Dangerous’ state of roads blasted as private hire driver’s car is damaged
The state of roads in Gloucester, Cheltenham and the Forest of Dean have been described as dangerous as private hire drivers regularly see their vehicles damaged by potholes.
Hussain Vorajee, who has been a private hire driver and company owner in Gloucester for around 15 years, has called on county highways chiefs to urgently address the issue.
He voiced his frustration over the terrible state of the roads at a Gloucestershire County Council meeting and described how his car has been damaged twice in recent months.
“I go on many university and school runs across the Forest of Dean and some of the roads are undriveable,” he said.
“A lot of my drivers have had their car damaged, including my car. I’ve had my wheels changed twice over the last four months.
“My suspension has gone as well. Most of the roads across Gloucester, Cheltenham and the Forest of Dean are very dangerous.
“This morning I picked up a passenger and he said to me the roads are worse than Beirut.
“I don’t know what Gloucestershire Highways are going to do about it because the way it is at the moment, they are not being repaired and if they are being repaired they are just on a temporary basis.
“They need to be looked at very urgently because at the moment the roads are very bad out there.”
Highways cabinet member Joe Harris (LD, Cirencester Park) said he agreed with “pretty much everything” Mr Vorajee said.
He said it was “pothole season” at the moment and the county has had a lot of rain.
“It freezes and potholes come out,” he said.
“That is an issue not just in this county but up and down the land.”
He went on to say the public sector and local councils have been through 15 years of funding cuts and the core grant from the Government has reduced year on year.
“As a result, many councils have employed a policy of what is known as managed decline,” he said.
“Looking at the services, really having to make efficiency savings and ultimately that means there have been cuts to our roads and highways budgets. Or, at the very least, the funding not keeping up with the levels of inflation.”
He said that was not an excuse and shared his frustration.
“I drive on exactly the same roads as you do across Gloucestershire as all of us do. I’m pretty fed up with the state of the roads.”
However, he said one of the council’s main priorities is to fix the county’s roads with more full resurfacing schemes to repair the whole carriageway and more patching.
To do so the council is investing an extra £15m in the highways budget to help but he said it would not solve every pothole issue and they need to get a better funding settlement from central government.
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Vorajee told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he has seen an increase in pickups in the morning from people who are using Uber because their cars are damaged due to the potholes.
“The amount of people I’m picking up has increased due to the amount of damage that customers are getting on their vehicles because of these horrific potholes,” he said.
“The jobs have increased on Uber because of this reason.”
He has also refused to do evening trips to the Forest of Dean because of the state of the roads.
“I’m not going towards Newent and Cinderford and the hills because the potholes are so bad you have to stop and let a truck go on the other side,” he said.
“You have to keep stopping everywhere because there are big craters.”