Worst Road Surfaces In Britain.

[mol121p]

I AGREE WITH COVENTRY I AM SURE THE ROADS AROUND HEAR ARE TRYING TO BREAK MY CAR

[chefdon]

No no, you're all wrong. You've clearly never been to Renfrewshire!! We have the worst roads.

They seem to have a rule that potholes only get fixed once it's deep enough to gain some pond life.

There is one crater in particular that reopens about a week after they 'fixed' it, in between Kilmacolm and Bridge of Weir.

So far they have attempted it 4 times since January.

Also, back roads have a new form of speed bump - the road is allowed to deteriorate to the point that you cannot drive faster than 40mph without doing serious damage to your car and/or being forced to swerve into oncoming traffic.

Genius idea Renfrewshire Council!
jamie, they had to fix the road just to put the markings for the speed camera in greenock...

[ChrisWP]

The reason Devon and Cornwall (and particularly Cornwall) have good roads is because they are statistically poor counties - Cornwall being the poorest region of the UK, it qualifies for EU Objective 1 funding - meaning it gets EU grants for infrastructure maintenance - like how so many regions of France/ Spain/ Portugal etc which are far poorer than the UK have great roads.

(note i said "statistically poor" - i agree many of the towns have convoys of Porshes and Rangies, but these tend to be second-home people or the retired, who don't generate a lot of wealth)

Geography A-level is at last useful.

As for differences, I live in BANES (Bath and North-East Somerset) who are crap, but regularly cross into North Somerset, probably at least twice a day, and the difference is obvious as soon as you pass the "Welcome to.." sign in terms of potholes, it's a wonder some are so good, yet their neighbours so poor.

[clarkey328is]

Stedman said:

Killwilly said:

I have come to the conclusion that the A and B roads of Lincolnshire have the worst surface in Britain....Unless anyone knows different!

Sussex is terrible, with Surrey close on it's heels. Go towards Chichester where County Hall is though...and the roads become billiard table smooth.

bds.

Ah welcome. You want to try the a 27 between chichester and portsmouth for the worst dual carraigrway in existence.

[mh123]

water lane york or most roads in york

[masermartin]

TuxRacer said:

South Wales is pretty terrible.

Interesting. I actually thought that their main routes were fantastic last time I was there. Can't comment on the more local roads though, and that might be what you're getting at.

chefdon said:

jamie, they had to fix the road just to put the markings for the speed camera in greenock...

Genius!

Personally, I think Hemel Hempstead and the Hertfordshire area are pretty abysmal - the roundabout just off the northbound M25 at J8 is a prime example, and there's more down towards the town centre. There was a hole so deep round towards the snow centre I thought I'd actually broken a wheel when I hit it one night. There was a road round that way that dipped into Bucks (I think) and the surface literally right over the border went billiard table smooth, just putting Herts into perspective.

[TuxRacer]

masermartin said:

TuxRacer said:

South Wales is pretty terrible.

Interesting. I actually thought that their main routes were fantastic last time I was there. Can't comment on the more local roads though, and that might be what you're getting at.

Even the M4, although to be fair there are patches of lovely tarmac now, there are some shockingly bad sections.

[masermartin]

TuxRacer said:

Even the M4, although to be fair there are patches of lovely tarmac now, there are some shockingly bad sections.

Ahh, sorry didn't count that, I try to get off it as soon as possible!

Edited by masermartin on Monday 9th August 12:37

[Gazmiller]

95% of Wales. the north especially :/. however, the other 5% is sheer driving bliss <3

[mawdesleytractor]

The worst roads I have ever encountered are in and around a tiny, isolated non-place called Mawdesley in the arse end of Lancashire. The roads are barely fit to be called roads. They are worse than many dirt tracks I've ridden my Mountain Bike on. The roads are crumbling in at the sides, due to the massive 4x4's all the inbred snobs here drive. Then you've got the yokel farmer boys in their huge tractors cutting huge ruts in the verges and creating mini-lakes for most of the year. Most roads are now basically single-track. The surfaces are pot-holed as a rule, not as an exception. They don't manage the vegetation so you have scappy trees and hedges poking out. Usually there are clods of mud and horse st strewn around everywhere. I have never seen worse roads in all my life anywhere. Mawdesley is the absolute pits.

[Zed 44]

I just came back from Greece and was amazed at how good their roads were in relation to Norfolk!

[dcb]

Bit pointless to whinge on here, why not report them ?
30 seconds in Google gets this:

http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/

Failing that, ring the council and complain and keep complaining
until they do something about it.

[Peanut Gallery]

They are trying to make large areas of Edinburgh 20mph - though with the roads there that would be the challenge, not the limit.

[Zed 44]

dcb said:

Bit pointless to whinge on here, why not report them ?
30 seconds in Google gets this:

http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/

Failing that, ring the council and complain and keep complaining
until they do something about it.

I did, I do. They say they don't have any money. Austerity is the buzzword - except for foreign wars and Trident and HS2 and ...

[NSNO]

You should come to Sydney, there are third world countries with better roads than here. Then we have the privilege of paying a toll to use them. You have potholes, drain lids that are not flush with the road and crap road surfacing.

[EnthusiastOwned]

It was Sheffield a few years back. Worst in the UK according to government figures. So bad we received a £2 Billion.. Yes Billion grant to repair our roads which started in 2012 and not due to finish until around 2020. That's how bad they were and still are.

[GrizzlyBear]

Gazmiller said:

95% of Wales. the north especially :/. however, the other 5% is sheer driving bliss <3

Got to agree, although I find South Wales particularly poor, West Glamorgan is rather bad for potholes and poor/broken road surfaces, nothing has been done for years. It also is the only place I have seen manhole covers on the Motorway (lane 1 of the M4 near Newport).

Back to the OP, I didn’t notice Lincolnshire was that poor in general, but I suppose I only go to one place in that county.

Wiltshire some poor, some fine, mixed bag really, but seems to be heading down hill slowly.

Hertfordshire is pretty shocking especially in some of the towns. I decided against buying a new sports car as it feels like the car will rip it self apart, so I might be driving a shed for a few years.

Just goes to show how bad things have become in the UK, a few years ago it was a surprise to see a resurfaced road.

[SmilerFTM]

Gazmiller said:

95% of Wales. the north especially :/. however, the other 5% is sheer driving bliss <3

Went to Wales last month and thought the roads were lovely, especially compared to back home in North Yorkshire and County Durham. Depends where you end up I suppose, some of the roads in County Durham are stunning and brilliant drives (with no scameras to boot) while some of them are atrocious. The same can be said of North Yorkshire (the Dales and the Moors).
From my experiences Yorkshire around Leeds and the Peak District are awful but its more to do with friggin speed humps than anything else.

[itaa]

I always find it funny when people from UK complain that they got terrible roads, No you don't have terrible roads in general! Your roads are damn near perfect, even the smallest path is laid in tarmac. the only thing I don't like is that they are sooo narrow in rural areas and there are no places to stop a car on 99.9% of the roads.

70% of roads in my country aren't even laid in tarmac and are gravel roads: where you have to be super careful not to drive to fast or you will spin out at some point and crash your car


20% of the roads are like this:


only 10% of the roads I would say are OK.

So please stop complaining that you have terrible roads!
Because in general your roads are one of the best in world!

[Riley Blue]

On Sunday I drove on roads that were as bad as that second photo, if not worse, in Sheffield; specifically in Dore which is a fairly well to do suburb to the south west of the city.