Editor's Comment (From Andover Advertiser)

Editor's Comment

4:25pm Thursday 28th January 2010

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The icy winter weather brought all manner of problems across the country, with accidents, injuries and damage to property.

The arctic temperatures also played havoc with our roads.

Surfaces that were not in great shape to start with, and that had been patched numerous times, surrendered to the penetrating frost without much of a fight.

The legacy of a few weeks of real winter weather is a local road system that is peppered with potholes and has started to resemble the surface of the moon.

Reports have come in to us of cars weaving and swerving on roundabouts to avoid dropping a wheel into one of these potholes which could cause serious damage to tyres, wheels, steering and suspension units.

The potholes and the understandable avoiding action raises the risk of a crash dramatically, particularly on busy roundabouts and especially for bikers.

The cost of putting the roads back into tolerable condition is going to be high and it’s bound to come out of our pockets eventually.

But the real issue is that the roads should have been in good enough condition to withstand our winter weather.

After all, we do get a winter every year, even if it’s not always as severe as this one.

Over the past few decades our roads have deteriorated steadily with nowhere near enough of our road tax being converted into repairs or renewals.

It seems to have been a useful cash cow for successive governments which has left us with a road network quality that is fast becoming the equal of a third world country.

Perhaps it’s another ploy to coax us out of our cars onto the equally unsatisfactory public transport system.

Joe Scicluna, Editor.

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