THE STATE OF OUR ROADS

[Garry 0]

I can't believe my recent run of luck - I hit a sodding great pot hole in the road this morning and it has written off one of my alloys plus the tyre no doubt. (See pics)

 

I went back later on to get a picture of the hole, but would you adam'n'eve it, the buggers had just finished filling it in!!!! It must be my lucky day eh? What are the chances of that happening??

 

I'm going to pursue this with the Milton Keynes Council, so I would be interested to hear of anyone else's missfortunes at the hands of our country's roads.

 

In the meantime, I need another 17" TSW Reflex if any of you guys have one or a part set kicking about? I have posted an ad in the wanted section.

 

Cheers lads - I look forward to hearing your comments

[Jim Bowen 1]

FOOK :!

 

the roads i have to put up with are terrible aswell, sometimes i wonder if its worth having a semi decent car at all

[Garry 0]

Shocker isn't it?

[CorradoVR6-Turbo 0]

I would still take pictures and call the local council and see what they say...make the fu**ers pay.

[Jim 2]

My drive to work is more of a mission avoiding potholes. Some of them I swear would be enough to buckle my wheels.. its dreadful.

 

Good luck with your claim!

[flusted 0]

as bad as this sounds, i have and seen wheels like that. Ive hit them hard with a large hammer and straightened em and they still hold air and went through mot

[CorradoVR6-Turbo 0]

as bad as this sounds, i have and seen wheels like that. Ive hit them hard with a large hammer and straightened em and they still hold air and went through mot

 

But would you trust them at speeds?

[Bally 0]

Hey Garry, thats facked up!!

 

I live in MK, were abts did this happen??

[GIXXERUK 0]

lucky (if you can say that) you were in the car , imagine hitting that on a bike ! you'd be scattered across the road now or thrown into oncoming traffic ! the roads are abissmal and yet the road tax increases ! i've had some really bad ones and expected to hear the joyful sound of hissing but that is BAD

[stevef182 0]

same happened to me when i had my golf, completely fuc*ed the wheel! not good! i feel your pain!

[Talc 0]

Found a link to a petition on this on pistonheads:

 

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Maintain-roads/

[Garry 0]

Hey Garry, thats facked up!!

 

I live in MK, were abts did this happen??

 

On the A421, about 100 yards before the RB for Whaddon. (if you were heading East towards Buckingham)

[Garry 0]

lucky (if you can say that) you were in the car , imagine hitting that on a bike ! you'd be scattered across the road now or thrown into oncoming traffic !

 

I ride a Lambretta which has small wheels - it don't bare thinking about.

[Garry 0]

as bad as this sounds, i have and seen wheels like that. Ive hit them hard with a large hammer and straightened em and they still hold air and went through mot

 

But would you trust them at speeds?

 

No way! The wheel would be so stressed, full of cracks and stress risers it is likely to fail at any time.

 

I'm a mechanical design engineer by trade and have conducted numerous destructive tests at TUV, Cape and Rosyth on military hardware. Trust me on this one - when the s**t lets go at high speed with low frequency, random shock inputs (ie road conditions) it can get really messy.

[Andyrado g60 0]

Hi mate, same thing happened to me in my g40, this is a sore point for me and this could be a bit long but if you have time please read. I was driving down a country lane over a t junction, the pot hole was where you would come out of the other part of the t junction and put the power down and a brakeing point for the slight bend on the long straight bit of the junction. Also there are small industrial units and farms allong this road so the hole would have been created by tractors / lorry, ect. I was going quite slow abt 30 mph (60 limit) which was worse because my wheel kind of fell in the hole that was about as round as a mouse matt and 2" deep, rather than sort of going over the top of it as i would have done if i was going faster. It had ripped the tyre half off the wheel by the time i stopped the car safely (front left tyre) written off the wheel and bent a wish bone. I called my mate to bring his camera and photographed the junction, the hole, the corner of the car with the damage and the white groove in the tarmac between the hole and my car (caused by my rim) (lots of ammunition to hammer the councill with) I put the aa report with the photos (made sure the aa bloke had put caused by pot hole in the road, or words to that effect) (more ammunition). Then i had the wishbone fixed and put my spare on the next day and called the councill. Spoke to the highest person in customer services i could, wrote her name down. Told her everything, she said someone would call me back and no one ever did. The next day i rang again, she wasnt at work so i spoke to a bloke who was a total idiot and diddnt know what he was talking about. He said he would send me some forms out and put the phone down on me. I called back and demanded to speak to the manager, then when she came on the phone i demanded to speak to her manager, i spoke to her, told her the whole thing, she told me to send her the evidence. I photocopyed all the pics, the aa report, the bill for the wish bone from my local garage, and a covering letter expressing my dissapointment with my local councill in how they have dealt with this matter and that i feel i have been let down, ect ect and if i wasnt re-embursed with the money for the wheels, the tire, and the wish bone,(cant remember the total that came to now) within 14 days i would take legal action and inform the press. I sent that lot to the two idiots i spoke to first that tried to fob me off, the manager who asked for them, and i went on the net, found out the managing directors name and posted one to him two. (they now knew i had all the evidence i needed and was serious about my threats of legal action, ect) they simply cant afford to have bad press from a member of the public like this in the papers as this can go to affecting the budget that they recieve for the next finantial year. Within 1 week of posting i recieved a check for a new set of wheels, the wishbone work and plus £100 for my hastle, and a letter from the manager saying sorry bla bla bla. If you have been a victim of damage due to poor roads, get as much evidence as you can (good photos or written reports from other people about the damage, eg aa bloke and garage who fixed it is best) take the time to photocoppy everything and get it sent off to them and keep at them, follow it up. You will be paid back for it. If anyone is having problems with getting them to pay up or wants some advice that you think i could give about this issue then pm me, if i can help someone out i really dont mind, regards, Andrew

[CoxyLaad 0]

 

I ride a Lambretta which has small wheels - it don't bare thinking about.

 

endo anyone?

[Garry 0]

 

I ride a Lambretta which has small wheels - it don't bare thinking about.

 

endo anyone?

 

Sure would be - the "endo" me probably - LOL

[moneypit23 0]

Pot holes are the biggest headache for me, ever! Every day i report them to my local council on the internet and, to be fair, they usually get fixed. The problem is that most people have nice comfortable cars with spongey suspension so they don't notice them, people like us suffer. I have a mental note of every pot hole within 20 miles, i could probably drive about with my eyes closed and navigate using a kind of pot hole inverted morse code.

[Garry 0]

The council have sent me a claim form. Will keep you posted on events.

[rosswalker 0]

Pot holes are a nightmare up here as well. Used to live in yorkshire and it wasnt too bad until I moved back to Scotland... I had to raise the car to stop the harsh impact when I was just normally driving around.

 

Fingers crossed on your claim Garry.

 

- Ross

[craigowl 0]

Our council (West Lothian) came out top for state of roads in a survey, so I can guess how bad all the others must be.

 

I reported large, widening, crumbling cracks with weeds growing in them in our and our neighbour's 30 year old tarmac pavement.

Have you seen some of these council guys doing repairs?

 

Fling in some coarse tarred gravel, tamp it down and pi$$ off real smart.

They left loose aggregate lying all over the pavement, the cracks were not filled neatly and weeds will be growing again soon and pushing out and crumbling their puny "repairs". No pride whatsoever in what they were doing and a complete waste of time resources and money.

We are all paying a high council tax to keep these guys in a job. :mad:

[Yandards 0]

Problem is that the 30+ billion that is taken from road users every year in various taxes (think thats just fuel duty and road tax, not the VAT made on all car parts purchased, reg plates, etc, etc) very little is invested in maintaining the road network.

 

Although I did read an article about a year and a half ago in auto express (I think) that quoted a local council as putting by around 10-20% of thier annual road maintenace budget, to enable them to pay people who are claiming for bust suspension, buckled alloys etc.

 

To be fair the motorways are pretty good and some of the trunk roads are as well but anywhere in or around towns and B roads are a right bloody state.

 

Although I do believe that any firm that digs roads up should have to resurface completely, not just fill in. I usually find that the likes of Transco/BT/Water companies make a much bigger mess, and it always seem to be around where I want to place my nearside wheel too!

[dr_mat 0]

Although I do believe that any firm that digs roads up should have to resurface completely, not just fill in. I usually find that the likes of Transco/BT/Water companies make a much bigger mess, and it always seem to be around where I want to place my nearside wheel too!

 

Indeed, you wouldn't believe the number of places in Reading now where there's a six inch deep hole all around the manhole/drain covers. Clearly a botched repair job.

[chaz g60 0]

N.T.L. dug them all up around here a few years back and there awfull, i can't really drive down some steets at all even some 50 mph link roads have pot holes and dodgy repairs on them .

Good luck with your claim.

[mattosmond 0]

http://www.alloywheelrepair.co.uk/

 

 

Maybe just get it fixed!!! fecking harsh though, must have been a bucket of a pot hole!!! get the tightarses to pay,,,,