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Council says survey is full of holes
ANGUS Council has responded to claims by a study released this month that paints Angus as the worst place in Britain for potholes.
The survey, carried out by Warranty Direct on behalf of Potholes.co.uk, named Angus as the number one place for your vehicle suspension to fail as a result of long term exposure to potholes.
The study used 50,000 live insurance policies to monitor instances of suspension and axle failure and found that Angus had a fail rate of 9.97 per cent.
Next up were Renfrewshire with 9.76 and Lanarkshire with 9.73 per cent, and of the top 10, seven spots were occupied by Scottish regions.
In response to the claims made by the Warranty Direct study an Angus Council spokesperson said: “Angus Council uses its own data and benchmarks this across Scotland with a number of other similar local authorities for a range of road-related issues.
“The condition of Angus roads has been assessed in the Scottish Roads Maintenance Customer Survey as being between the fifth/sixth best in Scotland.
“We are not provided with the Warranty Direct information which relates to suspension failure. These failures can have a number of causes and we are not aware of any study which links suspension failure warranty claims with specific potholes.”
In February 2012 Angus Council committed an additional £1.5 million of the 2012/13 budget to the Roads and Transport Renewal Fund for the prevention and permanent treatment of potholes, bringing the total available pothole budget up to £2.745 million.
According to a report presented to Angus Council’s infrastructures services committee in November 2012, between April and September 2012 3,626 potholes were identified and dealt with, 98.5 per cent of them within the allotted timeframe for their category.
In his report director of infrastructure services Eric Lowson commented: “Although too early to collect objective data to support conclusions regarding the effectiveness of the approach being adopted, early indications are that in combination with other established maintenance processes these are proving effective in providing lasting repairs and reducing the number of repeated visits required.”
l We asked our readers via Facebook about their experiences with the tarmac terrors and a number of local hotspots have been identified including Asda car park at the Westway Retail Park, the roundabout on Burnside Drive in Arbroath, and Taymouth Street in Carnoustie.
Worst of all however appears to be in Carnoustie, reader George Walker told of us a recent garage bill he blames on potholes.
He said: “There is a very bad patch, including potholes, at the top end of Holyrood Street in Carnoustie. I had a £200 bill last year for pothole damage to my car and I was not a happy bunny.”
Do you agree with the survey that Angus is bad for potholes or are you happy with the work Angus Council is doing to keep on top of them?
Give us your thoughts in the usual way and we will keep you updated on the pothole situation in our area.
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Weather for Arbroath
Saturday 25 May 2013
Today
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Temperature: 6 C to 20 C
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Wind direction: West
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Sunny spells
Temperature: 8 C to 17 C
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