Now that our roads are almost empty and we have more time on our hands let’s put those potholes to good use and take up scuba diving.
In the midst of mayhem – there is often a positive – and every pothole has a silver lining.
All of us who have regularly travelled Surrey’s roads needed no confirmation from a recent Freedom of Information request that Surrey has been voted the ‘Pothole Capital of England.’ Countrywide there is now even a National Pothole Day. In Surrey and our borough of Waverley – every day is Pothole Day.
Road Closed signs are a regular occurrence, where no actual maintenance works are taking place, sometimes for weeks, if not months. Irritated motorists are ignoring them in and around the borough and county. Many motorists are just driving through, on the opposite side of the road, to avoid craters.
A total of 37,578 relevant claims were made across the country
Surrey received 3,533 claims and paid out a whopping £323,22 in compensation from January 1, 2019, to October 17 2019. Countrywide councils compensated motorists with an eye-watering £3,520,538,38 in total.
Hampshire finds itself with the dubious honour of being in second place.
Let’s face it, most of us don’t have the time to make the onerous claims to Surrey County Council, take photographs and then make appeals for new tyres and wheel damage. We Just Curse and Carry On! So the above figure is just the tip of the iceberg or the bottom of the pothole.
We discovered recently that it takes 1,300 years for Lego to decompose in the sea. How about a very clever manufacturer coming up with a material made of the same composition to resurface all our roads. Pothole problems solved forever!
Surely there’s enough of this composition around to recycle and turn it into a useful and environmentally friendly surfacing compound?
So where’s the silver lining? Our cars are locked away safely into our garages unless we are doing essential work – air quality is improving as we speak, particularly here in Farnham, and we can now dodge the potholes more safely as it is more than likely there is nobody coming in the other direction. And, of course, we can practice our scuba diving skills on empty roads.
Oh Crikey – I may have done just that on Wildwood Lane, there was a Road Close sign by the Side of the road which I didn’t see until I had pulled in and another one further down in the Hedge then a Pile of signage at the end of the junction with Knowle lane. Need to find out if I should report it??
Possibly. We do not know your area very well, though we have had reports of the dreadful state of some of the roads in the eastern villages.
Not much good reporting anything – unless of course you get in touch with your loca Surrey County Councillor, has he been seen or heard of in recent years. No doubt you will see Cllr Andrew Povey in the months running up to next year’s local elections?
Surrey Highways 2020/21 budget for Highways and Transport is a whopping £62.9m and their website claims “money well spent” Well it certainly is well spent on pot holes. They employ dodgy small contractors who come along, shovel some tarmac into the holes then whack it with the back of their shovel. That cant be true I hear you say!
But I’m afraid I’ve seen this all too often. A few weeks later surprise surprise its all popped up and been washed away down the drain….just like our money!
Well if the county council has that whopping amount of money perhaps it could start using it, because the situation on our roads is becoming worse than a nuisance, downright dangerous.