Why Are County Roads so Awful?

Gloucestershire Echo, The › June 06, 2009

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I Have just returned from a week's touring in the Aquitaine region of South West France. It is only during trips such as this that one can put in perspective what we, as a nation, have to put up with. Before I continue with these observations, I would add that I am not a natural Francophile, have weighed up the pros and cons of relocation and am not naive enough to think that everything over there is vastly superior to being here. We do, however, have a more acute sense of humour. Would the French find the antics of their parliamentary members the comedy turn that we do, for instance?

This brings me to the point of this minor rant. Our roads. This morning I have driven from my home in Bishop's Cleeve to play at Cotswold Hills Golf Club. During this five-mile journey, we had to endure more potholes, ruts, ill-fitting drain covers and poorly repaired roads than we did in covering over 600 miles of the French network last week. Why do we have to tolerate this? Like Gloucestershire in the UK, Aquitaine is one of the most expensive areas of France, which is reflected in property prices and the overall cost of living. There, I'm afraid, the comparison ends. If Cheltenham - in the appalling state in which it is in - is meant to be the county town of "royal Gloucestershire,"what are other, allegedly less affluent towns like?