Road surface condition - Scotland (1 Viewer)

Touchwood

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Back from a week in Scotland, and a principal observation - so many roads were in a very poor state of repair. Doubtless this stems from the recent harsh winters and local authorities being strapped for cash.

It did make a difference - what should have been a pleasant experience driving amidst beautiful scenery became a bone-rattling ordeal, constantly having to concentrate on avoiding the worst of the pot holes. It was so bad that at one point Jill was concerned we may be damaging the 'van.

Anyone else had this experience?
 

Xabia

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Back from a week in Scotland, and a principal observation - so many roads were in a very poor state of repair. Doubtless this stems from the recent harsh winters and local authorities being strapped for cash.

It did make a difference - what should have been a pleasant experience driving amidst beautiful scenery became a bone-rattling ordeal, constantly having to concentrate on avoiding the worst of the pot holes. It was so bad that at one point Jill was concerned we may be damaging the 'van.

Anyone else had this experience?

Yes and it isn't a recent development. I went to Braemar in 2007, the road was absolutely abominable, good job I was in a German motorhome, bone-jarring experience. Much prefer French roads!
 
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A couple of weeks ago we did over 400 miles over a long weekend heading to Eilean Donan castle , Spean Bridge etc. When I came back I had to contact one of my local councillors to tell him that the worst bit of road was the 300 yards to the main road where I stay. I did think a lot of the roads were better when we were out and about than some of the other places ( I think we had a few rattles in the lake district ) but there will be bad bits everywhere. Only thing I can suggest is report the potholes and damaged areas to the local council. Once they know about it they have to repair/patch as if they do nothing and it damages your tyre/wheel or worse they can then be liable for repairs. I am not condoning the compensation culture but if we report them hopefully they will fix them and have better roads to run on.

:Smile:

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Aug 27, 2009
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Free universities, free care in old age free free free. I guess something has to give.:Eeek:
 

lorger

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Once we have Independence we will start charging the English to visit and this will pay for new super roads :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

Yes your right the roads seem to be getting worse might not be to bad here in Dumfries but we find when we visit the cities the inner roads are in a far worse condition

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Back from a week in Scotland, and a principal observation - so many roads were in a very poor state of repair. Doubtless this stems from the recent harsh winters and local authorities being strapped for cash.

It did make a difference - what should have been a pleasant experience driving amidst beautiful scenery became a bone-rattling ordeal, constantly having to concentrate on avoiding the worst of the pot holes. It was so bad that at one point Jill was concerned we may be damaging the 'van.

Anyone else had this experience?

cheap sleeping policeman :thumb:
seems all the uk councils are pleading poverty :cry:

unless there is a new scheme to fund find the money for that they can:RollEyes::Blush::ROFLMAO:

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MHVirgins

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Free universities, free care in old age free free free. I guess something has to give.:Eeek:

We put our son and daughter through 4 and 5 years of university to post graduate level, both got their student loans based on our income. Whilst they didn't have to pay any fees "up front", they had to pay graduation taxes and are now still paying off their student loans based on their current incomes. Goodness knows how long it will take them to pay these off.

With regard to the "free care for the elderly", I can only speak from personal experience with my mother, who paid for a personal carer to come in for half an hour in the morning to help with washing/dressing and then at night to help with getting ready for bed. This was not free!

With the onset of dementia, we had to make the decision to put her into the best possible care home that we could afford.
At the start we were paying £953 per month for this care, after 18 months the company who managed the care home decided to increase the cost to £1,200. This was described to us as "board and lodgings" because all she really did was sleep in her bed for the most of the day.

So for anyone south of the border who thinks that everything is free north of the border, it ain't!:Angry:

This information is based on what we experienced 6 years ago and I don't know what the current situation is today. But if I apply the basic principles based on my experiences of greed and profit in the UK, then my interpretation of the current senario wouldn't be too far off the mark!
Bill


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MHVirgins

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Once we have Independence we will start charging the English to visit and this will pay for new super roads :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

Yes your right the roads seem to be getting worse might not be to bad here in Dumfries but we find when we visit the cities the inner roads are in a far worse condition

We always notice the roads in East Ayrshire and East Renfrewshire are really bad, but as soon as you get back into D & G you always notice an improvement:thumb:

Perhaps this is down to the lower populated areas like ours having better roads, whereas the heavier populated areas around Ayrshire and Renfrewshire have much more traffic on them and so the roads are in a far worse condition.

Call me cynical or what, but I doubt if the road taxes are going on the roads, probably going to fund politically correct projects or maintain over-inflated councillors' pension funds:Angry:

Bill

 
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We put our son and daughter through 4 and 5 years of university to post graduate level, both got their student loans based on our income. Whilst they didn't have to pay any fees "up front", they had to pay graduation taxes and are now still paying off their student loans based on their current incomes. Goodness knows how long it will take them to pay these off.

With regard to the "free care for the elderly", I can only speak from personal experience with my mother, who paid for a personal carer to come in for half an hour in the morning to help with washing/dressing and then at night to help with getting ready for bed. This was not free!

With the onset of dementia, we had to make the decision to put her into the best possible care home that we could afford.
At the start we were paying £953 per month for this care, after 18 months the company who managed the care home decided to increase the cost to £1,200. This was described to us as "board and lodgings" because all she really did was sleep in her bed for the most of the day.

So for anyone south of the border who thinks that everything is free north of the border, it ain't!:Angry:

This information is based on what we experienced 6 years ago and I don't know what the current situation is today. But if I apply the basic principles based on my experiences of greed and profit in the UK, then my interpretation of the current senario wouldn't be too far off the mark!
Bill
My apologies if I am misinformed, I can only blame the English media. We are led to believe that if you live north of the border then university tutoring fees are free and you are not required to sell your home to pay for your old age care. They must have it wrong again.:whatthe:
 

Loujess

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.... and also that you don't have to pay for your prescriptions? If I worked, I'd have to pay £30 per month for my prescriptions.

Now Jim, tyranny? More like feather bed. I had a lovely conversation with a chap in Kinlochbervie, who originated in Whitby but moved up there 30 years ago because of the better standard of living and way of life. He just invited me to look around at all the new houses looking out over beautiful scenery and said that there is work for everybody there.

Ivy

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Touchwood

Touchwood

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Seems like some forumites have taken my post as an attack on Scotland! :Sad:

If it read that way, then my apologies, it wasn't meant to. We love the country and the people, and I can think of many good reasons why maintaining road condition is a harder task then it is in England. Yes, we do have potholes here, but last week's experience led me to believe that things were considerably worse north of the border in this respect at least.

Wouldn't stop me going again, and didn't really detract from the holiday.
 
Aug 27, 2009
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.... and also that you don't have to pay for your prescriptions? [HI] If I worked, I'd have to pay £30 per month for my prescriptions.[/HI]

Now Jim, tyranny? More like feather bed. I had a lovely conversation with a chap in Kinlochbervie, who originated in Whitby but moved up there 30 years ago because of the better standard of living and way of life. He just invited me to look around at all the new houses looking out over beautiful scenery and said that there is work for everybody there.
Ivy

Its bad but not quite that bad.:winky:
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][/FONT]If you will have to pay for more than 3 prescription items in 3 months, or more than 13 items in 12 months, you may find it cheaper to buy a PPC. The charge for a single prescription item is £7.65, whereas a three month PPC will cost you £29.10 and a 12 month PPC £104.00.
 

MHVirgins

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.... and also that you don't have to pay for your prescriptions? If I worked, I'd have to pay £30 per month for my prescriptions.

Now Jim, tyranny? More like feather bed. I had a lovely conversation with a chap in Kinlochbervie, who originated in Whitby but moved up there 30 years ago because of the better standard of living and way of life. He just invited me to look around at all the new houses looking out over beautiful scenery and said that there is work for everybody there.

Ivy

The free prescriptions only came into operation in April last year, up until then we were paying something like £6.85 for each item on our prescriptions.
We have always had to pay for our prescriptions right up to our mid 50's, so the free ones now are a little bonus::bigsmile: But don't Wales also have free prescriptions? I am sure I remember reading somewhere that some people were nipping over the English border to go into Wales for the free prescriptions a while back. However, I'm sure this has now been clamped down on.

There are so many English people living around us, that part of Gatehouse of Fleet is referred to as "little London". But I would doubt if they've all moved north just because of free prescriptions, given that this has only happened last year.

The majority of English "migrants" that we have spoken to have said that they have done so for the quieter, peaceful and friendlier way of life.
Free prescriptions is the one thing that everyone south of the border seems to throw up about living in Scotland. But believe me, living in Scotland is not a financial "bed or roses", winters can be harsh, our fuel bills for oil and electricity/logs are high and ever increasing owing to the government's obsession with "green energy" taxes on the electricity bills:Angry:
Recently our last electricity bill, showed that almost 60% of the bill was made up of handling charges, cost of getting supply to source, vat and government commitments to green energy:Angry:
We are using less electricity with so-called "energy-saving" appliances and bulbs etc, yet the bills keep rising, but I think we're all in the same boat with regards to that one:RollEyes:
Bill

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