Scottish Elises

Good to see the BBC are on the ball as usual.... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7986579.stm

With Ayrshire being the worst, no surprise there then.

Yeah, apparently it was a story worthy of the BBC Scotland news this morning. Good to see journalism sifting through the depths of reality to bring us what really matters

I have to say i'm glad its in the press,
i pay quite alot of attention on where my wheels go (lernt on the bike before the car) yet yesterday, every bloody couple of minutes, you'd bash your wheel off one cause there was no where to move over to as the other side of the road was the same,

hopefully the council will go out and fix them asap!

Adam

Wow - this story took several years to reach the BBC

Roads round us resemble Bosnia - mainly due to poor drainage and farming HGV running on roads not designed for them. East Lothian Council recently admitted they were something like £90m (IIRC) behind road maintenance... as for ALL councils, where's the money going to come from, especially with Council Tax freeze?

Guess I am quite lucky in that most of the roads in the Borders seem pretty good. I was visiting my mother in Killearn (in Stirlingshire, just north of Glasgow) recently, and the roads in that area there have deteriorated into an unbelievable state over the last 10 years. Not just potholes, mile after mile where the entire surface is falling apart. If I lived there I wouldn't even contemplate owning an Exige.

Mark

I have emailed east ayrshire roads department and await a reply.

ryallm wrote:Guess I am quite lucky in that most of the roads in the Borders seem pretty good. I was visiting my mother in Killearn (in Stirlingshire, just north of Glasgow) recently, and the roads in that area there have deteriorated into an unbelievable state over the last 10 years. Not just potholes, mile after mile where the entire surface is falling apart. If I lived there I wouldn't even contemplate owning an Exige.

Mark

I was out that neck of the woods on Sunday. Some stretches required the traffic to slow to 10-15 mph, and crawl through really rough bits. I would hate to hit them at any speed. Fcuking joke.

... rant rant rant.....

With the amount we all have to pay for fookin road tax you would think the roads would be a bit better. You need to concentrate so hard out on the road for people being general muppets and for car eating potholes! A pothole near where I stay just opened up as if from no where, it was what looked to be solid ground and then the next day a gaping hole about a foot deep and 40cm wide!
Maybe the media attention could be a good thing, but I doubt it.

A long running pet hate of mine also.

Actually a pot "hole", let's call it a pot "trench" to be a bit more accurate, took out one of the Golf's tyres last year. I returned to measure and photograph the offending abyss but never got round to sending the evidence to the Council, along with the bill for the tyre and wheel alignment check

One good thing about the Elise is the responsive steering and suspension which can turn the dodging of these things into an amusing pastime. In our former Mk4 Golf, however, the tanker-turning advance notice involved made avoidance that bit harder and so instead we just took to shouting out "Brace, Brace!" before impact.

I used to think poor patching was often to blame, but there are some appalling pot-holes opening up even on relatively freshly surfaced areas of the M9 near us. And it's one thing striking (or swerving to avoid) a hole on a backroad at 40mph...quite another to contemplate either approach at 70 with nowhere to run to if the lane beside you is busy.

campbell wrote:A long running pet hate of mine also.

Ann & I have claimed 3 times over past 4 years or so for damage caused by potholes.
Really pi$$es me off that they pay out rather than solve the problem and it takes months ( 6 +) to get any money back and they reduce payment in a seemingly random fashion to account for wear & tear.

campbell wrote:I returned to measure and photograph the offending abyss but never got round to sending the evidence to the Council, along with the bill for the tyre and wheel alignment check

Have done the same thing twice, wish I'd actually said to the council!

j2 lot wrote: Ann & I have claimed 3 times over past 4 years or so for damage caused by potholes.
Really pi$$es me off that they pay out rather than solve the problem and it takes months ( 6 +) to get any money back and they reduce payment in a seemingly random fashion to account for wear & tear.

How did you go about getting money from them? The reason I have never bothered, is I thought it would be a total nightmare to do it and not end up getting any monies.

Graemei wrote:How did you go about getting money from them? The reason I have never bothered, is I thought it would be a total nightmare to do it and not end up getting any monies.

Phone Council ( South Lanarks on each occasion) for a claim form, submit this with photos of offending pot-hole, once returned you get a letter from their solicitor asking for receipts for repair and if you have them original receipts proving mileage (for tyres), and one time needed a letter stating that alloy was damaged beyond repair (MMC supplied) . They will eventually send you a letter offering to pay 'x' amount .
Process is a pain and they make it as difficult as they can - which makes me more determined to see it through.

They are shocking in Renfrewshire too. The speed bumps are the worst.

Eventually got a reply from the council today regarding the poor quality of the roads in ayshire

East Ayrshire Council wrote:To Mr. Nisbet,

While you consider that East Ayrshire is particularly poor with respect to road condition , I think that you will find a similar problem throughout the country.

The condition of roads is directly related to preventative maintenance programmes employed by the Council. This largely involves the resurfacing carriageways, but also includes patching and the maintenance of drainage systems.

Roads have a design life as for any structure ,requiring the wearing course to be replaced every 15 years, however, budgets assigned to carriageway resurfacing are insufficient to meet this target. The current return period for resurfacing being in the region of every 50 to 100 years.

The current deterioration of the road networks is a direct consequence of trying to extend the design life.

Off to write to my MP now and ask why there is no funding available