More potholes and worse potholes

This weekend when I did one of my regular visits around the constituency  I found trying to steer round the bigger  potholes was getting more difficult than usual. There are too many new holes, and the lack of work to deal with the smaller ones is leading to more large ones which hurt tyres and shake up suspension if you hit them.

I have taken the matter up again with Conservative Councillors who are pressing to get more work done to rescue our roads. The Lib Dem led Council likes spending money on closing and  narrowing roads and making the lives of motorists more difficult but does not do enough to stop worrying deterioration.

20 Comments

  1. Jude
    May 29, 2023

    This, John, is the biggest swindle by councils. Billions have been given to councils primarily to repair our roads! Where has this gone, it’s not been spent on the roads. Though have to say I can give Suffolk 8 out of 10. They do not just fill holes, they relay roads. This they have done in the last 9 years I have lived here. So if Suffolk can do why are other councils failing? Think the answer is obvious ..just check the failing county council’s pension funds!! Just a thought but would like to see more accountability for the misuse of public funds.

  2. George Sheard
    May 29, 2023

    Hi John
    What’s happened to the machines that can repair three months work in a week built by JCB What’s happened to all the extra money the government has given to repair the pothole ?

    1. Pauline
      June 1, 2023

      We actually tried the JCB machine out in Wokingham, it was fine on larger arterial roads but not in the more constrained areas.

  3. agricola
    May 29, 2023

    I’m pleased to hear that my experience where I live is not unique. In fact it is a national disease, a visible and sensory symptom of a pandemic in UK infrastructure.

  4. Graeme Dexter
    May 29, 2023

    Dear Sir John

    Would it not be more appropriate to take this up with the CEO of WBC? Current Tory Councillors seem to be more concerned with playing politics – non co-operation etc. WBC officers seem to be ruling the roost because of a lack of direction.

    Graeme Dexter

    1. Pauline
      June 1, 2023

      Conservatives are not in control of the council and are not the cause of any lack of direction for WBC officers. The Lib Dems have been dropped by their Independent coalition partners citing lack of information and bullying. Conservatives continue to cooperate when we agree with the ruling group, although you wouldn’t believe that from their communications. We cant however run the council for them which is what they appear to need.

  5. Graeme Dexter
    May 29, 2023

    Dear Sir John

    Further to my earlier posting.

    Delegating responsibility to the current Conservative leadership throughout WBC is not enough as it is moribund.

    If you wish to be seen as a credible leader you need to take the argument to those who count.

    So who counts? The WBC CEO controls the budgets. The LibDems seem to control the local press.

    Your call.
    Graeme Dexter

    Who counts? WBC control the budgets. The LibDems seem to control the local press. Your call.

    Graeme Dexter

    1. Berkshire Alan
      June 1, 2023

      Graeme & Pauline
      I see from the latest info sent out from the Council that they are considering spending more money on a two way cycle path on the A329 from Wokingham Town to the BP garage at Winnersh.
      Why, when there is already a cycle path on both sides of the road, which was part of a £6.4 million spent on cycle paths only about 3-4 years ago.
      I see they are also looking at turning the free flowing roundabout at Woosehill (again on the A329) into a traffic light Junction, which is utter madness and will leave Old Woosehill Lane as a short rat run cut through.
      Traffic from Embrook cannot turn right onto the A329, traffic from Oxford Road cannot turn Right on to the A329 because it is safer to turn left and then go to the Woosehill roundabout to change direction, impossible with traffic lights and a junction.
      I live on the A329 and I can count the number of cyclists using the present cycle paths on a couple of hands each day, who dreams these schemes up ?

      1. Berkshire Alan
        June 1, 2023

        Pot holes, potholes, pot holes, these are the ever growing danger points, especially for cyclists and motor bikes, so for goodness sake fix these and uneven pavements as a priority over fancy dream schemes.

      2. Pauline
        June 2, 2023

        The Woosehill roundabout removal was in the consultation document for the LCWIP, I objected to it at the time as did others. I would hope they think again if there is enough public objection. The plan is madness.

        The cycleway from Wokingham to the BP garage as you say already exists although it could do with a couple more dropped kerbs where they are missing. I haven’t seen what is planned yet so can’t really comment on that but I would agree major work is probably unnecessary and I cant see the justification for spending all the funds there.

        There is a case for improving cycling and walking in my view but if relatively minor improvements could give more benefit than one very expensive scheme (or even worse a lot of design work gobbling up the funds) thats what should be done.

        1. Berkshire Alan
          June 2, 2023

          Pauline
          Thank you for your reply, pleased you also think the proposals are a complete waste of money, and in the case of the Woosehill Roundabout just utter madness, at least we now know one Councillor on the Committee has some common sense.
          Let us hope that you can educate some of the others, and please keep the Public informed, as many of these daft thoughts, proposals and plans get buried deep inside the Councils website, under strange or inappropriate headings.

          Report Yes WBC should not waste money on damaging one of the most successful junctions we have left. It was designed with enough capacity and flows well.

          1. Pauline
            June 7, 2023

            Happy to do that Alan. I agree the website makes it difficult to find things, I do regular updates on my facebook page, on Wokingham Conservatives website and regular columns and press releases. You are welcome to contact me anytime on pauline.jorgensen@wokingham.gov.uk if you have a question.

  6. Peter Gardner
    May 29, 2023

    I have a memory of a court case from the 70s in which a motorist whose car was damaged by hitting a pothole successfully suing the local council. Perhaps we need more such cases. There is only one way to overcome inertia: hit them in the pocket.

  7. Peter Gardner
    May 30, 2023

    I don’t do Twitter but in your feed to the right of this screen you ask, “Why do so many internationalists and self appointed experts have influence with governments to do things that have always failed in the past?”
    The simple answer is that those in government do not know any better, for which there may be many secondary reasons.
    The Tory Party today has no philosophy of government at its core. It needs a Roger Scruton and to develop policies in the interests of the UK that are based on such a philosophy. Also it is too remote from voters. When it was more accountable to Brussels than its own voters it had little choice. But after Brexit it has failed to re-establish that connection. Just look at Rishi Sunak. It would be comical to see him inspecting a pig farm in West Yorkshire. Does he even own a pair of shoes he would be prepared to wear in muddy conditions?
    Another reason is that not having a solid foundation for its policies, the party just chases causes that it hopes will bring it some votes in 2024. That is what Sunak’s away day was about, rather than developing a set of core precepts of Conservative government.
    So the Party in government adopts policies many of its MPs don’t believe in. Farage is right to say the Party has never believed in Brexit. In government it campaigned for Remain in 2016. It later supported Brexit under Boris Johnson, only because it wanted to be in power, even though a few really did believe in the UK being a truly independent sovereign country – and some do but not those at the top, who are just chasing causes because they don’t know what else to do. The Party has no vision of what it should be doing with the country it finds itself governing.
    Finally, while there is no credible opposition the Party can survive but when the public finally see the opposition as less bad the game is up. Then panic sets in.
    Half the party are Remainers. In a mix of panic, fear and inclination the Sunak Government is holding UK close to the EU. It adopts a policy on illegal immigration half of the Party does not believe in but publicly supports because it wants to be in power. Inevitably its policies on major issues fail because without substance at its core, the Party cannot have the political will to see its policies through to achive the desired result.
    It will require an act of courageous leadership within the Party to gain internal consensus on the necessary substantial beliefs and policies. Does it have anyone who is capable of that? Doing so is necessary but risks a number of is current members leaving. But it would come out of it knowing what it stands for, and the voters would too. If it can’t do it now, the voters will soon give it the necessary period for quiet reflection.

  8. Susan Morgan
    May 30, 2023

    We arrived back in the Uk after a three and a half delay in Australia due to Covid restrictions and then ill health and shocked completely at the condition of the roads between Heathrow and Bridgend, South Wales, from numerous potholes in the fast lane of the M4 to a newly laid road from the Junction off the M4 into Bridgend! Wales doesn’t need 20mph speed bans with roads too bad to navigate above that! We are a third world country with Drakeford in charge but this really is the worst we’ve ever seen them!

  9. Peter Parsons
    May 30, 2023

    Potholes don’t just suddenly appear, they are a consequence of long term failure to undertake proper maintenance.

    According to official figures, Wokingham Borough received over £1.8 million in 2020/21 and almost £1.5 million in 2021/22 in specific funding to deal with this issue. What did the previous Conservative-run council do with that money?

    1. Pauline
      June 1, 2023

      Conservatives spent it on road repairs, the budget was increased from about £2m prior to 2019 to £6min 2021 when we lost control of the council. Since the LDs took over they have not increased road funding and didn’t even spend the whole road budget last year.

  10. Derek
    May 30, 2023

    There really should be no excuse for a local council not to repair these potentially dangerous pot holes.
    Our own JCB manufactures an all-in machine to provide a quick solid fix for them .
    See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0_-wzdhpK8
    I do wonder who in the local Council is responsible for their roads and why they have not consulted JCB. This video was released in 2021.

    1. Pauline
      June 1, 2023

      We actually tried the JCB machine out in Wokingham, it was fine on larger arterial roads but not in the more constrained areas.

  11. Berkshire Alan
    May 31, 2023

    The answer simply is there is no real will by those in charge to make an attempt to fix the roads, and try to get ahead of this growing issue.
    When they are eventually supposedly fixed, they seem on many occasions to fail with remarkable regularity.
    Has anyone ever investigated why nearly all road furniture collapses into the road surface, just look at the witness lines around manholes where repairs are failing, and needing to be repaired again and again, is it due to poor workmanship, poor method, poor materials, does the road furniture have too smaller base area to spread the traffic load properly.
    Who is responsible for overseeing repairs, are they inspected before payment, is the work guaranteed ?
    Surely someone has to sign all this off before payment.
    Likewise Utility Companies, the reinstatement of surfaces and making good is not good, as can be seen again and again with exposed witness lines were the edges crumble due to water ingress and frost, because no seal has been put between the old tarmac and the new, again is any of this work guaranteed ?
    Speed humps and road cushions with crumbling and ragged worn out edges are shredding thousands of good tyres each year, in many cases the inside sidewalls where such damage cannot be easily seen, not only dangerous, but an inconvenient extra cost to owning a motor car.
    Many new cars now not supplied with a spare wheel, so they simply remain stuck with a puncture/split tyre and cause an obstruction until they are rescued by the emergency breakdown services, because it no longer possible to use a spare with a DIY change in many cases.

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