Pothole Parade

[David Whipp]

Extensive patching work on Brogden Lane is nearing completion; the work is in preparation for surface dressing.

[Stanley]

Proper job....

[David Whipp]

Greenberfield Lane the other day (before it started raining).

Some decent repairs have been done on Greenberfield Lane and some, where the carriageway is worn out, which are not so good.

But in a few places highway staff have seemingly just ignored what, to me, are dangerous defects. When filled with rain, a cyclist wouldn't be able to tell how deep the drop was in the one pictured above; potentially lethal.

After much tooing and froing with the highway department (and in the end emailing this picture to the boss), I got an email yesterday:

Greenberfield Lane has been inspected again. Works will be arranged for the defects caused by traffic running off the edge of the carriageway to be filled/made safe.

(Will have to wait and see what 'made safe' means.)

[PanBiker]

Greenberfield Lane has been inspected again. Works will be arranged for the defects caused by traffic running off the edge of the carriageway to be filled/made safe.

The lane should only be experiencing light traffic anyway as it is not designated as a through route. You take your life in your hands sometimes (particularly on a push bike) on Greenberfield with the motorised traffic using the lane despite the notices at either end.

[David Whipp]

One of the locations I took LCC managers to see when they visited West Craven a couple of weeks ago was the side street at the bottom of Ash Grove that links through to Leonard Street.

All agreed that it was in a diabolical state.

Now the street has been revisited by a highway inspector. Verdict: No defect exceeding intervention levels.

What do you think?

[Stanley]

The highway inspector is either partially blind or working under instructions to keep costs down. If that was outside the front door of County Hall it would be resurfaced yesterday!

[Stanley]

I see in the BET that the Tories are trying to steal your pothole thunder! Ask them how many specific complaints (with pics) they have sent to the authorities.....

[Stanley]

Nice riposte on potholes in your latest leaflet. I am listening for the thunder of hooves as the Tories hasten with their rebuttals..... (NOT!)

[David Whipp]

The senior manager's visit to the bottom of Ash Grove (pictured above), which I mentioned a few weeks ago, has sparked a further flurry of emails.

Whilst on site, a resident pointed out that there was a blocked gulley at the back of Montrose Terrace (the elevated row on Skipton Road). This is street which was made up and adopted 15 years ago.

When I reported the problem, I got the answer that the street wasn't adopted... I asked them to check their records.

Senior manager then responded saying that LCC had no record of the adoption.

Now, as it happens, we went through all this in 2011 with this street and some others. I was able to email all of the evidence to show that the street was adopted, together with an email from the area manager at the time confirming that it was adopted.

Am awaiting a further response from top bod at County Hall... (and for the gulley to be cleaned out - together with the two others on the side street in the same condition).



Here's the "unadopted" street (according to LCC).

[Stanley]

Sounds like a good way of ditching responsibility. I'll bet they love you.....

[David Whipp]

The county council has managed to get to the surface dressing on Coates estate. Picture shows work underway on Avon Drive. The wet weather in the last couple of weeks must have delayed work, as the dates on notices warning of the work have been changed three times.

Meanwhile, although they haven't said as much, LCC must have accepted that the back street of Montrose Terrace is adopted, as they've agreed to clean out the choked gulley (together with the ones at the bottom of Ash Grove).

[Stanley]

Nice to see that normal service is being resumed...

[David Whipp]

A bete noir; Skipton Road going up to the canal bridge.

This, together with several other defects that have been getting deeper in recent weeks, was filled in yesterday.

The full length of Skipton Road has been marked up for 'structural' patching, but the county council hasn't said when the work will be carried out. Yesterday's work will be planed out when the proper patching is done.

I've lost count of the number of times this particular pothole has been filled in and can't wait for a proper job to be done.

[Stanley]

Budget cuts affecting vital services. Potholes are the first sign of the basic deterioration of a surface and if not reconstructed properly are the first steps on a very slippery slope. I fear we are seeing this across a whole range of services. Not good news for the future. The tragedy is of course that doing the job properly is economically efficient in the long run. Keep at 'em David!

[Stanley]

See THIS for evidence that David's relentless campaign has had an effect! Don't laugh, it is the activists like David who, when combined together, get the attention of our leaders. Good stuff!

[David Whipp]

Thanks Stanley.

The campaign has certainly had an effect in Lancashire.

The county council is publishing a new asset management plan which is based on more preventative maintenance for roads and pavements (rather than reactive maintenance). It'll see more structural patching and surface dressing carried out rather than full resurfacing of a much shorter stretches. Initially, the concentration will be on A, B and C roads, together with pavements.

The pump priming money will come from switching funding from bridges, which in Lancashire are in excellent condition. Any additional funding from one off programmes (such as the one featured in the news report) will help boost the programme as well.

The county calculations indicate that this approach is the only one that'll stop the rot on the roads with current funding levels. The approach set out in the plan was the basis for Lancashire's bid for the funding that Stanley refers to.

There are some aspects of the plan which I'm not keen on. Hopefully, these will be taken out of the final document. And it won't be a magic wand that fixes all the problems all at once. It'll take years to address a backlog of over £200m of repairs in this county alone. But I'm baking it as the best chance we have of stopping the rot.

[Stanley]

Agreed. Another evidence of what activists can achieve if they persist.

[David Whipp]

But I'm baking it as the best chance we have of stopping the rot.

...or even backing it...

[David Whipp]

The county council is to get increased funding of £4.9m to tackle pot holes, which is very much top side of average.

Unfortunately, they probably won't let me spend it all in West Craven.

[David Whipp]

One pavement that will be getting sorted out in the next couple of months is the path from Avon Drive to Skipton Road, which I've been banging on about for a while.

This is to be done when they're carrying out other work in the area (probably the Kelbrook Road pavement).

[David Whipp]

A small, but hopefully money saving, change of policy has been introduced because of this repair on Coates Avenue.

After four years of asking for repairs on Coates Avenue between Avon Drive and Skipton Road, the road has been included in the resurfacing programme and work begins next week.

Knowing that resurfacing was being carried out in June, I've not been nattering to patch up the defects which are going to be planed out when 40mm of surface is removed.

On 17th May, I was surprised to see that this repair had been carried out.

Eventually, I got an answer from the county council as to why they'd wasted money on such a short lived repair...

I have now been able to make enquiries to confirm what has happened. I am advised that Coates Avenue was subject to a Highways Safety Inspection and that a defect was identified in the location identified in your photograph. One of the objectives of the inspection regime is to identify dangerous defects and ensure that repairs are carried out in a timely manner ( currently 5 days from identification) . This gives the authority special defence in actions against us for damages for non-repair of highway as set out in section 58 of the 1980 Highways Act. In accordance with our procedures, the defect was passed to one of our defects repair teams for repair.

I understand that Coates Avenue is programmed to be resurfaced on 30 June this year and this is more than 5 days from the date that the defect was identified and so the repair was in accordance with our procedures.

I am advised that since this repair was carried out is now practice to give consideration to whether there is a capital maintenance scheme programmed on the same section of highway.

(I haven't pursued the question of why they'd ignored the defect for the previous four years...)

[Stanley]

Once they have a regulation in place.... "It's more than my job's worth...."

[David Whipp]

Coates Avenue being planed off this morning.

[Stanley]

Progress....

[David Whipp]

Another pic of the planing out on Coates Avenue; this is at the location of the (very) temporary repair carried out in May.

It's a shame those planings weren't used to get Salterforth Lane into better shape...