spending budgets | Smarty's Blog

Posted tagged ‘spending budgets’

Patchway Potholes

01/06/2010

People keep telling me that the roads near where they live are very bad with potholes and crumbling road surfaces. I then invite them over to my house. And simply everyone is astonished at the very poor condition of roads near to me. I am now formally complaining about this issue and below are copies of emails I have.

If your venhicle is damaged by a pothole, I recommend you visit this site: http://www.potholes.co.uk/claims/how_to_claim

These are the emails I have so far concerning the potholes in Patchway. My original start was on the South Gloucestershire web site. They have a “report pothole” button. I duly filled it an and this is their acknowledgement:

This was received on 6 May at 14.59. And I have not heard from them since.

This is an automated email from South Gloucestershire Council. Please DO NOT reply to this email as replies will not be monitored.

This is to confirm that your report of a fault on the highway has been successfully submitted to us.

If you need to contact us regarding this matter, please quote the following reference: WEB-0161448

___________________________________________________________________________

South Gloucestershire Council – rated April 2009 under the Comprehensive Performance Assessment a maximum ‘4 star’ council by the Audit Commission.

At the same time, I also sent an email to Patchway Council advsing them of what I had done. My local Counsellor only lives 100 metres away from me and she replied as follows:

“Sorry its taking me so long to get back to you, unfortunately my job with the Health Service have taken alot of my time over the last few weeks. But of course you have my support re the state of Patchway Roads, especially around the Coniston Road, Bevington Walk area. I have noticed that some of the potholes between Strode Road and Kestrel Road have been filled in, but I feel that is the guys doing the street lighting using up their spare tarmac. I have e-mailed Street Care but I know they have a limited budget for the whole of South Gloucestershire and know that they are trying their best to repair all of South Gloucestershire roads, we as a council are all moaning to Street Care re the state of the roads but unfortunately we do not have a magic wand to get them re done quickly before a serious accident happens.

Regards”

And then I replied as follows:

Thank you for taking the time to reply to me. I have waited for a reply from South Glos, but alas, nothing has reached me.

Could you let me have the email for the Street Care so I can contact them direct? I was well aware that the excuse is lack of budget. My issue is how the budget is spent. When you have a budget, you choose how to spend it. The choices were, in my opinion, plain wrong. From my viewpoint, the timeline is as follows:

Street Lights

The lights started to be replaced around September 2009. Whoever agreed the replacement and budget spending needs to hold their head in shame. The nation was in the middle of a severe recession that had already been going for over a year. So why replace perfectly functioning street lamps?!! The Council should have been seen to cut back. And didn’t do so. Error No 1

Salting of Roads

The 09/10 winter was one of the severest we have had for many years. No one could have foreseen that. I have lived in Bevington Close since 1984. It was noticeable that the roads had much less salt put down compared to snowfalls in past years. This caused the poor road surfaces we now have. However, South Glos chose to use the minimum amount of salt. They had plenty left – as evidenced by the Minister for Transport ordering South Glos to share their excess salt with Bristol City Council!!

Error No 2

Recent repairs

The recent repairs are no more than temporary patches and have been poorly done. When I turn right out of Bevington Close and drive over the patches towards the post box, it is like driving over rumble strips. Yes, the tarmac is not level. Error No 3

Now out of personal choice, I drive a nice car. Four tyres cost £750. Who can I send the bill to? Or perhaps I can only claim for collapsed suspension?

Last week I drove to the outskirts of Gloucester and went onto a “B” country road in the GL2 area. It had been completely re-surfaced over a 3 mile stretch. Yet Coniston Road is a nightmare to drive on and it is a bus route as well. Am I right in thinking that Pathway is deemed to be a poor sub-standard area and budgets are spent accordingly? Error No 4 looms large.

I will be sending all this correspondence to our new MP next week as I assume he has the power to twist the appropriate arms. Any comments you have in the meantime would be greatly appreciated.

And there we stand at the present moment.

A Suzuki Swift had its suspension damaged in Highwood Lane, details are here: http://www.potholes.co.uk/stories/view/833/Highwood_Lane_Patchway_Bristol/

Here are some pictures of just a few (!) potholes in Bevington Close. All taken on afternoon of 2 June 2010. Spot the faded yellow paint. South Glos Council marked these in March – with the benefit of hindsight, wish I had recorded the date!