Potholes in Trafford Road, Norwich. Photo: Steve Adams
It’s time to tackle our pothole problems
Dan Grimmer and David Freezer
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
11:28 AM
As spring begins to emerge, the impact of the damage done to the roads of Norwich and Norfolk by the snow and ice of winter is becoming all too apparent.
Potholes in Trafford Road, Norwich. Photo: Steve AdamsToday the Norwich Evening News is launching a new campaign, Spot the Pot, to find the streets which are most in need of repairs to pot-holes and road surfaces.
While Norfolk County Council yesterday decided where to spend a government cash on some road repairs, we want you, our readers, to let us know if pot-holes are blighting roads in your community so we can build up a dossier to take to transport chiefs in a bid to get further action.
The launch comes as news that an extra 50 miles of Norfolk’s roads will be repaired – thanks to a government hand-out to tackle damage caused by winter weather.
Norfolk County Council’s controlling Conservative cabinet yesterday agreed how to spend the millions of pounds of extra money.
Potholes in Trafford Road, Norwich. Photo: Steve AdamsThe government announced in December it would give the county council £5.7m to use over the next two years, and the cabinet decided how to use £3.7m in the coming financial year.
The cabinet agreed that £1.8m will be used on surface dressing and £1.4m on road surfacing, which the council says will enable just under 50 miles more to be treated.
The extra cash means, in total, just under £20m will be spent surface dressing or resurfacing the county’s roads, which aims to prevent potholes from developing.
While the annual bill just to maintain the current condition of the county’s roads is £35m, the cabinet agreed to spend just over £26m on structural maintenance.
Tim East, Liberal Democrat county councillor for Costessey and his group’s spokesman for planning and transportation, said: “Personally I think the number of potholes is increasing, partly because the council is looking at short-term fixes such as surface dressing rather than really tackling the problem.
“It’s much more expensive to take the whole surface off and replace it, but there’s not the money available to do that.
“It doesn’t matter what political persuasion you are. It’s hard to see how it will ever be resolved without a significant amount of money coming from somewhere.”
Two years ago the Evening News reported on Trafford Road, one of the roads most blighted by potholes in the city.
A survey in early 2011 found 56 potholes along the length of Trafford Road and people living in the street say the situation has still not improved - particularly as the number 36 First Norwich bus service has been using the road to get from St Stephens Street to Hall Road since September.
Brian McKenzie, 65, said: “It is bad. They’ve done a few of the big ones along here but I would say it’s even worse, particularly since they’ve been sending the buses down here.
“They’ve got to sort it out or they’ll have claims for the suspension going on people’s cars.”
Sophie Smith, 32, said: “It probably is a little bit worse. It’s quite bad at the moment, but the weather has been bad.
“Where the cars are parked on either side of the road you can’t avoid the potholes so it could damage people’s cars.”
While Chris Ford, 40, added: “The last two months has been worse, probably because the buses have been coming down here every half-an-hour.
“It’s not the most ideal situation, it’s annoying more than anything else when you are driving along here.”
Now we want to know which of the city’s roads needs money spent on it and if potholes have caused you major problems.
- To report potholes to Norwich City Council, call 0344 980 3333 or go to www.norwich.gov.uk/Forms, or to report a pothole to the county council, call 0344 8008020 or go to online.norfolk.gov.uk/highways
- Is your street particularly blighted by potholes? Send your views and pictures to newsdesk@archant.co.uk or write to Spot the Pot, Newsdesk, Prospect House, Rouen Road, Norwich, NR1 1RE.
- You can also submit your pictures of potholes to our iwitness24 website at www.iwitness24.co.uk and by using social network Twitter by using the hashtag #SpotThePot
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13 comments
Most of the main roads in King's Lynn are in a terrible state. This morning driving out on the A47 from Hardwick roundabout I noticed the centre of the lane is deeply pitted and broken, it's not even where the tyres would go. Whoever has been budgeting for highways maintenance needs to show a little more accountability, or go. Heaven help the state of the roads when the waste lorries start rolling into Saddlebow.
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Honest John
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Just before an election is always the best time for potholes. I take the point about surface dressing dressed up as the real thing, but the important thing is to be seen doing something, regardless of the quality.
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ingo wagenknecht
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
It's well worth contacting your local county councillor as well as reporting it to the council's staff at this particular time.It's funny but things seem to get done somehow this way in the spring before an election.This can be done easily through www.writetothem.com.
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Peter Watson
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The neglect of the A47 by the highways agency is also a concern. I am surprised that motorcyclists do not come croppers-the rifts in between lanes on parts of the southern bypass are nasty, as are the cracks parallel with traffic flow on the western end of the Dereham bypass. Beggars belief that they got repair crews out, with all the lorries and coning etc but only fixed some of the cracks. The whole road network is cracking and potholing and surfaces laid at junctions intended to slow traffic down have been some of the first to rip up. However, Norfolk's problems pale in comparison with some of the minor roads in Cambridgeshire, especially their concrete ones-and even the A10 between Southery and Littleport is in a terrible patchworked state.
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Daisy Roots
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Treating pot-holed roads simply with a surface dressing is a cheaper option, but a false-economy. It will inevitably cost the Highways Authority (County Council) more in the long run as predictably they’ll have to re-visit the very same spot next year. Cllr. Tim East
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tim east
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
What a load of nonsense. Instead of government funding councils adequately, the councils have to make bids for funding, meanwhile the roads become so bad it will cost more than double to fix them properly. A false economy if ever there was.
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Police Commissioner ???
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
I blame the man made global warming freaks of the UEA. I always use fixmystreet for reporting largish potholes.
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nrg
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
That's right, the clock's ticking, election in 2 months from now, come along, look lively, got lots of silly voters to buy-off before then.
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Mr Cameron Isaliar
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
It's all a question of finance and the Council hasn't got any! It's not just the potholes but also road markings that have been left far too long. In some cases the deteriorated markings are making roads and junctions dangerous to motorists who find it difficult to understand what is required. What is important is that many road markings are classed as road signs by various Road Traffic Acts and should be maintained properly. You would think that with vehicle excise taxation and the enormous amount of tax paid by motorists through fuel duty our roads would be far better maintained.
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VictorM
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
You can try and claim against the Local Authority but around 90% of claims are successfully denied. The Authority has a duty to maintain the Highway and undertakes regular inspections. However, they cannot be expected to look at every section of highway every day. They rely on the inspection regime to pick up defects and members of the public informing them. Some minor roads are only inspected annually wheras major roads are inspected 12 times a year. Difficult job with all the budget cuts etc. Also give the guys a break when complaints are made about the standard of repairs. The weather in this country isn't great and trying to fix a hole in the lashing rain, snow, ice etc sometimes will result in a less than perfect repair.
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Council Worker
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Can we claim from the council for damage to our cars caused by potholes? I do not mean only suspension damage.
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Peter John Cromarty
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Perhaps the council should stop spending money on so called traffic calming measures where there is no need, the roads might be in better shape.
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parkeg1
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
I agree with Tim East in that surface dressing is a complete and utter waste of time and money.
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John L Norton
Tuesday, March 5, 2013