The Premium Debate: Subscribers weigh in on Tauranga man filling in 'horrible' potholes himself

Neville Reid is filling in potholes out of frustration. Photo / Andrew Warner

OPINION

Potholes littering Tauranga streets are being blamed for popped tyres, damaged wheel bearings and injured ankles. Tauranga City Council says heavy rain has contributed to an increase in potholes - a trend that's been seen right across New Zealand - and it is now spending $200,000 more than it was two years ago. Resources were stretched with "urgent repairs or dangerous potholes" being prioritised. That's not good enough for Mount resident Neville Reid, who has had a "gutsful" and is vowing to continue to patch some up himself, despite the council indicating this could be punishable by a fine. (News, Monday)

Read the full story here: Tauranga man filling in 'horrible' potholes himself

Have your say by going to bayofplentytimes.co.nz or rotoruadailypost.co.nz and becoming a Premium subscriber.

The elephant in the room is probably that we no longer have major peice of infrastructure that made the stuff that is used to fix the roads (bitumen), materials cost has reportedly gone up (bitumen as an example), now less road repairs appear to be getting done. Does 1 plus 1 equal 2 here, or am I missing something?
- James H

Pot holes are as big a safety risk as speeding is - try and avoid them and you increase a risk of an accident, drive through them and you increase the risk of an accident. Where is fixing the roads, including more passing lanes and rumble lines, on the list of actions for road to zero?!
- Kathy A

Quality on nz road construction is abysmal. How dangerous for motorcyclist to hit one at even 80km.
- Mike H

It's not just the potholes that make our roads dangerous. The signage on all roads - suburban, rural etc- is nonexistent and must be one of the major reasons we have such a high death toll in this country. On our state highways, in particular, the signage is too small, the paint is peeling on some. Others are hidden behind trees. Other signs are not posted far enough from a turning and don't give drivers time to prepare especially when the traffic is travelling at 100kph. Too many times I have seen drivers miss a turn off because of this and then doing a u-turn to get back. The Cambridge road SH1 is a shocker for this. Visitors to our country are particularly vulnerable.
- Kathy H

How about we stop with the cycle lanes (which some cyclists don't even utilize) and use the money to maintain our roads?
- Luke H

Predictably central and local govt. have declared the problem is due to climate change, so not their fault, worldwide problem, blame the ute drivers, nothing to see here, unrelated to a lack of maintenance, exacerbated by Covid etc, etc.
- Paddy G

Roads were already bad before winter and not much got done to fix this over summer - so of course winter rain made it worse.
- Paddy O

People are missing the bigger picture here. Climate change (compounded by a persistent La Niña pattern) is resulting in much heavier and persistent rain events which means more potholes and either a longer wait until the hole can be properly filled or else an at best temporary repair. Reducing the level of heavy traffic on secondary roads not designed for them e.g logging trucks and earthmoving would also help.
- Howard and Alison E

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