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March 27, 2007
Pothole danger
I have just discovered a website which is fast becoming a hit with motorists and cyclists.
One of the most infuriating things for drivers and cyclists is the amount of potholes that they have to encounter on a daily basis as they go about their travels. I have to say that the roads around where I live in Surrey are real suspension shakers with potholes appearing at alarmingly regular intervals - and often nothing being done about them.
Not that some of the roads around Hillingdon are much better and for several weeks there was a particularly dangerous pothole on the roundabout as you go from the Harefield Road in to Uxbridge High Street.
It was eventually filled in but I have noticed that in the last couple of days it is starting to again shake the suspension of my car each morning.
The website http://www.potholes.co.uk has been set up for people to relate their pothole horror stories - and there are plenty of them from all parts of the country on the site.
It also tells people how they can claim against local councils for damage caused by potholes to
their vehicles, how to report potholes in roads and there is also an interesting news section.
A recent survey asked highway engineers how many potholes they had filled in their area over the past year. The tally across England and Wales was alarmingly close to one million (944,000). Taking average estimated costs for filling a pothole, the impact of this work on already stretched maintenance budgets is calculated at £56 million.
If you have any pothole horror stories then we would be interested to hear about them at the Gazette. You can either contact me through the blog or go to the have your say section on the website and post your comments.
Away from potholes this week's Gazette is now down to the main front end news pages and it looks like being another lively edition.
One of our potential lead stories for the Uxbridge edition spectacularly collapsed yesterday but like any good newsdesk the alternative they have come up with is likely to cause plenty of debate and could become a real hot transport issue for many people.
I have also just finished checking off the pages in the first part of our Top Toddler competition. I have to say there are some really chute pictures this year and I can now appreciate how difficult it was for the judges to pick the winners in the various categories.
Posted by aseal at March 27, 2007 8:07 AM
Comments...
I entered my child into top toddler but he was photographed sitting on a chair not going down a slide. Does this mean he has less chance because it wasn't a chute picture?
Comment posted by: chumasterp at March 27, 2007 12:57 PM
Chute pictures was just a term I used to sum up the competition. I don't think it really mattered whether a child was pictured on a chair or slide. I know it was extremely difficult for the judges to decide on the overall winners, as is always the case.
Comment posted by: adrian at March 28, 2007 8:28 AM