Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
I would not vote for the mayor. It’s not just because he didn’t invite me to dinner, but because on my way into town from the airport there were such enormous potholes.
We’ve all been there. Driving along a perfectly good road when – wham – the car gives a lurch when hits a pothole, leaving you a bit jittery at best or with a messed up tyre if you’re unlucky.
The general feeling from an admittedly not very scientific poll conducted round the office, in the playground and the pub, is that potholes are becoming more numerous.
Not only that, but they are taking longer to be fixed and when they are, it seems the repairs don’t last very long before there’s another gaping hole, bigger than the last.
Messing around on t’internet, I found some quite scary research from Britannia Rescue. They dug deep into official council data across the UK, using the Freedom of Information Act (God forbid we should be able to just find things out easily!);
What’s even scarier is that this research from Britannia refers to 2013. Do you think the situation will have got better since then? No, neither do I.
Britain’s pothole epidemic has resulted from years of underinvestment in our roads and was exacerbated by recent harsh winters. Now, admittedly, the last winter wasn’t a particularly cold or harsh one. Still, the state the roads round me indicate that, rain or shine, snow or sun, it’s getting worse not better.
So, BMJ has teamed up with IKO to highlight this issue. If you spot a particularly juicy pothole take a picture – assuming it is safe to do so! – and tweet it with the hashtag #nomorepotholes and the best one will be our #potholeoftheweek. Or, email it in to BMJ and we’ll feature it in our Pothole of the Month story.
