# I have never seen the roads so bad....



## T.D.K (Mar 16, 2011)

Is it just my area or have the roads become riddled with pot holes? I think the recent bad weather has destroyed the local councils 'quick fix' jobs done in the past, and there are now some serious craters which is becoming increasingly hard to avoid.

Just paid £120 for 12 months road tax and I'm wondering where the money goes, it's certainly not on the road network.

There is one busy-ish road where you HAVE to drive in the middle as I'm sure one section would destroy/badly damage your alloys or tyres. Someone who lives around there has actually now put cones on top of the holes to stop people driving over them, they are that bad. 

What a shambles.

How are your roads? Vote in the poll :thumb:


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## mart. (Jul 7, 2008)

BAD!

All those quick fix pot holes and reused tarmac resurfacing jobs are sh!t

and i have the to £460 a year tax, it's not road tax, its a green tax!


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## nick.s (Dec 21, 2009)

If I were following myself on my route to work, I would question if I were under the influence. The roads are that bad, I have to swerve around 5" deep potholes on MOST of my route to work. It is diabolical. I would NOT like to be on two wheels on any road I travel on. 

Stoke on Trent City Council, hang your heads in shame. You choose to spend £50,000,000 on a new Civic Centre that nobody in Stoke wants, yet won't fork out to repair our roads and care for our vulnerable and elderly, services residents NEED and WANT.


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## Vossman (Aug 5, 2010)

West Midlands, in particular Walsall is really bad, not even temp repairs here, the council have all nice new stuff though so that's okay!


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## PeteT (Feb 26, 2006)

Pretty bad up here in Cumbria, the same potholes get temporary repairs over and over again. The highways department has an online 'pothole hotline' which I've used a few times and to be fair the holes have been filled within a week.
The problem here is that government money is allocated according to the number of residents in the county and takes no account of the millions of tourists that descend on us every year.


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## Corsasxi_Dan (May 13, 2011)

I pay £400+ for 12 months and dunno where it goes as the roads are terrible :/


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## mikeydee (May 4, 2010)

i've been to Iraq twice and the roads are definitely better over there.


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## andy monty (Dec 29, 2007)

They cancelled the major road repairs on my drive to work due to the high ground water levels The holes are huge the road is subsiding...... i have taken to the back unclassified roads to avoid it.... the verge is smoother than the main road...


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## kev999 (Feb 16, 2007)

Argyll and Butes head of roads should be taken to task as hes obviously not doing his job right.Get on your councils case by using the link below.

http://www.fixmystreet.com/auth?r=my


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## M1CH431 (Jan 9, 2012)

Roads by me are awefull my tax 121 for 6 months and had to have new rear droplinks and rear springs wonder why


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## willwander (Nov 30, 2012)

Terrible, even worse on a motorbike


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## Alan5072 (Jan 11, 2013)

Not good round my way. I have two cars and tax is £270 on each car for 12 months and the roads just get more pot holes every year. 👎


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## karl_liverpool (Sep 25, 2008)

Smithdown road by us was horrendous. Few weeks ago I hit one in my s60. didn't see it coming. You would think I jumped the grand canyon and clipped other side. It bent the alloy and peeled the tyre away from wheel. And sods law no spare or sealant kit. Dodgy driving with a wheel going psst psst psst as its spinning. Kept air for that 5 mins to get me home luckily.


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## SteveTDCi (Feb 8, 2006)

It's one of the reasons I'm considering a defender with a winch


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## andy monty (Dec 29, 2007)

SteveTDCi said:


> It's one of the reasons I'm considering a defender with a winch


like thats going to help unless you pack a snorkle and flippers



















:wave:


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## T.D.K (Mar 16, 2011)

So far the poll results show......

Our roads are sh!t 

Keep voting :thumb:


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## bigmc (Mar 22, 2010)

The roads everywhere in this country are shocking, remember though we haven't paid road tax since the 1960's! 
The councils fill and chip the holes is a false economy too as they come back two or three times the size the next time the weather freezes.


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## james_death (Aug 9, 2010)

Only about 5 to 10% goes on the roads.

Most used to prop up the health service.


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## bidderman1969 (Oct 20, 2006)

bigmc said:


> The roads everywhere in this country are shocking, remember though we haven't paid road tax since the 1960's!
> The councils fill and chip the holes is a false economy too as they come back two or three times the size the next time the weather freezes.


Try telling councils that, they seem to know best.......


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## john2garden (Nov 16, 2006)

T.D.K said:


> So far the poll results show......
> 
> Our roads are sh!t
> 
> Keep voting :thumb:


Who the hell has voted that they are happy with them??


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## Hasan1 (Jul 1, 2011)

United Kingdom
Main article: Vehicle Excise Duty
In the United Kingdom owners are required to pay Vehicle Excise Duty, which is paid to the government for a vehicle licence (or tax disc), which must be displayed on most motor vehicles used on public roads.[8] Since 1937 there has been no direct relationship between the tax and government expenditure on public roads. The registered keeper of a vehicle that is not used or kept on public roads must complete a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN).[9]
[edit]


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## Laurie.J.M (Jun 23, 2011)

The quality of the roads here is a joke, the quality of the surfaces is generally abysmal and there are so many holes some of which are more like craters. Then when the council turn up to fix a hole they overfill it so instead of a hole you end up with a huge bump. even when they completely resurface the roads it's still not good enough, on some recently resurfaced roads round here including a section of motorway that was shut for several months it's like driving over a washboard. Whenever I drive in France one of the first things I notice is how much better the roads are, the quality of the surface is much nicer, the motorways are silky smooth and there's noticeably less tyre noise.


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## Doc943 (Mar 27, 2011)

My 72 mile daily commute is an off roading nightmare due to the new holes opening up daily. :-(


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## Kiashuma (May 4, 2011)

Bad round my way too. If the do fix the pot holes its just some tar thrown in and a boy with his size 10s stamps it down!


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## Natalie (Jan 19, 2011)

They weren't too bad round here until that bad winter the other year ago, the problem is they don't properly repair the pot holes they just fill them in so the "repairs" don't last very long.
I've changed my route to & from work as it's got that bad on the back roads I usually use.


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## Z4-35i (Jun 12, 2012)

The local roads to us are probably the worst they've been in the 14 years we've lived in the area. It doesn't help that the roads seem to be being dug up every few months by different utility companies. The B road next to our house was dug up 5 times last year.


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

Absolutely shocking by me. Lots of small A-roads but predominantly B-roads which should be really fun driving roads but it's dangerous having to drive in the middle of the road to miss the ridiculous amount of pot holes/craters over on the left.

There was a news article a while back stating that it would cost £11bn to sort the road network in England out up to the rest of European standards, £14bn for Scotland and another £14bn for Wales. We can't afford to do it due to the way the budget is divided up, so where will the money come from?! Can't afford to do it so it will get worse and worse.

The problem is... Cars are getting more efficient and the UK motorists are largely doing what we're told and buying more efficient/smaller engined cars/hybrid cars which means... Less revenue generated from road fund licences! Coupled with the incentives for people to buy Hybrids (is it a £5000 government contribution or something?) 

So with all that in mind, there isn't going to be any money to repair the roads.


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## bidderman1969 (Oct 20, 2006)

JBirchy said:


> Absolutely shocking by me. Lots of small A-roads but predominantly B-roads which should be really fun driving roads but it's dangerous having to drive in the middle of the road to miss the ridiculous amount of pot holes/craters over on the left.
> 
> There was a news article a while back stating that it would cost £11bn to sort the road network in England out up to the rest of European standards, £14bn for Scotland and another £14bn for Wales. We can't afford to do it due to the way the budget is divided up, so where will the money come from?! Can't afford to do it so it will get worse.


Well, why doesn't the EU cough up for us like they do every other country that has bad roads?


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## DJ X-Ray (Sep 2, 2012)

In most of london they're sh!t as well.Potholes and craters on bridges,main roads side turnings you name it.Fcuking disgrace


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## _Chris.T_ (Dec 28, 2012)

Sheffields roads have to be in top 3 for the sheer amount of pot holes, only a handful I can think of aren't smashed up, and they're relatively new roads.

Pointless trying to avoid them because you'll just hit another :|
And if its not potholes its the raised Tarmac that's covered where they've dug up for pipe work, there's a road near me, must be half a mile long and 90% of it is covered in bumpy bits where it's been previously dug up. 

They're wasting all this money "fixing" them with a foot square piece of Tarmac that only last till the end of the workers lunchbreak. The money they have spent could have fully repaved 50% of sheffields roads by now :|

Council must be thick as sh*t not to realise trying to paper of the cracks (literally) does not work.


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## SteveyG (Apr 1, 2007)

It's council tax that pays for the roads, not our tax discs.


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

SteveyG said:


> It's council tax that pays for the roads, not our tax discs.


Most of us pay plenty of that, so is it just the individual councils that don't see it as a priority then?!


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## ICF (May 18, 2012)

Lancashire county council have a pothole reporting website.
I use it a lot and it works Pothole reporting
The main problem is they don't fill them correctly.I have seen two blokes in a white van throw some tarmac in a pothole them drive over it several times.


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## cooter k (Oct 24, 2012)

One of the roads was finally resurfaced recently (didnt do a bad job) but the state it was in was unbelievable, a ploughed field would have been smoother.
Our town is like the forgotten town in our council area. That doesnt mean the rest of the roads are better, far from it.
When you leave our area & go somewhere else, it amazing the difference.


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## pee (Apr 6, 2009)

Yeah most of the roads round my way are ****


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## VW STEVE. (Mar 18, 2012)

North Yorks & the roads are terible,like driving a mine field to avoid the pot holes in some areas.


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## User2 (Jan 2, 2013)

Seriously, you guys won't know what are pot holes until you come to Bratislava


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## Squadrone Rosso (Aug 11, 2009)

I pay over a grand to tax three Alfa's. Our 500 is free. Roads around Warwickshire are shocking


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## T.D.K (Mar 16, 2011)

RoyalGarage said:


> Seriously, you guys won't know what are pot holes until you come to Bratislava


Really? I had this imagine of all other EU countries of having perfect roads.

I went to Poland two years ago and the roads were pretty much immaculate.


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## Matt197 (Dec 27, 2006)

Down this way it’s not too bad, most the main roads are pot free with the odd 1 or 2, it's when you turn off onto side roads you got to watch out.

When you turn into the road where I live it’s like the surface of the moon and you can’t avoid them, was meant to be resurfaced back in November after it being like this for years but it has been delayed to March!

Thing that gets me is the council have just wasted a shed load of cash changing the speed limit from 40 to 30 outside of the town on both sides where there are no schools or any hidden dangers, it was also opposed due to it being a complete waste of money but somehow it's been done anyway.


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## Porkypig (Jun 20, 2012)

The bits of hampshire, berks and surrey I get to visit daily are pretty poor generally. The local hart council did a patch up job on one of the main roads through my town in the last 6 mths and it looks like it hasn't been finished.

It has by the way, they even painted lines on it but it is an utter joke what the contarctors have done. 

And pot holes everywhere.


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## Alex_225 (Feb 7, 2008)

Our roads aren't actually too bad although there's a handful of pot holes I have to avoid. 

That said our road was churned up to the point that it had broken up so the pot holes were up to 5ft long and consisted of broken up rocks. I took a couple of photos of the road, e-mailed the council and they resurfaced it within a few months. 

There is one bit of road that always breaks up. They chose to put a red strip, the length of a car and across the whole width of the road. All I can guess is that it was a budget spending exercise where they thought a red strip would indicate you were approaching a village (no change in speed limit). Waste of time as the tarmac breaks up right in the middle of this strip every year after winter.


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## svended (Oct 7, 2011)

The roads here in Carlisle and North Cumbria are horrendous. Some are like gravel tracks. They fill the potholes in whilst there is still water in them and don't flatten them smooth so you may get high spots or level spots that are then compressed when a car goes over them.

But then again we have two councils operating in the same area, Carlisle City Council and Cumbria County Council who when you report a hole pass you onto the other to sort it. Too many cowboys and not enough indians.


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## R7KY D (Feb 16, 2010)

A12 is awful , Most of the roads around the village I live have potholes so large that I'm sure they lead to other dimensions


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## Ross (Apr 25, 2007)

Very good,one thing the Council actually get right.


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## User2 (Jan 2, 2013)

To get an idea how bad the situation in Slovakia is:






Try to drive a Lambo on this


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## nick.s (Dec 21, 2009)

That is beyond mental!


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## Dixondmn (Oct 12, 2007)

its bad but no different to how it was last time we had snow.


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## jag1 (Jan 24, 2010)

do they realise the longer its put off the more costs go up !


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## B17BLG (Jun 26, 2012)

nick.s said:


> If I were following myself on my route to work, I would question if I were under the influence. The roads are that bad, I have to swerve around 5" deep potholes on MOST of my route to work. It is diabolical. I would NOT like to be on two wheels on any road I travel on.
> 
> Stoke on Trent City Council, hang your heads in shame. You choose to spend £50,000,000 on a new Civic Centre that nobody in Stoke wants, yet won't fork out to repair our roads and care for our vulnerable and elderly, services residents NEED and WANT.


I live in the same area and can only 100% agree with Nick here!

Even that new bloody bus station!!

Roads are a joke!!


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## Coops (Apr 26, 2008)

There are patches round our way but not too bad, it's the motorways which i find the worst.

There is a patch on the M1 southbound between 20 and 19 which is dreadful, i regularly have to swerve to avoid the holes when it is safe. If it isn't there is no choice but to hit them but when going at 70-80 it's bound to cause some damage. I cannot believe that I've not had a buckled wheel the amount i have hit.

There is another large hole (where a drain is/was) on the inside edge of a roundabout just off M1 J18 / A5 - every night I avoid it because I know it's there but it's been reported to the local council about 5-6 times (according to their online web service) but still nothing has been done. The comment against each query is "Passed to Utilities" - they are clearly not bothered or interested in repairing as some of the reports are over 12 months old.


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## pharmed (Feb 11, 2013)

As an Iraqi, I find the poll very distasteful. 

Voted never-the-less.


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## Sue J (Jan 26, 2006)

Some of the pot holes round Lichfield are now so large you could go caving in them!


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## B17BLG (Jun 26, 2012)

pharmed said:


> As an Iraqi, I find the poll very distasteful.
> 
> Voted never-the-less.


Why???


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## DJ X-Ray (Sep 2, 2012)

Try going over hammersmith bridge with low-pro's great fun..Not!


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## Pinky (Feb 15, 2008)

I am always going onto the local council pothole site and complaining there are speed bumps on a route we use a lot full of holes and I took photos and posted them through the council office myself with a letter to the chief exec , haven't had a reply yet , will resend them next week recorded delivery.
I am always on Amey site to and am totally fed up of dodging the holes I e -mailed the transport minister as they have just announced a bypass for a bad junction where a baby was killed in an accident last year and said if he would like to come down to Dumfries I would drive him and show him just how bad our roads are , 200 mtrs laid about 1 month ago is now all cracked and needing done again .shocking 
Heard Amey has lost the contract anyway .


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## zdravo (Oct 12, 2011)

I am sure that you never visited Balkans


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## Shinyvec (Feb 12, 2010)

The roads where I live have broken my front springs so I now have a £170 bill to sort, some of the holes will cause a serious accident soon unless they get filled very soon.


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