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Councils face huge bills for pothole repairs
Tuesday 11th January 2011, 11:30AM GMT.
They are the bane of every driver’s life and an unwelcome sight on the roads every winter – potholes.
The Express & Star wants to know where the worst roads are in the West Midlands, and needs your help.
Councils will have to spend millions after another freezing winter saw road surfaces crumble. Sandwell Council estimates its bill to be around £700,000 while Walsall is set to spend
£400,000. A £1.85 million operation to repair nearly 600 potholes in Staffordshire is under way as part of a campaign to mend thousands of weather-gouged holes on the region’s roads.
Wolverhampton City Council received funding of £191,800 from the Government’s Emergency Winter Damage Fund in April 2010.
And the authority provided an additional £45,000 to carry out repairs to more than 2,650 potholes.
But one Express & Star reader, Annette Morey, from Fordhouses in Wolverhampton, got in touch to report a 2ft pothole that she has to try to avoid every day.
The 65-year-old, of Slade Road, said the hole at the junction of Southbourne Road and Romsey Road had already been repaired once, but it kept opening up.
The play group volunteer and mother of two said: “Everyone just has to do their best to avoid it.
“That can be tricky, especially at night when people need to park outside their homes.
“The council has already been to fill it in but it hasn’t solved the problem.”
The Express & Star has also been told about a pothole 2ft wide in Bilston Road, Tipton.
Bus lanes on Willenhall Road and Stafford Street in Wolverhampton are also particularly bad.
Council chiefs in the city recently decided to stop using the more expensive red asphalt to repair bus lanes and to use normal black asphalt instead.
The red asphalt is more expensive and transport chiefs said it was “like chewing gum” after a spell of bad weather.
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The Cresent/Willenhal Road leading from Clarkes lane Willenhall towards Wednesbury. Although they have resurfaced the first 200 Yards of it last year.
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If they get much deeper the council will need pot holers to explore the pot holes.
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the roads through coseley are by far worst, i have to drive through in the mornings going to work.Its like a white knuckle fair ground ride.
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They need to stop messing around and patching, instead have a rolling (pardon the pun) programe of resurfacing in order to maintain the roads. It would prevent this happening in the first place. Patching is a cheap and temporary quick fix, but in effecient and a false economy in the long run.
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They filled a load of potholes up, not all mind, on the Walstead Road in Walsall just before Xmas & now the roads as worse as ever. To my knowledge this road, which now carries a lot more traffic due to traffic lights at either end of the road, never been resurfaced properly in the last 25 years other than that loose grey stuff they put down which chips the paint work on your car as you drive on it
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Don’t expect Wolverhampton Council will repair theirs as there has been a pothole in Underhill now since Labour were last in power. Nothing quite like Labour efficiency
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The stretch of road outside Springdale School, Warstones Road – it’s disgusting!!!! I hit a pothole outside there yesterday morning as I was on my way to drop my kids off at school and it made a right thud! I had to check the tyre/alloy as I was sure it had either given be a puncture or damaged my wheel – luckily it hadn’t, otherwise Wolverhampton Council would of received a bill off me for it!!! With all the taxes we pay, ‘Road Tax’ is a joke!!!!!!!!!!
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Norton Lane, Pelsall going from Fingerpost Social Club to Norton Canes.
Huge potholes which are difficult to see unless you’ve seen them in daylight and then use roadsigns as markers as itis unlit.
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How about getting some of the people sitting on their backsides all day ‘earning’ benefits to do the jobs? Im sure there are plenty of people more than capable of filling in a few potholes? Save paying council workers overtime
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Stop putting speed humps every where and use the saved tarmac to resurface the roads and the man hours.
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Gosh I wish they would!!!! Sadly,I doubt that level of sense is ever achieved in the council kremlin though.
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Broadmeadow, Aldridge. – Walsall Council keeps filling this pot hole “dip” but it keeps sinking back into a dip again. Plus futher along they patch the pot holes in but the tarmac comes out the hole again and back to square one!
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The bus lanes on either side of the A454 Willenhall Road are in a desperate state and the red tarmac has turned into shale which covers the footpaths, very unsightly.
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The road leading to the Walsall Council run carpark near the public toilets in Willenhall is full of potholes. It is impossible to avoid them. The council will not sort it because they say they do not own the small road, even though it is the only road that leads to the council run carpark and toilets.
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