winter I’ve lost two windshields to flying debris in one month!
Windscreen, surely..??
My car, and my wife’s car, her’s is panoramic so its going to cost a small fortune to replace.
Driving instructor friend reported a pot hole as dangerous (100mm deep?) and it was repaired as an emergency. Except they ignored the other six pot holes around it as they weren’t 100mm deep. Guess what, two of them are now…
I could fix this for the councils overnight – your contract with the outsourced road company needs to change to a ‘fix with 3 year warranty’ to x standard (apply a proper industry set of standards). councils have tech to track these things to the cm via gps (tech has been used in private construction for decades). ANY failure within 3 years (adjust as appropriate) time timeline is a zero cost to council repair. Standards will increase hugely overnight, as will costs by a smaller amount I’d predict. Any netzero or health and safety bollox about not using hot tar / liquid bitumen like was used for decades up to recent years will also disappear overnight. The ridiculous situation where an external company, employing the same people, can make a margin AND do the work (even to today’s crap standard) and STILL be cheaper than the councils original in-house employees, shows just how inefficient they all are – likely a large layer of managers vs doers, who no doubt stay to ‘manage’ the contract… it’s a great example of how crap some councils are. Not all to be fair – I understand some northern ones still retain road crews as… Read more »
Different departments with some cash to spend towards the end of the tax year, perhaps? Looking on the bright side, the painted marks could be self enforcing – who wants to park on holes like that? That’s a cynic scribbling down this comment!
Friend has had her mini written off after hitting a pot hole at 35pmh (40mph speed limit) – probably Cheshire East. We’re not holding our breath on whether she’ll get compensation. She’s trying to keep positive but is still facing having to find £8k that she hadn’t budgeted for.
Ah, the smell of hot tar! I used to love breathing it in, and it had never occurred to me that it was no longer around. There was a name on the side of the vehicles, which I have forgotten. Something Caribbean?
Limmer and Trinidad!
ha ha ha ha ha jeez——-This is funny- Or it would be funny if it was not so utterly PATHETIC. —-This “Great Country” that can provide health care for everyone who shows up expecting to housed and fed, but has no money for the things that are really important to the people the government should be catering for. The things that we all give away 80% of our income in Tax (extortion) for.