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?

[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.

[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.

[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!!!

[mattyc69]

Drumroll said:

Here is a novel idea the OP gets a few friends together and they cut the verges themselves. it's called community spirit. People in our village have just cleaned out a local brook. We can moan as much as we like but Council budgets have been cut and they have to make decisions on what to spend money on.

We have plenty of that so thanks for your "novel idea"

Unfortunately it would probably take a lot of us a long time to cut back 3 miles of overgrown verges on both sides of the road, we will then run into the issue as mentioned earlier in this post that the council are leaving the verges for environmental reasons and all end up getting bked for the pleasure.

[mattyc69]

coppice said:

It may be news to some but public sector spending has been slashed again and again.Verge maintenance isn't cheap , nor is it essential (except in the case of dangerously obscured junctions ) and I actually prefer overgrown verges on many roads - good to see some wild flowers etc instead of the monoculture which agriculture involves so often . Oddly enough,enjoying driving and interest in the environment aren't mutually exclusive and if you can't drive according to conditions you really shouldn't be out .

Yet again someone judging my driving without knowing me, the overgrown verges are along the road causing plenty of dangerous bends etc... As said aswell I can drive carefully but unfortunately not everyone does.

Average charge for a contractor is about £30 an hour for headcutting with fuel supplied by the farmer, so add £10 for 2 hours worth of fuel and for about £70 the council could gove the a village of a 1000 people a safe journey to there nearest town.

[mattyc69]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/ind...

I think you will find unfortunately we are still giving money to India.

[mattyc69]

The verges have been cut!!!!

Got an e-mail from the council on Friday to say they had been and looked and realised how dangerous the situation had become and the issue would be addressed asap.

Driving to work this morning and they have all been done!