00:01Across Bristol, potholes, worn surfaces and patchwork repairs remain a frustration for
00:06drivers.
00:07Ministers now say councils could lose part of future highway funding if they cannot prove
00:11road money is being spent on maintenance.
00:14Bristol is rated amber overall by the Department for Transport in its latest local road maintenance
00:20ratings.
00:21Well, I mean, we talk about the roadways, but of course we have motorways, we have the
00:28A roads, we have the local roads and of course we have the bi-roads and it seems that wherever
00:33you go these days you would like to hit a pothole and indeed in recent months I've noticed that
00:38wherever you go there's somebody trying to do some road works which may be filling in
00:42the potholes or just trying to keep on top of the general state of disrepair of our roads.
00:48Bristol City Council's own highways maintenance report says it filled 4,398 potholes in 2024
00:56to 2025.
00:57The same report shows only 21.5% of the city's A roads were classed as green in 2024 with
01:0568.6% amber and 9.9% red.
01:09On B roads just 9.8% were green whilst nearly 12.4% were red.
01:14The government says councils across England now face tougher rules and could lose around
01:19a third of next year's share of the £1.6 billion highways pot if they fail to show the money
01:26is
01:26going on road maintenance.
01:28It has become a nightmare and of course I know from experience and I see it with other drivers
01:33constantly trying to avoid hitting holes which are pretty deep. Indeed if you go onto the
01:38web you see memes of people sort of fishing them sort of you know going in sort of wetsuits down
01:43them.
01:44Now of course you know the fact is that they're not that dreadful yet but we seem to be sort
01:48of getting to the state
01:49where it's yeah as I say making a run anywhere without sort of coming across potholes is almost seems to
01:56be nigh and impossible.
01:57I did speak to someone who was on holiday in another part of the UK and they said they noticed
02:01that the roads were sort of immeasurably better.
02:03For drivers the pressure is now on councils to show repairs are being done properly and that longer term maintenance
02:10is being planned not just short term patching.
02:13With costs still rising and funding now under sharper scrutiny the condition of Bristol's roads is likely to stay firmly
02:19in the spotlight.
02:20Now of course why should it be like that we have a problem this country we have a sort of
02:24particularly changeable client rain in the winter frost sometimes snow sometimes gets hot.
02:30So we get that sort of changeability which of course is not good for tarmac if you get consistent conditions
02:36you can deal with that.
02:38But nonetheless I think also what we may be sort of seeing the sort of the first indications of cars
02:45are getting heavier they're bigger you go back a hundred years ago
02:48when cars were first starting to be used they were much smaller affairs but also more particularly we've got a
02:54sort of greater number of electric cars driving around
02:56and of course they sort of weigh considerably more because of the battery.
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