Do you get what you pay for?

[David Morton]

I think not. I am talking about the standard of the roads in Britain in general. Think about these few questions and then get your self worked up into a non PC Frenzy and vent your venom onto your local MP, your Local Highways Department Engineers, your Parish concillors, and last but not least Gordon Brown at No 10. You will get a reply written by one of his cronies (which will really impress your postie so much so he will tell everyone in your village and you will get served in the bar straight away in the future)
here we go:
Q: Have the roads around your town been trenched up to install cable vision, and afterwards roughly patched up and are now a total nightmare , especailly to Motorcyclists with long ribbons of smooth tar? Mine Have

Q: Have half, or more, of the cats eyes been replaced with just a tarmac infill so much so that there are virtually no cats eyes approaching roundabouts and are the remainder of the cats eyes in your neighbourhood just about totally knackered? They are here.

Q: Does your local council Highways really repair the roads in your area or do they employ the Pikies and just spray wet tar and then sprinkle gravel chippings on the surface and let you roll them in with your cars, and break your newly installed electrically heated front windscreen because that f----ing immigrant in a romanian reg lada just went by at 50 mph (because he's on his way to collect his state handouts) My council does the latter.

Q: How often do the main roads in your area flood to at least 100mm
because all the drains are blocked and there is no money to have them cleaned ? It happens here every time it rains.

Q: How often does your local Highways sweep the roads? Once in 18 months here and they created tailbacks so much so that the locall motorway junction started blocking up

Q. How often are the white lines repainted? Not at all here - they have just disappeared completely.

Q: How many more things can you think about?

Where have all the taxes gone that should have been used on keeping the roads in a reasonable state. We are hearing loads of allegations almost every day about corrupt politicos.
Get yourself really angry and then get a pen and write. Start the papertrail and urge everyone you know to join in. Lets have some of the money spent where we need it and not where the johnny foreigner straight out of the channel tunnel thinks it should be - in his pocket.
Did you know that they are being given £6000 and a ticket to go back home again.

:dead::dead::dead:

 

[Malcolm]

Hmmmm, I'm starting to worry about your mental health David! You post superb moans on lots of subjects but typically all UK based. Are you a case for considering emmigartion? Not that I want rid of you but you may extend your days if (Very Big IF) you can find a country that has more your kind of thinking?

Can anyone think of a counrty where David will be chilled?

 

[Peter Delaney]

David could move here to Sydney, Australia - he would feel completely at home in terms of the roads & political fiscal reponsibility - BUT, he would be warmer !!!

Kind Regards,

Peter D.

 

[Dalton Veitch]

I'm on your side David, with the equivalent situation in Oz, as Peter indicates. Very frustrated at our money being taken off us and pissed up against the wall. Vote for the opposition, and they rearrange the deck chairs but nothing much changes. Frustration is not a strong enough word. Could we round up all these useless Govt. members and ship them somewhere like Siberia until they agreed to look after OUR interests as they are employed (by us) to? ###@@@!!!

 

[David Morton]

Malcolm,
I actually enjoy rants against civil SERVANTS and beaurocrats. While I was lying in the Hammersmith Hospital after 5 by-passes last June(and still doing the business on the pitwall with Audi at Le Mans on my PC), Mr. Punjabi - a brilliant heart surgeon by the way Prakash Punjabi CTSNET Member Homepage- told me that I can do anything that I did before- absolutely no restrictions. Diving, Freefall, riding a Ducati,viagra,getting pissed on Barolo or champagne and generally ranting on at everone at and below the level of prime minister.
I don't think I could upsticks and move again - thats what I did all my military service life. I actually like the papers and milk and post delivered to the door by people who's name I know. I like the cold winters and the mild summers. But I will never stop ranting on, particularly where Government (national and Local) incompetence is involved , and it it takes Un PC comments to drive the points home , so be it. If the "Thought Police" (I'm going to rename them to the KGB or the Stazis)
come knocking on my door, the whole thing moves up one gear, but someone has to say it loud and clear and if necessary, say it none PC.
Dave
epper:epper:epper:

 

[David Morton]

PS.
There is a party coming up in the summer and it's theme is "Happy Bithday to the Brick."
I'll get some photos later on and explain it a bit more with the photos.

 

[Brian Magee]

A few years back the council constructed three new roundabouts on the A339 outside Greenham Common, sorry New Greenham Business Park. Immediately,when we had any decent rain one of them flooded on the inside of the roundabout and another flooded on the outside. The latter was repaired by draining into the corner of a copice, the first one still floods.
Last year, about 300 yards from end of the three roundabouts they reconstructed a bridge over the river Enborne. Guess what, that now floods halfway across the road, not from the river, but from badly designed drainage.

Brian

 

[David Morton]

Brian - let Gordon Brown know how incompetent his council workers are. Email the PM
They are the ones who authorise the work and sign off the cheques. With your money...........

 

[Joey Dean]

David,

The fact that we drive them here on the other side has not improved the conditions of our roadways. We have a very bad stretch of asphalt on our way into work (FAA, Oklahoma City) and it is customary to stray a bit South of center to avoid the worst of it. The local law has caught on to this has started parking a cruiser on the off side in order to give a few easy citations out to start off the day in a proper manner. Nice to have law enforcement forcing you into driving through potholes and ruts, eh? The good news is they are going to redo the road now. We have been informed that the repair will start in April and should be done by July...wait for it.....wait for it.....2010. This will mean all 4700 employees will be taking the one road now open to arrive at the one accessible gate. Gotta love that.

 

[David Morton]

Joey, you've proved that shit happens - all over the world.
Here is something that the Brits down south dont now:
Junction 6 on the M4 was re surfaced about 7 or 8 years back.
6 miles of tarmac on both carriageways were dug up and relaid.
The previous tarmac had no real faults in it to justify why it was
replaced until the reasons emerged ...... Somebody complained
that the noise from the motorway was keeping him awake so it was
redone with LOW NOISE tarmac. I wonder if you know who that somebody was.
Junction 6 is the main exit for Slough, Eton and ....wait for it.....Windsor.
Now, the Marlow by pass (near where I live) was resurfaced about 8 years ago
and this road affects two villages with noise. It was supposed to be re surfaced with Low Noise Tarmac but the Highways department made a mistake and didn't tell the contractors, who instead rolled out the cheapest tarmac under the sun. It's oh so noisy but those responsible dont live anywhere near and were never brought to book so they got away with it - scott free. If you or me made the same magnitude of a mistake, do you think you'd still have a job. Not a chance.

 

[Randy V]

David - While we are a bit shy on building a lot of roundabouts - everything else you've mentioned sounds just like home here in Minnesota... We've had a January thaw and it's not headed sub-Zero (F) for about a week. The Pot-Holes are like bomb craters already and it will get worse as the re-freeze (from the pre-mentioned thaw) blows holes in the road that would likely swallow up the Lada you mentioned.

What really gets my goat is that they tax the h*ll out of us to put in Concrete streets, then allow sub-contractors to do sewer/water repairs. The Subs cut up the nice surface, dig their holes and then throw a few bags of asphalt into the hole and call it good.. I've spent countless dollars and hours replacing bent wheels, front end alignments, broken shocks and sway-bar links due to the ineptness of our city's inspection office. They'd rather spend their time picking on old folks for having peeling paint around the window sills of their garages..

 

[Ian Anderson]

My favourite an rather topical at present is the building of homes on flood plains and river sides.

Now the bozos in the planning departments sign these off and when it rains it will then flood the houses and then the plonkers who bought homes on the flood plains expect the Government to bail them out.

So the bigger BOZOS in central government and the Environmental Agency then say we will put up flood defences. This is done and guess what people in the next town down stream get flooded as the water could no longer get to the flood plain because of the BIG BOZOS not being able to think.

Then the Government will announce it's due to global warming and an event that will happed twice in 100 years

Bollocks it's because they buggered it up!

Ian

 

[Gary Kadrmas]

I was going to add to Davids area of wisdom, but I caught myself in time to save me of the mental anguish I would have caused myself to endure.........and will say that most folks here in Estacadaville in Oregon in the good old USA suffer the very similar headaches that everyone above have..........with the exception that I do not have a loose wheel, Lucile.....you know what I mean?

 

[MReid]

Are you sure this isn't a discussion about the ongoing US elections?

You are very welcome here David, however you would have to add pot holes the size of your car to the list!

 

[MReid]

Oh yeah, and who is that commedian in the UK who has all the famous one liners like, "a hole has opened up on the M4 and the police are looking into it."

He cracks me up!

 

[Mike Pass]

David,
I can't believe how relatively calm you are about all this goverment sanctioned crap. I usually have steam coming out of my ears! It's a good thing you don't live near me. On my route to work there are 22 "speed bumps" in less than a mile with 11 in 400m. Beam me up Scotty!
When you finally flip give me a call and I'll help out....
Cheers
Mike

 

[TonyM]

I agree with everyone, however in most of our countries we do have a choice to vote in the people that will do the best for us. If we (and I believe this applies to the majority) are of the opinion that our vote doesn't really count so we might as well stick with the lesser evil of the big two or three, nothing is ever going to change.

I know that in the US there have been plenty of elections with candidates that were independants who were smart, dedicated, concerned and upset at all the things we are and could, in numbers, make a difference but they almost never get the vote and everyone continues to tow the party line and this goes for all elections, town, county, state etc.

We (and I use this in a general term) are just as stupid as the guys in charge because it's "us" that keeps them in power.

OK...off of the soapbox now, enough stirring done......fire at will...!!