The state of Wokingham’s roads is atrocious. I am getting plenty of complaints about the increased number of potholes and the poor surfaces which have deteriorated badly in the last two years. The Lib Dems seem to want the roads to get worse to deter people from driving to work or school.
I have successfully pressed with some other Conservative MPs to make tackling potholes a priority. Wokingham is getting a current baseline sum of 3,314,000 from government each year for road maintenance. The government is also providing an additional £418,000 extra this year and again next year for additional work on potholes. The minimum promised uplift in road money between 2023-4 and 2033-34 will be £13,095,000.
So Wokingham Council, what is your excuse now? This is another increased sum and new money the Lib Dems do not want to tell us about. Time to do something with all this extra money.
West Berkshire with more road to maintain gets £5,387,000 as base sum, with a pothole uplift of 679,000 this year and next.
February 8, 2024
Exposing shame publicly often spurs those at fault into remedial action. A butcher painted names on his window of those customers who hadn’t settled their bill and the amounts. That solved the problem rapidly.
Perhaps a Wokingham Potholes website would help. Residents can send in photos of potholes with location and date info. Every pothole left untreated by the Council would show their ineffectiveness in office, supported by strong evidence accessible to all.
February 8, 2024
It is starting to look as if they are deliberately causing pain to blame it on the government !!
February 8, 2024
Agree 100%
The road = may be called Jubilee Road from old war memorial into Finch past the doctors surgery is a typical example of neglect
£5.4 million on California Crossroads- yet we cannot do basic “housekeeping “ on existing roads
WBC has “pet projects” but no sense of proper local priorities and current needs
February 9, 2024
Perhaps a LibDem Councillor could give their side of the story, as they have previously said that the need to increase all of the local parking charges, was so they could mend the roads.
Unfortunately the state of the roads is getting worse, perfectly understand that it all takes time to catch up, but I see very little evidence that a speed up is happening at all.
Indeed many roads that have been so called resurfaced recently are already showing signs of degradation.
Do the contractors offer any form of guarantee on their work ?
February 10, 2024
BA,
You make good points.
I wonder if they are trying to do the repairs on the cheap, rather than doing the repairs properly?
I understand that in the summer the road surface suffers in the heat and in the winter, the soaking from the rain and the action of freezing and thawing can crack the surface, but other countries with far more extreme weather seem to manage alright. Is it just a lack of investment and maintenance?