Rosher.Net

Dear Hereford County Council

I lost another tyre to a pothole today. Happily I was in a car, and a tyre and a few hours of time is all I lost, but I’m getting less and less patient with the awful state of our roads. As a motorcyclist, I can well imagine the potholes I encountered today would have had me off the machine and potentially in the hospital – or morgue. You can see them in this picture, which I took several hours later, after my tyre had been replaced. This is the B4234 just south of Ross-on-Wye, in Hereford.

It would perhaps be understandable, but still unacceptable, if we had suffered a severe freeze this winter. But the weather has been mild, albeit wet and windy. The road I was travelling on was wet and puddled, and even at moderate speed I was far too late in noticing that these were more than puddles. I think, with hindsight, I saw the larger one and avoided it, only to run into the far more treacherous one on the right. That one running to a point, captured and tore the tread out of my front off-side tyre – which only had 7200 miles on it!

In austerity Britain perhaps only the rich, with their massive four-by-fours, will be able soon to navigate our poorly maintained and falling apart roads. The rest of us will be corralled into a few commuter toll-roads, for which we will be expected to be slatheringly grateful.

I accept local councils are constrained by central government, who seem constrained only by big business. However, it appears Hereford County Council is controlled by the Conservatives, and as such I might expect you to to be an exemplar of managing budgets while still providing the services essential both for business and public safety. I have reported these potholes (reference CAS-378422-F4J3J0) and look forward to seeing immediate remedial action. Given the size and depth of these holes though, I can’t really believe you haven’t already been made aware of them.