Coastal car park users want rid of ‘dangerous’ potholes
Wednesday 9th January 2013, 5:00PM GMT.
BORDEAUX and Chouet car park users have called on the States to fill in potholes at the sites.
Islanders said the current holes were dangerous and suggested levelling them out would improve the appearance of the public areas.
Users of both sites said the potholes were a problem and that they think levelling them would be good for locals and visitors.
Environment is responsible for coastal car park maintenance, while the Public Services Department would carry out repairs.
Vicky McCarthy, 58, pictured, was at Bordeaux car park and said she was sad to see the car park in such a state.
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Parking lot!? Looks more like a ruddy duck pond….
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Surely it would be better to tarmac these car parks, I’m sure it would cost a fair chunk of money but how much does it cost to constantly regrade these areas year after year.
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Better get a consultant in to advise on the car park. Alternatively use the money being wasted on consultants to resurface the the car parks.
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Hi.
I don’t quite understand why the States don’t just spend a little cash on a one off and tarmac these areas.
Workers come, they fill the holes with loose material and within a month the areas are ruined again.
To me that make economic sense!! Guess i’ll never get a job in the States eh!!!!
GD.
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Didn’t our local experts fix this area last June / July?
Perhaps we need to talk to a car park consultant
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The roads are just as bad, some so bad they could be called dangerous, I hit a large pothole in my car around the back of the Airport and thought the front wheel was going to come off my car, how long before a cyclist or motorcyclist is injured hitting one.
Considering getting a 4×4 now, fed up of damaging my car going up & down the pavement to avoid huge buses and driving on roads that are in a state of disrepair.
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And did you report this pothole Backchat?
I Bet you didn’t.
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Yes and have also been back to check, its now marked for repair with yellow paint I can confirm which makes it visible when driving along, thanks for your concern on this matter.
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The States of Guernsey Environment Department are responsible for all coastal car-parks.
To encourage a safer passage through them is to level and tarmac them.
If the States of Guernsey want to educate more islanders to recycle then they should be
leading the way to improve and maintain these recycling sites.
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I doubt that if I was a visitor that I would be deterred from returning to such an area due to some potholes.
Cue those who believe that ‘Ed’ is in a fantastical world wherein vehicle upkeep is insignificant .
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This is the usual ‘Ed’ , hence the idea of an idealistic world wherein pecuniary matters are trivial.
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I miss my Woodies Latte at Bordeaux due to the large holes in the carpark and fell in a puddle going for a wee.So embarassed coming out wetter than going in to visit the toilet
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Perhaps you shouldn’t be having a piddle in the puddle in the first place!
Coffee – goes straight through some people
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I doubt that if I was a visitor that I would be deterred from retiring to a place due to some potholes.
Cue those who believe that ‘Ed’ is in a self-constructed world wherein the costs associated with vehicle upkeep are insignificant.
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I gather he’s just old enough to own his first car. He will learn!
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How old do you have to be to own a car?
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17 in Guernsey as you need a driving license to register a car.
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Are you sure Sparty? I’ve never had to produce one when registering a car.
Just send in the change of ownership slip, previous owner does their bit and job done.
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That may or may not be true, I don’t know, but the registered keeper is not necessarily the owner.
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Phil
Go on then tell us – how old do you have to be to be registered owner and legal owner?
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PLP
You’re quite right but if you don’t give your licence number on the transfer form you have to give your age. I wonder why that is relevant? Could be for identity verification reasons or it could be to ensure you are not a minor. I don’t know.
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The info I’ve just been given by Vehicle Licensing is that you can ‘own’ a vehicle at any age (‘own’ in this context means ‘have legal entitlement to’); likewise you can register a vehicle in your name at any age (this refers to registration document of vehicle).
The age at which you may legally drive a car is of course currently 17.
The question of what info is required in order to register a vehicle may well be related to an ID check rather than one of age.
Change of ‘ownership’ ie change of registered keeper may well have legal implications if the ‘owner’ has not or is not capable of giving their permission for the vehicle to be disposed of.
Hope this helps
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CSR
Thanks for that, that’s interesting.
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We could fill in all the holes with the ash we get back from Jersey when they are burning our waste!!!
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Please can we do the roads first, some bad areas are the traffic light junction outside beetons chip shop and the mini roundabout at the bridge.
Thanks
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St Sampsons
Agreed re the breakup of the road surface around the North Side / Bridge roundabout
The site below is the States ‘report problems’ page.No specific button to report poor road surfaces but this can be done via the contact button at the top of the page ( which I have just done re the roundabout surface)
http://www.gov.gg/article/5030/Report-it
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Don’t blame the States. Blame the would-be rallyists who can’t go for an ice cream without a display of wheel spinning or those 4x4s whose power steering make mincemeat of the rolled surface.
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I think it would be worth them trialling one of the ‘grid’ products like the Friquet have installed in their carpark. Personally, I think tarmac isn’t the right thing to use from an aesthetic point of view (unless they can make it a different colour to the standard black).
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DA, I think that the Bordeaux car park entrance had some of the ‘grid’ product trialled there in 2012 on the entrance area, not sure what the official verdict was/is, but I pass there every day and the holes are in the main part of the car park where as Dust Dodger says, numpties wheel spin or the power steering of heavier vehicles (now including local ‘tipper trucks’)tear up the surface.
Tarmac would be an answer, but prohibitively expensive and not really in keeping with the area. No real ‘answer’ to the problem, and just another drain on stretched resources.
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The entrance area that was “grid” laid has stood up really well it`s the tarmac edging on the road that is now becoming a trench and the rest of the car park would, I`m sure, benefit from this “grid” layer, it`s really a simple,hard wearing,easy,fix.
By the way, I was down there today and there was a young idiot driver who suddenly realised that driving fast in car parks doesn’t pay, especially ones with potholes, because he “bottomed out” and came to a halt in his MINI with lowered suspension.
It was quite a crunching noise and I would be surprised if he doesn’t need a new sump on his gearbox.
The grimace on his face and the language he came out with makes me think he won`t be wheel spinning in car parks any more.
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Nice one, poetic justice if ever there was.
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While this subject is running, I have noticed that the car park on the north side of the runway at the airport is in need of repair too.
Perhaps, as their trucks and site vehicles are using this car park to get to their offices, Lagan could spare a couple of tons of their over ordered, imported aggregate to fill in the holes there.
I was told that there was a massive over ordering of this aggregate (perhaps two or three boat loads) by a Lagan employee.
I hope The States Department in charge are monitoring this import and who is going to pay for it if it is over ordered.
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Becks, Logically it makes sense to ‘over import’ materials as once the shipping contract was finished and the temporary dock etc was removed, it would be a bit embarassing, not to say hugely expensive, to have to bring in extra to complete the project.
If indeed there is a likelihood of material being left over, I suspect it will already have been accounted for in the project costs and would possibly benefit the island rather than being a liability.
The above is only my opnion, and I am happy to be corrected if anyone knows different… but I don’t mean, “I heard it from a bloke in a pub who had been talking to a digger driver who works weekends for Lagans” :-)
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Hang on a second, is Spartacus actually admitting that he/she was wrong with his/her assertion that 17 is the minimum age for car ownership?
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No. Being proved wrong is just ‘interesting’.
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The absurdity of a child legally owning a roadworthy motor vehicle is interesting.
I stand corrected on the technical aspect, I was wrong about that.
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Holy smoke, the all knowing Roman troll has admitted that he/she was wrong (cue fanfare!!).
I fail to see what is absurd about an under 17 year old being able to legally own a car, just as I would fail to see what would be absurd about an adult without a licence being able to own a vehicle.
I could go and buy a plane or a helicopter if I wanted to (and if I could afford it) doesn’t mean I can start using them though does it.
Come on Sparty, give us the benefit of your considerable wisdom on this issue that isn’t contentious in the slightest.
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Phil
It seems you are vying for the title of “all knowing troll”
You can have it!
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Come on Sparty, admit you were wrong, you know you want to!!
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Just a little anecdote with regard to potholes.
In 1989 I was in Queensland Australia and while driving on the main road between Cairns and Townsville I came up behind a road repair team of three men in a truck loaded with tarmac.
The team slowed to a stop next to a pothole in the road and all three got out.
They swept the hole clean and shoveled steaming tarmac (easy to keep hot in their 30+ degrees) from the truck into the pothole until the tarmac was just proud of the road surface.
Nothing unusual in procedure so far but the next bit I thought was hilarious.
I was expecting the men to get a mechanical rammer from the truck to flatten the new tarmac, but no.
I can only assume that the team were immigrant Irishmen because, to my amusement, they started to do a Riverdance on the newly filled pothole until the new tarmac was level with the old road surface.
I was then guided carefully around this repair and wished a safe journey.
I asked at a garage if this was an unusual occurrence but the lady serving told me that that was normal until the patches got too many and that the team drove this route every two days and that was their only job. Nice work if you can get it.
Of course the filling didn’t last long so it was a never ending job.
Still it beats having to dodge the potholes and I suppose the men kept fit because there were a lot of potholes to dance on.
Perhaps States Works can hire a few dancers for our roads.
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Story of the week!
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Considering that Ronez is laying off a chunk of its roadlayers gives me the impression that theres no money to fix the roads !!
But its about time that all coastal carparks were ‘macced over
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Could we not re vitalise the Tourist industry by advertising -POTHOLING HOLIDAYS IN GUERNSEY.Suitable for all ages,no special equipment needed, wellies supplied.
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Just out of interest, what has the lady’s age got to do with anything?
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Absolutely nothing, but the GP does like to add such details to stories as without such spurious facts, the ‘stories’ become a half column byline.
On the same weekend, I was asked by the GP reporter to comment on the area at Chouet (whilst doing my bit for the recycling effort) but when I said that I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about….she moved on to someone else no doubtin search of an ‘outraged member of the public’.
The area will be ‘fixed’ as soon as time and funds allow, it really isn’t a major priority right now. Common sense tells you to be careful when driving in such areas… surely!
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Why are these potholes dangerous sorry? what is the body count now? or is it that the local dogging community are spraining their ankles?! Think people need to stop complaining about it, you should be driving slow in car parks anyhow so these act as a natural speed restriction.
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