Gone to pot
Taxi driver rages surfaces are worse than they’ve ever been
A FED-UP taxi driver who took council staff on a “pothole tour” of Scotland’s biggest city says the roads have never been worse.
Jason Porteous, who has been driving his cab for 20 years, led roads bosses around some of Glasgow’s worst craters after becoming tired of dodging them more than a year ago.
But the 50-year-old said almost every road in the city is now in some state of disrepair.
Jason hit out just weeks after dozens of fellow drivers staged a protest outside the City Chambers and campaigners called for the council to declare a “pothole emergency”.
He said he and his colleagues are furious at being “pushed” into expensive new vehicles to comply with Glasgow’s controversial Low Emission Zone (LEZ) only to risk major damage while at work.
He said: “I’d been complaining to the council for years and nothing was changing.
“I told them I wasn’t going to let up, so three of them came out with me with a camera and I took them on a tour of the roads.
“Within the city boundary there’s barely a road now which is drivable without hitting a pothole. That’s how bad it’s getting.
“This is a big deal for taxi drivers as we’re being pushed into these ridiculously priced vehicles to drive on these roads. We’re up against it.”
Last month, taxi drivers who say their cars have been badly damaged by reported potholes sounded their horns on a slow drive-by the council HQ on George Square.
And campaign group Potholes Make Glasgow has called on the council to spend more on road maintenance.
But the local authority said it expects to have completed about 175 road resurfacing projects by the end of the month after doubling last year’s budget to repair damage caused by the harshest winter roads had seen in more than a decade.
Jason said: “The potholes on Wellington Street are so bad they’re more like a sink hole and cars have to manoeuvre to the other side of the road, which is dangerous.
“I only work through the day now. Night shift drivers don’t have a chance of avoiding the potholes because it’s dark. ”
A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: “Following the lowest road surface temperatures in a decade in December 2022, an extended period of heavy rain led to a sharp rise in pothole reports in January 2023.
“To address road conditions, the road maintenance budget for 2023-24 was doubled to £12million.
“This will ensure 175 resurfacing projects across the city will be completed by the end of this financial year and we have teams out every day for smaller repairs.”