Pot Holes and Road Markings

THE Liverpool City Region's road network is increasing coming under fire for road surfaces. Now pressure is mounting to take action before the crumbling road network, seen by many as an 'embarrassing,' leads to a major accident. In April we ran a report:- "How you can help fix our pothole ridden roads" and since then we have had a very steady rise in readers passing comments on to us...

Many of them saying the same things, like:- "Appears to be no joined up thinking between departments" to "We see resurfacing work taking place, then a utility company digs up parts of it, leaving a patch work of different road surfaces." Also, we have seen a steady rise in complaints about the workmanship of the repairs or resurfacing work. The latest high profile issue being Lord Street, Southport and the issues the new surface has had. One reader commented:- "A quick visual inspection of Southport's roads have seen a rapid deterioration of them. Why are we wasting taxpayers' money using materials that aren't up to the job? The latest roads to be resurfaced are failing within a year or 2, some times within months? Also the patch up and make do of potholes, with bitumen, is leading to more and more issues. The water builds up in the sub base stone, freezes and expands, like a bottle of frizzy drink lifting the surface over the winter and poor quality jobs are failing as a result. Again, why do we wait for the potholes to get so large and difficult its impossible to easily fix. Other issues include the lack of servicing of the drainage systems on our road network. When have you seen the drains cleaned? This also leads to issues. The Council needs to look at applying some joined up thinking." Others as "Why are large amounts of leaves and other detritus allowed to lie until the drains get choked?"

Another addressed the road markings. "The current situation is not just that the roads are failing, leading to pothole-ridden roads, but the complete lack of planning. In Southport, Booth Street has just had new road marking added recently, but road surface is in extremely bad. It's not a main road, but it is going to have to be replaced very soon. In fact the whole area around Lord street, the side roads and main connecting are shocking. For example, it is not just the surface that is a hazard, but the fading road markings and deteriorating condition of the pavements on the main connecting roads. For example, both Seabank Road and also Bold Street; as soon as you leave Lord Street you are faced with pot holes. We have seen a few accidents on the corner of Bath Street and Bold Street, as it has next to no road markings on it! Sefton has been told about this a number of times by residents on the road, like me. Then you have the issues these so called 'traffic calming' humps have given us. Now they have made the roads hazardous as they have led to massive pot holes forming as they have not been installed properly or maintained! The roads are becoming un-roadworthy and yet my Council Tax bills are going up and up. There is no joined up thinking and the Council is just not acting sensibly."

Plus, a local who is a ex-Highway Maintenance Engineer has asked:- "Why are we often seeing the firms doing work on our roads just pig swilling and not properly removing and replacing the road surfaces? Overlaying is not the answer, unless you want a quick fix that will cost you in the long run even more money... This might make the road look good, but is mostly cosmetic. Plus I often see firms doing 'overlay' work not even removing the weeds before putting down the new surface... This leads to failures within the new surfaces and that results in dangerous pot holes forming.. If they do any removal at all, they just scrape a few millimetres off the old surface and then put down a very thin layer to make it look good... Again this is not fixing the problem! This system of 'resurfacing' being used in this area was highlighted recently in Southport, when a crew has skirted around parked cars, when applying an new layer. In Formby, many of the roads that have been done this way are failing.' Often when you look at the pot holes on this type of cosmetic job, you can see the new layer on top of the old layer! Then the Council we wonder why the surface fails and pot holes are forming."

Its not just Sefton, but Liverpool's City Council is increasingly coming under fire and pressure is mounting over what Mayor Joe Anderson has said is the 'embarrassing' state of our Regions roads. In fact an 86 year old man, by the name of Barry Iddon even launched legal action against Liverpool Council over 'potholes' he claims damage his car. We are also being told that a few cyclists are considering taking action after having accidents after avoiding hazards such as large holes near to the kerb or due to hitting them.

According to the AA, in February this year, they found that:- "just 15% of local roads within the UK are maintained to a high standard and the costs of fixing our road network is going up and up."  We face Brexit and and a lack of momentum in local economy, what can we do to avoid our roads turning into the worst in Europe? It is estimated that some ₤400 million would be needed to repair every road, a bill that is increasing day by day, and that is not taking in to account claims for pedestrians falling and other claims against local Council's and the Highway Authorities for accidents related to pot holes.

In July 2017 a pay per mile scheme was proposed in Parliament, but has been pushed away at this point in time. Another option is to give big businesses tax breaks to get them to help fix the roads. This is not such a strange idea, as in America this year, Domino's Pizza has employed a team of road workers to fix potholes on roads across America. The idea is "to stop food being ruined during delivery." No, it is not a joke, Domino's IP Holder LLC. really are doing this! But PR ideas aside and new systems that are extremely controversial, like pay per mile, how can we afford this growing bill? One idea is to look at adding more money on to fuel duty and ring fencing it for road network repair work. Could plastic roads be the solution for potholes? We would love to know your views and also please do let us know if you have see any dangerous pot holes in and around the Liverpool City Region. Email our newsroom via:- News24@SouthportReporter.Com. Please remember that we do not publish your name if you ask us not to in that email.

If the pothole you want to report is on a motorway or major A-Roads within England, it is currently best to contact Highways England on:- 0300 123 5000 or via email.

For road defects in Scotland, you can report problems on the MyGov website, and for those in Northern Ireland use NIDirect's website.