I hired a car from Manchester airport a few weeks ago. I drove up the motorway and along the A59 to Barnoldswick. The road surface is a shambles and I was concerned that I’d end up with a puncture or worse from the potholes. The revenue from the myriad speed cameras on so many roads in Lancashire is obviously not going into the road maintenance budget.
As an aside my son used to drive a country Google rat run near Périgueux that he named Aleppo Road. Even that has been resurfaced.
I’ve never known a time with roads like this TBH. We live in a small north Oxfordshire village, and my wife went through 3 sets of wheels on the mini - the 17" low profile jobs that came on the car were broken even before the roads were really bad like they are now.
Reading about the state of the roads in the Uk maybe you should have bought a Massey Ferguson😀
2 Likes
It felt like I almost did!
For many years I’d wanted something 4WD because it’s not unusual to get snowed in where we live, but I NEVER expected to get a 4WD vehicle to manage regular driving. 
France has over twice the miles of road compared to the UK - and only 10% less cars. So more cars using less roads- of course the upkeep will be worse in the UK.
Yes but OTOH unlike France where the population is more evenly distributed, most of the more affluent car owning population of the UK is concentrated in a comparatively small area of the country. Which isn’t to say roads in the North are well-maintained by cash-strapped local councils. It’s over four years since I was last in the UK but I doubt that northern roads have improved since then.
By contrast I live in one of the least densely populated départements yet am continually pleasantly surprised by the departmental roads’ high level of maintainance.
The main french roads are ok - the smaller roads around me are dreadful - especially the edges. I’m in the UK at present and the local roads in N. Lincolnshire are v. good .
Hadn’t previously thought of even North Lincolnshire as being ‘North’, but wouldn’t deny that ‘Scunny’ and its surrounds have much in common with the far larger area of deprivation further north.
OTOH North Oxfordshire IS a very affluent area, yet has possibly some of the worst roads. I suspect it’s to do with drainage as much as anything, with water frequently flowing across or even springing up through the roads from the surrounding countryside.
Surely that would make it a very effluent area? 
4 Likes
Groan.
I’m here all week.
Nicely played sir. 
That coming from an Isis supporter 
It’s the Cherwell, not the Isis here. 
1 Like
BIL goes fishing in the Cherwell but never catches much, must be all your effluent living!
2 Likes
I’ve already reached this month’s limit of free articles from The New Yorker, but hope some of those who haven’t might find the following of interest
Everything you say plus the sad state of high streets. Just like everywhere where out of town shopping malls have taken the business. Probably not just a UK problem, just a modern life one. After many years abroad, I returned to my home town, Bournemouth. Horror of horrors - either the municipal workers were on strike or been laid off. Coke cans, beer bottles, lolly wrappers; you name it. The prom was covered in so much sand you had to take your shoes off. Restaurants and pubs boarded up everywhere for miles. Even the - God forbid - chip shops. Too sad!
English holiday resorts have fallen off the edge of the world - cheap travel has made foreign holidays more accessible, although I have seen Bournemouth heaving in the summer but it’s probably not enough. We last went there pre-Covid, and it felt tired.