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Wednesday 12 June 2024

The big picture



Labour promises to fix one million extra potholes a year

A Labour government would fix one million extra potholes a year, Sir Keir Starmer has pledged.

The opposition leader said the number of road craters in need of repair across the country was a “plague” as he promised to tackle the issue if elected on July 4.

Contractors filled in just over two million potholes last year but the RAC estimates there are still around a million potholes at any given time as British roads continue to crumble.



Of course the issue isn't the potholes, it's the incompetence, one of those tricky issues which can't be tackled in a party manifesto. With the likes of Rayner, Reeves and Lammy at Starmer's back - well it's a poor show when the only answer is more popcorn.

9 comments:

Bucko said...

Why would you pick a number of potholes you want to fix, rather than fixing all the potholes? Roads that are in good repair, stay that way for longer, but potholes breed potholes

Politicians love to pull numbers out of their arse without actually achieving anything. Vote for us and we'll promise to do x amount more of this stuff than the other guy. And if you don't like that promise, we'll make x number of other promises

DiscoveredJoys said...

They will be so committed to fixing potholes that they will create teams who will go out and create easy-to-fix potholes when there are not enough.

When a road is resurfaced it will increase the number of potholes fixed by calculating the number of average potholes that would have been equivalent to the resurfaced area.

The definition of a 'pothole' will ensure that any pothole that is not too deep will be relabelled as a 'surface depression' and not counted. And the depth measurement will be by 'specially' trained eye.

Special committees will be set up to generate excuses for why any particular pothole cannot be fixed and why the total numbers of potholes have been unexpectedly large (see redefinition above). All under the guidance of a new regulator - OFPOT.

/cynicism

Anonymous said...

Council puts out requests for tenders to fix potholes.
Council chooses lowest, or second lowest, tender.
Council states potholes in a certain road will take so many hours to fill, and bases payment on that.
When time limit arrives, firm stops filling remaining potholes as they will not get paid for them.
Filled potholes quickly deteriorate due to lowest tender firm appointed.
Council puts out requests for tenders to fill potholes.
Council chooses lowest, or second lowest, tender.
Rinse and repeat.
Penseivat

Sam Vega said...

Wasted money. When Net Zero kicks in,the wear and tear on roads is going to rapidly decrease. Just keep the roads from the Channel ports nice and clear, so migrants can be easily transported to their new communities.

dearieme said...

They promise to be the stupidest, most ignorant cabinet in British history.

And the man to thank is David Cameron.

A K Haart said...

Bucko - it's a variation of that Groucho Marx quote "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others."

DJ - a retired surveyor once told me that potholes must have certain depth and size before they are repaired, so yes, play around with the criteria and potholes can disappear like magic. We see some round here which look bad because there are a number of them close together, but they aren't particularly deep. Probably don't meet the depth criterion.

Penseivat - in certain areas round here it's possible to see that process, partly filled groups of potholes where the missed bits soon get worse.

Sam - I'm sure the reasoning of the upper echelons does go something like that - less travel so less wear on the roads.

dearieme - I agree, Starmer's lot are so dire it all looks a little scary.

dearieme said...

At least we know how many holes there are in Blackburn, Lancashire.

A K Haart said...

dearieme - I had to look that up, the internet tells me it's 4000.

dearieme said...

Fancy being too young to know that!