Don’t forget, we have a new section on our blog entitled London Life, in which we are exploring as our first issue, potholes!

Take a moment to visit and let us know about your plague of potholes!

Chris

Today, as part of the expansion of our blog into areas relating to London (with particular reference to the City of Westminster), we have launched London Life which will be addressing a number of topics in the lead up to the local authority and general election.

The first topic we have selected is potholes! They are everywhere and despite the promises of £100M in the budget, this will not even start to address the cost of repairing and maintaining our roads! We want to hear your pothole stories, see your photos, hear what action (or lack of) your council or borough has taken . . . if you happen to live in the City of Westminster and you have a pothole nightmare, please share this with me. I am intending to stand for local election and even though there is little chance of polling 3rd, I am going to give it all I have and there are a couple of issues I have in mind – this being one of them – to highlight.

One of the most clearly populist measures yesterday was a commitment to provide £100m to repair the potholes that have made a moonscape of many British roads in the aftermath of the winter freeze (FT.com)

The cost of potholes does not stop at the cost of repairing the actual hole. Motorists across the Capital have experienced damaged wheel rims, tyres, suspension and even been involved in collisions – all down to holes in the road which the local authorities have not taken steps to fill. Motor cyclists and cyclists are even more exposed to the risks of these (in some cases, gargantuan) holes in the road.

£100M is very nice Mr. Darling, but it is nowhere near enough to repair the net cost of underinvestment by successive Labour and Tory governments in our road infrastructure.

The Mayor of London has made ineffectual postulations and promises – all of which remain to be seen if they are actually worth anything, or are they pure piffle?

So, on we go with potholes. Click on London Life in order to have your say.

What will be the next topic of conversation and debate once we have filled in the potholes?

In no particular order, I am thinking about:

• the proposed changes to parking restrictions in the City of Westminster
• are parking fines being used as a cash stream?
• sustainability of public transport – with a focus on buses in London – what is the way forward?
• trams in London – Boris killed off the excellent proposal for the tram line across the Thames – was he right?
• Northern Line closures – will it kill off the tourist trade to Camden market?
• Weekend underground closures (the bane of ANY Londoner!)