Fill a Midsomer Norton pothole for £50, and get a personal message on top

By Desert Divas Ltd | Tuesday, March 09, 2010, 09:42

I'm getting truly fed up of all the potholes in Midsomer Norton which B&NES don't seem bothered to fill.

Would you pay to have a Midsomer Norton pothole filled and your own personal message displayed?

Driving on Silver Street outside Casswells is like off-roading in a jeep. I'm sure it's doing loads of damage to my poor little car.

I've just heard about what people in a small German village have come up - residents there are paying 50 Euros each to have a pothole filled and a personal message left on top!!

What a great idea! I wonder if B&NES would go for that? I think I'd be happy to fork out £50 to avoid more damage to my car.

And my message? "Wanted. Council to run town. Must have good sense of humour."

Would you pay out to get a pothole filled? And what would be your message?!

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Comments

You have a miner's lamp? Just how long have you lived here Howard_C ??! ;-)

By coopslad at 16:44 on 17/03/10
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Ha Ha! Yes indeed. I need the lights switched on on my bike so that I can find my way up the other side of that one. Perhaps I should fit an old miner's lamp to my helmet...

By Howard_C at 11:58 on 15/03/10
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That's the pothole that gets my vote! I feel I need a four-wheel drive to negotiate the potholes on the Church Square roundabout!

By Desert Divas Ltd at 11:50 on 15/03/10
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Thank you Howard that has cleared some things up for me although it seems it's an overly complicated way of doing things as per!

Has anyone had the pleasure of going over the pothole leading to Sainsbury's in Church Square? Its a whopper!

By BoxOffice1 at 11:48 on 15/03/10
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Boxoffice1: Car tax goes directly to the Treasury like any other ta. It is not ring-fenced (or hypothecated, using the posh term) for highway maintenance. All highway maintenance is the responsibility of the local authority, financed by a combination of local taxation (Council Tax) and Treasury Grants (General taxation). The exceptions are Trunk Roads and Motorways which are the responsibility of the Highways Authority, financed, of course, out of general taxation. According to my Council Tax bill, which hit the doormat this morning, 6.7% of the Council Tax is budgeted towards Highways, so that's £71.58 of the £1068.31 which B&NES collect from me this year.
It's quite common for people to get the wrong end of the stick when it comes to motoring taxes; many still believe they pay Road Tax, which actually was abolished in 1936.
Nowadays, we pay, to use the full title "Graduated Vehicle Excise Duty", or Car Tax. This is charged using a rather crude formula based on the size of the vehicle and the CO2 emissions. There are several Tax bands, ranging from "Band 'A'" for the smallest and lowest polluting vehicles, which pay £nil, through to "Band 'M'", which pay £405. These bands are changing again in April, costing the bigger vehicles even more.
So, as you can see, Car Tax has nothing to do with mending the roads and is simply a device for controlling demand, in much the same way as Alcohol and Tobacco Excise Duties. And raising revenue, of course.

And Maryellentuck: yes there has been some repairs done. A lot of the worst ones around the "Dead Centre" of Radstock were done one evening a couple of weeks ago; but apart from that I agree that progress is rather slow.

By Howard_C at 11:30 on 15/03/10
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