Newsletter
- Editorial
- Letters
- Lee Common School
- Cricket club
- The Lee W.I.
- Revd David Burgess
- Reina's Nature
- Parish Clerk
- Monthly Moan (Armchair farmers)
- Star gazer
- Bucks C.C.
and more...
What is a pothole?
By Barnaby Usborne
It sounds a silly question. After all, there are enough of them around for us to have become very well acquainted by now. Most of us could spot a pothole at 50 yards on a straight road in daylight, or certainly when we have hit it on a dark night.
But to local government, life is a bit more complicated. At a meeting I attended recently a County Councillor submitted a written question asking for the definition of a pothole. As the maintenance manager replied…… it all depends. There are potholes and there are potholes. A hole in the roadway which is more than 40 mm deep and 300 mm wide becomes a ‘dangerous defect’. If the hole is on the footway and is a ‘trip hazard’ it only has to be 20 mm to qualify. What I forgot to ask is when there is no footway and pedestrians have to walk on the road, does that make the road a footway in which 20 mm holes would qualify? I must remember to raise that at the next meeting, as I haven’t been able to get through on the phone to ask. The point of all this is that ‘dangerous defects’ have to be repaired within 24 hours.
So if you want quick action, get out your tape measure, convert from inches
to millimetres and hey presto it will be repaired in 24 hours, that is if
you have been able to get through to Highways on Call (0845 230 2882).
The quality of the ‘repair’ cannot be guaranteed. It may be a temporary
patch pending more substantial work later. If the pothole you report does
not qualify as a ‘dangerous defect’ you may have to wait three months for
a repair.