Potholed roads, all Thatcher's fault apparently.
Discussion
Well not Thatcher perhaps but according the Shadow Transport minister the 13.4bn pothole problem (holes in the road not the PH poster) is ALL Down to the Tories.
Now you might not like Mike Rutherford as a motoring journalist, but he does have a point here
Now you might not like Mike Rutherford as a motoring journalist, but he does have a point here
Mike Rutherford said:
I wish I could take credit for working out the eye-watering cost of repairing our pothole-riddled roads, calculated to be £13.4billion. But that figure came to me – in the hope that I’ll pass it to you – courtesy of John Woodcock. I must confess I’d never heard of him, either, but my initial impressions were that he is a decent, reasonable bloke.
However, the more I learn about the Shadow Minister for Transport, the more he confuses me and the less I warm to him. But there is at least one thing he and I have in common and that’s hatred for vehicle-damaging, accident-causing holes in the road.
I can’t agree with him, however, when he claims that “potholes frustrate road users more than anything”, because I believe needless road closures, tailgaters and hypocritical politicians provoke even more frustration.
Also, when a desperate Woodcock points an accusing finger and deviously states, as he did late last month, that “potholes have become a £13bn problem under the Tories”, I question where he’s coming from. But not for long, because I know where he’s been – Woodcock worked as a special adviser-cum-spokesman for the former (unelected) prime minister Gordon Brown.
To put it another way, when Woodcock was one of the Labour PM’s right-hand men, he said little if anything about the pothole nightmare that Brown (plus Tony Blair and John Prescott, it must be acknowledged) helped create during the previous decade or so.
Yet five minutes after tearing up the business card that described him as Gordon Brown’s adviser/spokesman, Woodcock is disgracefully giving the impression that the £13.4bn pothole problem is down to the incoming Conservative-Liberal Democrat regime and nothing to do with his Labour government. This is about as reasonable as George Bush Snr and Jnr blaming Barack Obama for US military involvement in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.
If Woodcock was the honest, fair-minded man I initially thought, he would do the decent thing and admit the following:
Over the past decade the Tory-Lib Dem government could and should be blamed for almost ignoring potholes for a full 12 months. But the deposed Labour regime is responsible for the remaining nine years of inactivity and contempt over the worsening pothole problem.
The last time Britain had a shadow transport spokesman as outspoken, unreasonable and hypocritical was a decade and a half ago. That man was John Prescott. Let’s hope that history is not about to repeat itself.
However, the more I learn about the Shadow Minister for Transport, the more he confuses me and the less I warm to him. But there is at least one thing he and I have in common and that’s hatred for vehicle-damaging, accident-causing holes in the road.
I can’t agree with him, however, when he claims that “potholes frustrate road users more than anything”, because I believe needless road closures, tailgaters and hypocritical politicians provoke even more frustration.
Also, when a desperate Woodcock points an accusing finger and deviously states, as he did late last month, that “potholes have become a £13bn problem under the Tories”, I question where he’s coming from. But not for long, because I know where he’s been – Woodcock worked as a special adviser-cum-spokesman for the former (unelected) prime minister Gordon Brown.
To put it another way, when Woodcock was one of the Labour PM’s right-hand men, he said little if anything about the pothole nightmare that Brown (plus Tony Blair and John Prescott, it must be acknowledged) helped create during the previous decade or so.
Yet five minutes after tearing up the business card that described him as Gordon Brown’s adviser/spokesman, Woodcock is disgracefully giving the impression that the £13.4bn pothole problem is down to the incoming Conservative-Liberal Democrat regime and nothing to do with his Labour government. This is about as reasonable as George Bush Snr and Jnr blaming Barack Obama for US military involvement in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.
If Woodcock was the honest, fair-minded man I initially thought, he would do the decent thing and admit the following:
Over the past decade the Tory-Lib Dem government could and should be blamed for almost ignoring potholes for a full 12 months. But the deposed Labour regime is responsible for the remaining nine years of inactivity and contempt over the worsening pothole problem.
The last time Britain had a shadow transport spokesman as outspoken, unreasonable and hypocritical was a decade and a half ago. That man was John Prescott. Let’s hope that history is not about to repeat itself.
It would appear to be more of an issue for local government:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-ra...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-ra...
Seems to me that the complete infrastructure, water, power, transport was at the end of its economical life and desperately required major upgrading/extending. I have always seen this as one of Thatchers prime motivators in the privatisation policies. Ok, so the privatisation of roads has not happened as yet and when it doe's it will shift the financial maintenance squarely onto the motorist, just as power and water, Railway has moved the burden onto the end users.
Good thing perhaps, but I haven't seen my tax drop through all this.
Good thing perhaps, but I haven't seen my tax drop through all this.
The Black Flash said:
Still a bummer if you have to count them all though 
I have to say that our local council has been getting on the case rather well, they've been repairing roads continuously since the winter ended.
If they fixed them properly, they wouldn't have to fix them continuously I have to say that our local council has been getting on the case rather well, they've been repairing roads continuously since the winter ended.
Russ35 said:
Blackpool Council have borrowed £30m to fund a 4 year project to relay pavements and roads in the town.
And that's the way it needs to be done. Filling a pothole only moves the problem to the edge of the pothole in about 6 months. The roads need to be fully resurfaced in big sections, preferably with much coarser aggregate (it doesn't form potholes so readily, which is why it's used across Scotland and Scandinavia)Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff