Pothole count approaches one million and cows escape again

Almost one million potholes are filled each year in England and Wales. Apparently there is a backlog of work stretching to 11 weeks and maintenance appears to be reactive rather than preventative.

Photo: Puckshole potholes above and cow in Bread Street below

Please let me assure you that there is no truth that half those potholes were found and repeatedly filled in Puckshole. It is true though that those potholes are refilled regularly due to what appears to be a spring that seems to want to come up in the middle of the road - certainly a case of reactive rather than preventative work. When will someone sort the problem rather than just refilling holes?

Potholes are dangerous and need attention - having said that, as noted previously on this blog, I have to say that on a few local roads including in Puckshole the potholes have actually reduced traffic speeds - the holes are easily visible, well known and are a cheap way of making walking safer!! Indeed when they are repaired cars return to travelling too fast.

What we really need is for residential roads to be designed for speeds of no more than 20 mph. Anyhow locally in an effort to improve roads the County introduced a system to make it easier to report online. Last year 2,254 people called the County to report a pothole - only 97 used the website which is cheaper for the County to process. If you have a pothole in Gloucestershire to report go to Glos County Council's new hotline at:
www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/pothole

Meanwhile this weekend I spent a wee while trying to get a couple of cows back in the field. Once again they managed to escape onto the road and were heading for Stroud at quite a good pace. Fortunately within 25 mins both cows were safely returned.