Our say

Potholes back in the news

15th April 2009

Since we revealed the best and worst regions for roads across the country, it has thrust the subject of potholes firmly back into the news, and it’s great to see so many people talking about potholes.

Top of the list is the Daily Mail, which has launched a campaign to find Britain’s biggest and most dangerous pothole. If you’ve found a monster pothole, photograph it and put it on our “report a pothole” section – we’ll make sure they get the worst ones.
(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1168103/Potholes-cause-1m-damage-cars-EVERY-day.html )

After five Scottish regions came out in the bottom 10 in Warranty Direct’s study of axle and suspension damage, a similar crusade turned up on STV. Unsurprisingly, dozens of people from all across the country came up with examples.
(http://news.stv.tv/scotland/87138-where-are-scotlands-worst-potholes/ )

The Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph is also running a similar quest to find the worst potholes in their county, (http://www.northantset.co.uk/news/Is-this-the-worst-road.5164718.jp ) and we’ve even read about streets in Birmingham fighting over who gets the title of “worst street for potholes!” (http://www.expressandstar.com/2009/04/13/worst-potholes-title-is-ours/ )

The most important thing is that potholes are back on the agenda on both a local and national level. We’ve even seen politicians from Plymouth to Northumberland use the data as an issue to score points off each other, and that can only be a good thing.

Let’s just hope the politicians stop blaming each other and start working on just making Britain’s roads better for all of us.