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Oh dear, oh dear it is  so tiresome trying to commincate with Houslow Council's Environmental Serrvices Dept.  Here's the latest correspondence but they seem totally determined  to waste our money and quite oblivious or unconcerned about the lethargy with which they go about their jobs "Dear Mr FosterI believe you and I both know that since your inspection on or around 23 Feb and my inspection and measurement of 28 Feb there has been no severe weather which would have caused the potholes to increase from 50 to 100mm. If you do however maintain this stance,  I believe that based on current weather conditions the unmarked potholes will also have reached your intervention level by tomorrow as they appear to deteriorate at a rate on 10mm per day according to your response.  I would like in any event to have your cost analysis of deferring the filling of all potholes on Saturday 6th against waiting possibly another 2 or 3 weeks for the unmarked potholes to attain your intervention criteria and the justification to disrupt traffic for a second period. KInd regardsSteve TaylorMr Taylor Thank you for your e-mail.We are carrying out responsive repairs to the areas that exceed our intervention levels.With regards to the other areas mentioned there is going to be a planned patching program of works to be carried out from April 2010 and these areas will then be addressed accordingly.When I sent my e-mail to you on the 23 /2/10 the areas checked did not exceed our intervention criteria  but due to the severe weather have since deteriorated I should of stated on my e-mail of the 23 rd of February that we would continue to monitor the situation and act accordingly please accept my apologies.Kind  RegardsHounslow Central Area Team"

Steve Taylor ● 5633d

Chris I totally understand what you are saying. My point is that I never asked LBH to resurface the whole area - I simply asked them to look at it and fill the dangerous potholes as appropriate. THEY GAVE ME the fob-off about it having to go to IBAC etc. i.e. to me it seems they have a cut and paste prescribed reply about no planned maintenance etc etc etc.and  £198m Private Finance Initiative project starting Jan 2013. In a nutshell - yes, one can complain or point them in the direction of roads which are deemed unsafe or dangerous and they refer you to the their IBAC procedures or the £198m private finance initiative. What they don't understand is that average Joe Soap doesn't give a monkeys about IBAC's or committees or Ward Boundaries or what 'may'  happen in 2013;  Joe Soap is simply pointing them in the direction of issues of concern at the current time. Joe Soap doesn't need to know about “reactive maintenance”  or  “Planned maintenance", he simply wants to know if the fact that his stomach ended up in his mouth when he hit a series of potholes, or if his child tripped because she didn't have her eyes glued to the road when she crossed, will be addressed by the Council. Lets not forget that drivers tend to try to dodge all the potholes which makes for very dangerous driving!Current information would indicate that this Council is not addressing these issues in the short-term. Possibly Vanessa is right and they are waiting to see if there will be more severe weather before tackling the problems, but then shouldn't they simply say so? I thought that thinking outside the  bureaucratic box and community engagement was supposed to be the name of the game these days.

Steve Taylor ● 5661d

Chris - thanks for clarification. My information was gathered from a series of emails and letters from Sonny Pham  and Anura Wijesekera, Area Highways Engineers,  Environment Department and also Cllrs Paul Fisher and Phil Andrews. It would seem that the Highways Engineers are not aware they can sort out potholes without IBAC approval and it would also appear that potholes in different wards have to be approved by different area IBAC's??  Quote from LBH referring to heavily potholed area    "We have no planned maintenance programme for this stretch of the road in the current financial year. Council carries out a technical assessment of the footways/carriageways annually. The collected data is then processed according to the type and extent of the defects identified. Once the technical assessment is completed, it is  presented to the Area Committee for approval."On 14 Jan I asked  Mr  Wijesekera to please let me know the technical specification for measurement of the intervention levels as it would appear this is not consistent with the decision made to fill potholes in other wards which were  nowhere near as bad the areas in question and would call into question the Council Leader's assurance in Hounslow Matters that potholes would be dealt with.  I also stated I would be happy to meet with engineers at effected areas, together  with the local press, so that the community can be made fully aware of exactly what the state of disrepair the roads can be in order to pass intervention level scrutiny. Needless to say I received no response!

Steve Taylor ● 5661d