Overgrown verges

[mattyc69]

Just a bit of background,

I live in a small village in Norfolk population is about 1000, we have no shops just a pub.

The nearest town is about 3 miles away, we only have 2 routes in and out of the village to the town, these are both only wide enough for one car, not too much of an issue everyone knows the drill plenty of places to pull over to let someone coming other way past.

Now our verges along these roads used to get cut back twice a year, then last year this changed to once a year. But this year they have only cut the bends and junctions and left the rest, this is an accident waiting to happen.

I have reported this too the council and I believe so have many others, if someone was too have a crash would they have a case against no the council?

[Beetnik]

They're responsible for maintaining visibility so by cutting adjacent to junctions and corners they're fulfilling that duty. If you're on a straight the height of vegetation on the verge is of no consequence in terms of visibility so difficult to hold the highways authority liable in the event of an incident, I guess.

[Fastpedeller]

Latest news in EDP is that they will be cutting very soon! Knowing how poor NCC are with filling potholes, they will leave the verge trimming to the last possible moment Unfortunately NCC are (sometimes) reactive, but never pro-active

[Riley Blue]

mattyc69 said:

Now our verges along these roads used to get cut back twice a year, then last year this changed to once a year. But this year they have only cut the bends and junctions and left the rest, this is an accident waiting to happen.

I have reported this too the council and I believe so have many others, if someone was too have a crash would they have a case against no the council?

It's the driver's responsibility to drive to prevailing conditions. If you drive like a tt when you can't see clearly, irrespective of the reason, you have only yourself to blame for the consequences.

[TooMany2cvs]

mattyc69 said:

if someone was too have a crash would they have a case against no the council?

Not unless it was a council vehicle that hit you.

[WinstonWolf]

Riley Blue said:

mattyc69 said:

Now our verges along these roads used to get cut back twice a year, then last year this changed to once a year. But this year they have only cut the bends and junctions and left the rest, this is an accident waiting to happen.

I have reported this too the council and I believe so have many others, if someone was too have a crash would they have a case against no the council?

It's the driver's responsibility to drive to prevailing conditions. If you drive like a tt when you can't see clearly, irrespective of the reason, you have only yourself to blame for the consequences.

What if you drive cautiously and to a standard that would reasonably be expected of a safe and cautious driver but you still can't see due to overgrown bushes? Do you just park up and walk?

Our council stopped cutting bushes, they've acknowledged that it's dangerous and have started to prune all junctions as a matter of urgency.

[Riley Blue]

WinstonWolf said:

Riley Blue said:

mattyc69 said:

Now our verges along these roads used to get cut back twice a year, then last year this changed to once a year. But this year they have only cut the bends and junctions and left the rest, this is an accident waiting to happen.

I have reported this too the council and I believe so have many others, if someone was too have a crash would they have a case against no the council?

It's the driver's responsibility to drive to prevailing conditions. If you drive like a tt when you can't see clearly, irrespective of the reason, you have only yourself to blame for the consequences.

What if you drive cautiously and to a standard that would reasonably be expected of a safe and cautious driver but you still can't see due to overgrown bushes? Do you just park up and walk?

You use your common sense, same as when your view is restricted by something large and opaque - like a building.

[WinstonWolf]

Riley Blue said:

WinstonWolf said:

Riley Blue said:

mattyc69 said:

Now our verges along these roads used to get cut back twice a year, then last year this changed to once a year. But this year they have only cut the bends and junctions and left the rest, this is an accident waiting to happen.

I have reported this too the council and I believe so have many others, if someone was too have a crash would they have a case against no the council?

It's the driver's responsibility to drive to prevailing conditions. If you drive like a tt when you can't see clearly, irrespective of the reason, you have only yourself to blame for the consequences.

What if you drive cautiously and to a standard that would reasonably be expected of a safe and cautious driver but you still can't see due to overgrown bushes? Do you just park up and walk?

You use your common sense, same as when your view is restricted by something large and opaque - like a building.

Buildings don't generally start protruding out beyond junctions.

There are quite a few round here now where you have to have your vehicle half way across the carriageway before you have a view. I proceed carefully, but lack of maintenance has made it more dangerous than it needs to be.

[mattyc69]

Riley Blue said:

mattyc69 said:

Now our verges along these roads used to get cut back twice a year, then last year this changed to once a year. But this year they have only cut the bends and junctions and left the rest, this is an accident waiting to happen.

I have reported this too the council and I believe so have many others, if someone was too have a crash would they have a case against no the council?

It's the driver's responsibility to drive to prevailing conditions. If you drive like a tt when you can't see clearly, irrespective of the reason, you have only yourself to blame for the consequences.

I drive very responsibly and so do most people but it does not matter, this is not a road used by 2 or 3 cars a day it's fairly busy, the only way for people to navigate it safely at the minute would be for everyone to drive at 5mph this is not gonna happen. Thanks for judging me on my driving without ever meeting me, I think your mum is calling, your dinner is ready.

[Riley Blue]

mattyc69 said:

Riley Blue said:

mattyc69 said:

Now our verges along these roads used to get cut back twice a year, then last year this changed to once a year. But this year they have only cut the bends and junctions and left the rest, this is an accident waiting to happen.

I have reported this too the council and I believe so have many others, if someone was too have a crash would they have a case against no the council?

It's the driver's responsibility to drive to prevailing conditions. If you drive like a tt when you can't see clearly, irrespective of the reason, you have only yourself to blame for the consequences.

I drive very responsibly and so do most people but it does not matter, this is not a road used by 2 or 3 cars a day it's fairly busy, the only way for people to navigate it safely at the minute would be for everyone to drive at 5mph this is not gonna happen. Thanks for judging me on my driving without ever meeting me, I think your mum is calling, your dinner is ready.

Sorry - if one drives like a tt etc. etc. Happy now?

[TooMany2cvs]

mattyc69 said:

this is not a road used by 2 or 3 cars a day it's fairly busy, the only way for people to navigate it safely at the minute would be for everyone to drive at 5mph this is not gonna happen.

If there's that much traffic, then any foliage overhanging the carriageway is going to get trimmed back in short order, into a nice truck-shaped hole.

But, ultimately, if road conditions mean 5mph is a safe maximum speed, then 5mph is a safe maximum speed.

Some photos might help, though.

[Clive-sz8cz]

Riley Blue said:

It's the driver's responsibility to drive to prevailing conditions. If you drive like a tt when you can't see clearly, irrespective of the reason, you have only yourself to blame for the consequences.

mattyc69, don't be wound up by Riley Blue, he's retired and probably has nothing worthwhile in his life other than winding people up and making stupid ignorant judgements about people and things he knows nothing of;9,000+ posts....hmmm.

[Riley Blue]

Clive-sz8cz said:

Riley Blue said:

It's the driver's responsibility to drive to prevailing conditions. If you drive like a tt when you can't see clearly, irrespective of the reason, you have only yourself to blame for the consequences.

mattyc69, don't be wound up by Riley Blue, he's retired and probably has nothing worthwhile in his life other than winding people up and making stupid ignorant judgements about people and things he knows nothing of;9,000+ posts....hmmm.

Kisses XXX

[cmaguire]

mattyc69 said:

Just a bit of background,

I live in a small village in Norfolk population is about 1000, we have no shops just a pub.

The nearest town is about 3 miles away, we only have 2 routes in and out of the village to the town, these are both only wide enough for one car, not too much of an issue everyone knows the drill plenty of places to pull over to let someone coming other way past.

Now our verges along these roads used to get cut back twice a year, then last year this changed to once a year. But this year they have only cut the bends and junctions and left the rest, this is an accident waiting to happen.

I have reported this too the council and I believe so have many others, if someone was too have a crash would they have a case against no the council?

It's fairly obvious to a regular driver that the maintenance of verges is one area where costs have been cut. Along with potholes and line painting.
There is a road near me that has bad subsidence, particularly at one end where trucks travel from a main route to a cement works and distribution depot. Along this stretch there was bad subsidence either side of the centre where the trucks straddle the centre line, which meant care had to be taken in a car (or worse still on a motorbike) as the ruts would try and have you off the road. They were getting progressively worse and then finally a 40 something woman crashed head-on into a truck coming the other way and died. Suddenly there are signs up warning about the road surface and then finally it got re-surfaced. Entirely avoidable.
At the other end of the road there is a side-junction. The lack of verge trimming meant vehicles were poking their noses out into a 60 zone because without doing so you could not see either way. End result, major pile-up with two deaths and surprise surprise, the verges were suddenly being trimmed again. Now we're all being subjected to a 40 limit there now, which is totally unnecessary, but no doubt serves a purpose in that the idiots responsible for not trimming the verges can blame it on the previous limit making the junction dangerous rather than their own incompetence.
There was another death (these all happened within a year or so) where a motorcyclist on one of the straight bits between the cement works and the junction lost control and crashed head on into a Land Rover. I've seen plenty of farmtracks with better surfaces than this road.

If somebody dies you'll get your verges trimmed.

[Clive-sz8cz]

cmaguire said:

It's fairly obvious to a regular driver that the maintenance of verges is one area where costs have been cut. Along with potholes and line painting.
There is a road near me that has bad subsidence, particularly at one end where trucks travel from a main route to a cement works and distribution depot. Along this stretch there was bad subsidence either side of the centre where the trucks straddle the centre line, which meant care had to be taken in a car (or worse still on a motorbike) as the ruts would try and have you off the road. They were getting progressively worse and then finally a 40 something woman crashed head-on into a truck coming the other way and died. Suddenly there are signs up warning about the road surface and then finally it got re-surfaced. Entirely avoidable.
At the other end of the road there is a side-junction. The lack of verge trimming meant vehicles were poking their noses out into a 60 zone because without doing so you could not see either way. End result, major pile-up with two deaths and surprise surprise, the verges were suddenly being trimmed again. Now we're all being subjected to a 40 limit there now, which is totally unnecessary, but no doubt serves a purpose in that the idiots responsible for not trimming the verges can blame it on the previous limit making the junction dangerous rather than their own incompetence.
There was another death (these all happened within a year or so) where a motorcyclist on one of the straight bits between the cement works and the junction lost control and crashed head on into a Land Rover. I've seen plenty of farmtracks with better surfaces than this road.

If somebody dies you'll get your verges trimmed.

I'd like to see to see RB's learned opinion on the above post, he'll presumably view the poor sods who died as tts.

[mattyc69]

TooMany2cvs said:

mattyc69 said:

this is not a road used by 2 or 3 cars a day it's fairly busy, the only way for people to navigate it safely at the minute would be for everyone to drive at 5mph this is not gonna happen.

If there's that much traffic, then any foliage overhanging the carriageway is going to get trimmed back in short order, into a nice truck-shaped hole.

But, ultimately, if road conditions mean 5mph is a safe maximum speed, then 5mph is a safe maximum speed.

Some photos might help, though.

I will take some pics tomorrow on the way too work, I know what your saying but I don't think it's acceptable for the council to expect people to drive at those speeds on a fairly busy road.

I guess it just pisses me off the amount of road tax we pay and our council tax is ridiculous and all we get is a bin.

[cmaguire]

Clive-sz8cz said:

I'd like to see to see RB's learned opinion on the above post, he'll presumably view the poor sods who died as tts.

Queen Adelaide Way/ Branch Bank joining the A142 at Ely with the A10 North of Littleport if anyone cares.


Hardly unique though. I travel the A505 occasionally from the A11 to the A1. It's half dualled, but has several roundabouts on it and various side junctions so there are several cameras because it is well known for accidents. Driving it a couple of weeks ago I had to near enough stop at every roundabout because it wasn't possible to see onto the roundabouts because the verges are so overgrown. Junctions are also more dangerous for obvious reasons, particularly where vehicles cross one carriageway to sit in the waiting area between the armco before crossing the other carriageway.
It should not even be an option to reduce this type of maintenance below a safe minimum level, as is often being done now. If the council employees responsible were liable to manslaughter charges that might change their perspective.

[TooMany2cvs]

mattyc69 said:

I guess it just pisses me off the amount of road tax we pay

VED doesn't go to paying for minor roads.

mattyc69 said:

and our council tax is ridiculous and all we get is a bin.

It goes to a LOT more than that. Whether you use all of it or not is another question, of course.

Naaarfk, did you say?
https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/what-we-do-and-how-we-w...


Of that £1.4billion, £33m goes to roads maintenance.
https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/what-we-do-and-how-we-w...
There's about 370,000 households in Norfolk in the 2011 census, so that's about £90/year per household goes on maintaining the roads out of a total budget of nearly £3,800 per household.

[irocfan]

it is an interesting one - I've just come back from driving through both Austria a Germany and the thing they both have in common is (in the main) excellent roads and verges... Belgian roads on the other hand were about as poor as ours. Truth be told Austria and Germany were a lot cleaner and better maintained as a whole than the UK

Edited by irocfan on Monday 11th July 21:34

[mattyc69]

TooMany2cvs said:

mattyc69 said:

I guess it just pisses me off the amount of road tax we pay

VED doesn't go to paying for minor roads.

mattyc69 said:

and our council tax is ridiculous and all we get is a bin.

It goes to a LOT more than that. Whether you use all of it or not is another question, of course.

Naaarfk, did you say?
https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/what-we-do-and-how-we-w...


Of that £1.4billion, £33m goes to roads maintenance.
https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/what-we-do-and-how-we-w...
There's about 370,000 households in Norfolk in the 2011 census, so that's about £90/year per household goes on maintaining the roads out of a total budget of nearly £3,800 per household.

I would love to know were my £90 is being spent!!!