Cyclist's life wort...
 

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Cyclist's life worth £5900

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https://www.lancs.live/news/lancashire-news/is-husbands-life-worth-repair-28097647.

First reported in 2009!


 
Posted : 26/11/2023 5:36 pm
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That's not what any of that means, do you work for the daily mail or something?


 
Posted : 26/11/2023 5:53 pm
thols2 and thols2 reacted
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As molgrips says, bit clickbaity, nobody is saying his life was worth that, that is the estimated cost of repair to that damage on the road, reality is, each council has hundreds of those listed and only so much in their budget, it'll probably be low priority, as it looks like a little single lane farm road.


 
Posted : 26/11/2023 6:03 pm
thols2 and thols2 reacted
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I read somewhere that even if it were fully funded there is such a backlog of road repairs that it would take a decade to catch up.

This is the Conservatives cutting funding to councils whilst maintaining their statutory obligations to social care of adults and children. Something has to give and roads is part of it.


 
Posted : 26/11/2023 6:18 pm
MoreCashThanDash, kelvin, kelvin and 1 people reacted
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That’s not what any of that means

Made me click on it though, even if the headline and the facts reported have only met very briefly in passing


 
Posted : 26/11/2023 7:04 pm
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Yeah, it's a bit of a stretch.

The Cycling UK mag had a bit about their campaign to get potholes fixed (referencing this case, I think), which made me think there's an odd common ground between CUK and Rishi "fix potholes instead of building HS2" Sunak.


 
Posted : 26/11/2023 7:21 pm
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Probably as big a waste as HS2, every time they fill potholes around here they're back to crap within a few months, we are aiming to send manned missions to Mars, yet we still can't seem to use a repair that works on roads!

The other thing that's great just now is the amount of roads being dug up, lots of repairs on utilities and new builds having to have access to connections, add that to the above repair failures and that's the reason i use 150mm suspension both ends on the road 😂


 
Posted : 26/11/2023 7:41 pm
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They state the crack was clearly visible, not clear enough it seems.     I think his age 84 and eyesight played a big part as well as the crack being practically in the middle of the road so no real danger to motors, that obviously didn't give it priority on the fix it list.  Although a tragic end you can't hold the authorities 100% responsible for his death.


 
Posted : 26/11/2023 8:28 pm
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Hold on, admittedly it's as well written as any local rag's clickbait, but isn't the issue that this crack has been there since the fella died in 2009? And the council's excuse is that the fix would have been ~£5K?

The inference his widow is drawing is that the cost of the repair outweighed the risk to her husband, now I'll grant that linking a knackered road surface to it's potential to cause a death isn't obvious, but it clearly carries a probability as that's basically what happened, and she's probably right to at least get a bit shitty with the Local Authority if they've still not fixed it 11 years later...

The headline fits in as much as it reported the widow's interpretation of things...


 
Posted : 27/11/2023 7:39 am
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every time they fill potholes around here they’re back to crap within a few months

Yep all they ever seem to do is chuck a bucket load of black top in them and flatten it out. To do it properly they need to cut out a bigger section and layer/step it properly, which takes much more time and is more expensive so they don't bother.

The other issue we have in this country is freeze/thaw most other countries don't have the rapid change in temps that we have here.

But for Christ sake, if a pot hole has caused a death it should be fixed ASAP, or are they trying to not admit it was the cause....

Similar thing happened not long ago where I live in Leeds, bloke hit a hole that had opened up on quite a fast downhill bit of road, came off and I think he died as well. The hole was fixed immediately! 


 
Posted : 27/11/2023 8:17 am
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The other issue we have in this country is freeze/thaw most other countries don’t have the rapid change in temps that we have here.

Bet you think the earth is also flat...


 
Posted : 27/11/2023 9:02 am
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£5900?

Some of the people on this site have wheels that cost more than that.


 
Posted : 27/11/2023 9:11 am
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Bet you think the earth is also flat…

No need to be snarky is there, if you've got something to say, say it!

I might not have put it quite right, but in this country rapid freeze/thaw IS a problem for causing and re-causing pot holes. Especially where road surfaces are poorley maintained. That any better for you?


 
Posted : 27/11/2023 9:31 am
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Of course I don't work for the f***ing Daily Mail.  I don't see your problem.  The LCC 'team' went to look at a reported crack in the road (first spotted in 2009) and failed to find it.  Even though it had been photographed.  The head of the department has been referred for 'training'.  My post was to illustrate, 1) The shocking and dangerous state of some of our minor roads and 2) The incompetence and lack of accountability of some council road teams.  I wouldn't be surprised if these chaps didn't even get out of their van.   What was wrong with the headline anyway?


 
Posted : 27/11/2023 1:50 pm
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2) The incompetence and lack of accountability of some council road teams. I wouldn’t be surprised if these chaps didn’t even get out of their van.

I would agree - we had a 'survey' by Stirling council of the ruts on the south Loch Tay road. You could literally bottom out a car on the sunken ruts after one winter. The surveyor 'came out' and could find no problems with the road at all.
We had to drag a councillor out to see it in person.

The councillor called said surveyor there and then to ask if they had a driving license. Because clearly he was either blind or didn't drive up (the hour) from HQ to actually inspect it...


 
Posted : 27/11/2023 1:56 pm
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reality is, each council has hundreds of those listed and only so much in their budget

Exactly. It's not the cost of fixing one potential danger, it's the cost of fixing everything. You can never make everything absolutely safe so you can only prioritize fixing the worst things. Somebody has to pay for that and "I'm going to raise taxes to fix every pothole" is not a winning campaign slogan for politicians.


 
Posted : 27/11/2023 1:59 pm
kelvin and kelvin reacted

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