Complaints about potholes double in the last two months of 2010
POTHOLES in 21 streets in the Lincoln area have been filled this week alone.
Lincolnshire County Council has received twice as many complaints about potholes in November and December as in the same two months the previous year.
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Lincolnshire County Council's Steven Locock, left, and Justin Rose fill in a pothole.
May Guerney engineers working for the county council are also responsible for road gritting.
And this role has tended to take priority as temperatures have continued to fall.
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But craters are being repaired and in the past week teams have been deployed to 21 roads including Tritton Road, West Parade, Boultham Park Road and Birchwood Avenue in Lincoln.
As reported in the Echo, the cost of repairing the county's pothole backlog stands at £300 million.
Advanced motorist Gary Hill, 69, said the county council had a tough challenge on its hands.
Mr Hill, of Chippendale Road, Birchwood, Lincoln, said: "I was driving down the A46 in the direction of the police headquarters the other day and there were two huge potholes in the road.
"Luckily, I had observed them, but I think I'd have been in trouble had I gone over them at 50mph.
"The county council really has a job on its hands after the winter we've had.
"I've also seen some previous repairs have been damaged.
"Observation is key for motorists when it comes to potholes, as is driving to conditions and adjusting speed accordingly."
In November and December last year, a total of 289 calls were made about potholes to the council's customer service centre.
This compares to 553 in the last two months of 2010 – an increase of 52 per cent.
However, these figures include duplicate contacts about the same faults and don't include calls or e-mails from people who reported problems, but didn't go through the customer service centre.
Paul Coathup, assistant director for highways and transport at the county council, said the increased number of calls about potholes was an indication of the severity of this winter.
"The fact the number of calls have gone up just illustrates what this winter has been like," he said.
"The number of calls is not an indication of the number of potholes in the county by any means.
"Many go unreported, but some of these may be reporting the same pothole.
"We fix others as we find them on our rounds and some of these may have already been fixed.
"These are reports through one route only, many of which may be duplicates.
"New potholes are always emerging, so there will be many more potholes in Lincolnshire than this."
Comments
by wilwright
Thursday, January 17 2013, 7:41PM
“I have never seen the roads around Lincolnshire so bad, it is disgusting. As the money I'm charged to drive on the roads goes to the goverment its about time the council grew some b***s and very publicly demanded and kept demanding more money for the roads and if they ever got any money from them actually spend it on the roads.”
by Laughing, lincoln
Sunday, January 09 2011, 8:00PM
“Ian, Heighington
Cheap milk and cheap driveway tarmac your some thing else you old cheap skate.Cheap is not always best ;)”
by lynn, lincoln
Sunday, January 09 2011, 5:31PM
“How come motorways seem to remain pot hole free?”
by Ian, Heighington
Sunday, January 09 2011, 3:21PM
“the cost of repairing the county's pothole backlog stands at £300 million.
Does that include the wages of all the Health & Safety inspectors, administrators, manages and executives that "oversee" the work plus purchase of all the trucks, machinery and portaloo's?
I've often had a knock at the door with offers of tarmacking my drive for £250, (that would equate to less than £50 per pothole) and they promise "it'll only take a couple of Hours and last forever". The Council should get these people to fix the potholes, can't do a worse job and for £300 Million they could do most of the UK”
by s.smith, lincoln
Sunday, January 09 2011, 1:10PM
“Where does the money come from to repair all these pot holes,since the government gets all the road tax and petrol tax it should come directly from them or does it as i suspect get paid for out of council tax meaning the motorist is paying twice towards road maintenance....”
by Mick, Dunholme
Sunday, January 09 2011, 10:55AM
“I agree Phil a lot worse may still be to come, but I would also argue that the severe weather is being used as an excuse by road chiefs, to disguise the real cutbacks in road maintenance.
Driving is now likened to an obstacle course, and even though it's common sense, driving instructors are advising learners how to avoid potholes.
Government sooner or later will have to provide all local authorities with realistic funds before we all fall down an even bigger hole.”
by Phil, Lincoln
Saturday, January 08 2011, 11:22AM
“All this going on about pot holes and the bad winter that we've had. Its only the first week of January. Theres a lot more winter to come yet, a possible 3 to 4 months and if it gets really cold again and drags on then we might really get some pot holes to complain about!”