Unadopted Roads in Portobello

portocat · Post by **portocat** » 27 Apr 2005, 08:31

I was wondering whether anyone had complained to the council about the unadopted roads in Portobello, ie some of the lanes running parallel to the promenade, which are heavily pot holed. I have been in touch with Susan Deacon and Maureen Child about these, as I think it is pretty bad that the council refuse to adopt them and bring them up to a modern day standard, especially since we all pay a large chunk in council tax to edinburgh council for the priviledge of living in the city, not to mention road tax. The council does drive their bin trucks down them, and I wonder whether this helps the pot holes in any way... Just wondering whether anyone else had thought the same, or had any words of wisdom regarding this.

Post by **wangi** » 27 Apr 2005, 09:13

Why should the council adopt them? Can't see any good reason myself.

Poppy · Post by **Poppy** » 27 Apr 2005, 09:46

My understanding is that the local authority only adopts and thereafter maintain roads AFTER the owners of same bring them up to standard, i.e. tarmac them. Pretty expensive to do and very difficult to get all owners to agree .....

portocat · Post by **portocat** » 27 Apr 2005, 17:12

I suppose if you are not using the unadopted roads then you wouldn't see a reason for the council to upgrade them. But two flat tyres later in the space of a few months makes me think that the roads are substandard and really I don't see why I should have to pay out extra for repairs on my car because of poor road quality when:

a) the only vehicular access to my home is via a badly potholed road
b) I pay full council tax charges
c) I pay road tax
d) I don't actually own or have any title to the road, so do not have any say in the upgrade of it even if I was prepared to pay Ã‚Â£30,000 to get it up to the standard that would then allow the council to adopt it.

Apart from this, walking on the road is a safety issue, as it is in such a bad state of repair you have to be very careful even just walking along it as the potholes are so frequent and deep that twisted ankles could easily happen.

Sorry for the rant, but I do think it is really quite tight of the council considering they are about to pay goodness knows how much on speed bumps round portobello and they have a roads division therefore presumably would be able to repair the roads far more cheaply than a private contractor.

anyway the potholes are bad for bunny paws.
blah blah blah

Poppy · Post by **Poppy** » 27 Apr 2005, 17:28

anyway the potholes are bad for bunny paws.
blah blah blah

Dig a burrow!!!

Seriously, the road adoption thing is not just Edinburgh Council- it's Scotland if not UK wide.

Poppy · Post by **Poppy** » 27 Apr 2005, 17:38

In fact, maybe giant bunnies are digging the potholes!!

portocat · Post by **portocat** » 27 Apr 2005, 18:34

hmmm maybe.. I did notice a dark shadow moving past my window earlier. Perhaps it was a huge road hating jumbo bunny on its way to a road destruction mission..

Pal of Porty · Post by **Pal of Porty** » 27 Apr 2005, 19:39

portocat wrote:hmmm maybe.. I did notice a dark shadow moving past my window earlier. Perhaps it was a huge road hating jumbo bunny on its way to a road destruction mission..

I hope it eats speed bumps

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 28 Apr 2005, 06:33

Portocat, perhaps you can clarify the ownership question for us? If you don't part-own this private road, then who does? How many local residents share ownership? Can't a statutory repair notice be served on the owners?

portocat · Post by **portocat** » 28 Apr 2005, 07:52

Apparently the road is on the title deeds of two properties which sit at either side of the road. It has been suggested that the cost would be around Ã‚Â£30,000 now to get the road brought up to the standard required for the council to adopt it, so I don't think the two owners would really want to pay that. I was surprised that it would cost 30 grand to tarmac a little road/lane but not being in the roads business I don't know anything about the cost of road repairs. I have just never come across this sort of thing before, so was quite surprised that the council will not take responsibility. I take the point that this is scotland or uk wide though.

When we bought our place we knew the road leading to it was in bad condition, but the council informed our solicitor that our road and all adjacent footpaths and carriageways were adopted by the council, so it was a bit of a surprise a couple of months down the line when we discovered that this was not actually the case. The council have since written a letter of apology for the misleading wording to our solicitor.

Hopefully that clarifies a bit more. I don't want to rant on about it, I had just wondered whether it bothered anyone else, but I think it might just be me!! As I said earlier, I just grudge paying all the tax that I do. I just wonder what it actually gets spent on.

Pal of Porty · Post by **Pal of Porty** » 28 Apr 2005, 08:43

Could the two road owners not set up a Toll Booth and charge people for using it. Regular users could get a discount - 3 journey's for price of 2 etc. When they reach Ã‚Â£30,000 they could disband their system and get the Tarmac laid.

Porty · Post by **Porty** » 28 Apr 2005, 10:46

Pal of Porty wrote:Could the two road owners not set up a Toll Booth and charge people for using it. Regular users could get a discount - 3 journey's for price of 2 etc. When they reach Ã‚Â£30,000 they could disband their system and get the Tarmac laid.

Why dont we have a referendum of the local residents, see if they are quite happy to pay to use those roads? Surely they will.

Pal of Porty · Post by **Pal of Porty** » 28 Apr 2005, 17:57

Porty wrote:Why dont we have a referendum of the local residents, see if they are quite happy to pay to use those roads? Surely they will.

That sounds like a very sensible suggestion Porty but it might get scuppered by PCATS (Portobello Campaign Against Tarmac Spreading)