On potholes and buses

Last week’s Letter from Councillor Imogen Shepherd-Dubey, plus a chance to actually talk to her at my front door, enabled me to have a good nag about a couple of issues many of our society worry about.

We are part of the countrywide concern about potholes. I will never forget tram-lines in London – Mitcham as my residence was in the 1940’s - having fallen off my bicycle several times!

The AA figures for breakdowns of motor vehicles totals 73,000 this year so far – average 1,400 per day.

Over a period of years roads may suffer undulations, which are not nice to drive on, but we take care and drive slowly. Arthur Road in Wokingham is an example. Such is the surface that I understand garages use it for testing cars.

Having investigated what can be done quickly, especially on roads such as the Reading Road, there is a process in the “Local Government articles list”, which enables a very fast repair to take place and reduce traffic delays. From the engineering point of view, I love the design and use of the product, called “Tough Patch” from UltraCrete. It has a long life. Perhaps Highways need to study it.

The other issue is buses. Apart from wondering they last very long on our roads, the services from Wokingham to Reading is sadly very bad – frequency a serious “nag”. I have complained before, in suggesting we revert back to something like a 15-minute service – e.g. especially on the 4/4X service.

We need for priority control for buses, second only to Blue-Light and Fire Brigade services – those who must suffer stress from traffic delays or in the way in Emergencies, as things are. A dream maybe, but a possibility.

As our population grows rapidly, I would like to see a traffic management system on our main roads, which given our technology is not difficult to adopt. Imagine one of our marvellous Ambulance drivers leaving RBH to get to Wokingham, knowing the main road is clear for him/her all the way.

Reg Clifton, Wokingham