Every pothole reported should be fixed within 14 days or the council pays you £50
I hit a pothole on the A38 last October. Two tyres and an alloy wheel. Reported it. Got told it was scheduled for assessment. That was five months ago.
The policy:
- Report a pothole through an official channel
- If its not fixed within 14 working days the council pays you £50 automatically
- No forms. No appeals. Bank transfer
- If it causes vehicle damage the council covers it without you threatening legal action
Councils will say they cant afford it. They can afford it. They just need to fix the potholes quicker which is the whole point.
Bin collections should be weekly. End of.
Fortnightly bins dont work. They overflow, they stink in summer, foxes rip them open. Everyone knows this. The councils know this. Bring back weekly collections and stop pretending the smell is somehow encouraging recycling.
Speed bumps that wreck your car should be removed and the council should pay for the damage
Some speed bumps are so aggressive they damage cars driven at the posted speed limit. If a speed bump wrecks your suspension at 20mph the council should pay for the repair. End of.
Roadworks that overrun should cost the contractor, not the taxpayer
There are roadworks near my house that were supposed to take 6 weeks. We are on week 14. I have seen someone actually working there maybe three times.
Here is what should happen:
- Every contract gets a hard completion date
- For every week it overruns the contractor loses 5% of the contract value
- Automatic. No negotiation. No waivers
- If they finish early they get a 2% bonus
- All penalties and bonuses published on a public dashboard so residents can see who is delivering and who isnt
I know penalty clauses exist already in some contracts. They clearly are not working. Make them automatic and make them hurt.
Parking fines shouldnt be a revenue stream for councils
My council made 4.2 million quid in parking fines last year.
Four point two MILLION.
Thats not enforcement. Thats a business model. And it means every decision they make about signage, yellow lines, and parking zones is quietly shaped by how much money it brings in rather than whether it makes the streets work better.
Ring-fence parking fine income. It can only be spent on road maintenance. Watch how quickly the "ambiguous" signs get cleaned up.
Bus lanes should only operate when buses actually run
The bus lane on the A370 is in operation 24 hours a day. Seven days a week. I drove down it at 10:30pm on a sunday in february and there was one car in front of me, no buses anywhere, and about a mile of empty bus lane I wasnt allowed to use. A camera clocked me and I got a 60 quid fine for "encroaching" onto it because I cut the corner slightly at a junction.
Bus lanes exist for a reason. During peak hours they keep buses moving. Fine. I support that. But the same lane being enforced at half past ten on a sunday night when no bus has passed through for four hours is just revenue collection dressed up as traffic management.
Here is the policy. Bus lanes are only enforceable during the actual hours the bus service runs plus a 30 minute buffer either side. Outside those hours they become regular traffic lanes. The camera at the A370 junction can work it out. Or if the technology really is too complicated, they can just paint smaller time restrictions on the signs like they used to before someone in a council office realised the current set-up makes them a fortune.
Enforce 20mph zones properly or paint over them. Half-arsed is worse than useless.
Bristol rolled out 20mph zones across almost the entire city. Fair enough, evidence says lower speeds reduce serious injuries. Except there is no enforcement. Zero speed cameras on the 20mph roads. Police say they have no resources to prosecute unless someone is doing 35+. So everyone does 28 and nothing happens.
The signs are everywhere. The paint on the road is everywhere. The actual effect on driving behaviour is roughly nil on the through routes, and noticeable only on the residential streets where drivers were not going fast anyway. We have spent millions on signage, consultations, and paint for a policy that depends entirely on honour-system enforcement.
Pick one. Either fund proper average-speed cameras on 20mph roads and actually police them, or accept the policy cannot be enforced and go back to 30 on through routes. The current middle ground is worse than either extreme. It trains drivers to ignore speed limits as optional suggestions, and it makes fools of the residents who slowed down in good faith.
Policy without enforcement is just a posture. Posturing is fine on the internet, less fine when it is baked into £5 million of council spending.
What do you think?
Vote on individual policies, adapt them, or write your own alternative. Good ideas should be tested.