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Pothole chaos hit Beaconsfield drivers in the pocket
Thousands of new potholes that have appeared on roads since the heaviest snowfall in 18 years this month are wreaking havoc with motorists.
Garages in Beaconsfield have reported a massive increase in cars coming in for repairs to tyres, wheel rims and suspension since the snow thawed on February 10.
Motorists are wracking up huge bills as they drive into potholes which, at night, are virtually impossible to see.
Bucks County Council (BCC) has allocated an emergency £150,000 to make its pothole repair budget last until the end of the financial year and has hired four new maintenance gangs for six weeks, in addition to the existing nine, to repair up to 2,000 potholes each week. It's is planning to spend £4 million repairing the rest in 2009-2010.
But heavily used roads are still riddled with potholes. A visit by the Advertiser to Ledborough Lane, Beaconsfield, on Monday found ten large potholes several of which were larger and deeper than the size which is supposed to trigger an emergency repair by the council.
Rod Allard, assistant manager at Broadway Autocentres in Warwick Road, Beaconsfield, said tyre and rim replacement was up 80 per cent in recent weeks.
Peter Hodson, of Burgess Wood Road South, had to shell out £170 for a new tyre after driving into a pothole in Broad Lane in the dark. He said: "It was absolutely frightening, I felt as though I'd hit the kerb, the impact was massive. Had there been a cyclist it would have been fatal."
Potholes that are 30cm by 30cm and 4cm deep will be repaired within 24 hours of discovery, and where potholes are reported as dangerous they will be repaired within two hours, according to Chris Schwier of BCC. Telephone 0845 2302882.
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Then perhaps Mr.Schwier might like to pull his finger out of his ar$e and get his gangs working....I haven't seen ONE in Beaconsfield for weeks, and having just had to drive almost slalom along Sandleswood End this morning to avoid NUMEROUS potholes, have a damn good mind to send the repair bill to BCC as and when I inevitably hit one. This, coupled with the ludicrous decision by aforementioned BCC to turn the Street Lights off at night, will happen to hundreds of motorists very soon....my advice is to deluge BCC with Receipts...it might spur them in to action!!!
There are still a lot of pot holes on our Beaconsfield roads and I find it hard to understand why this has been let get out of hand. I think council money would be better spent on providing good basic facilities rather than wasteful jollies for council staff such as twinning.