A pothole covering almost an entire side of a road near the A46 has been described as the worst in over two decades by a Lincolnshire man who discovered it on his drive to work.
Pete Buckingham lives in Grantham and was on his way to work in RAF Waddington on Thursday when he saw a crater-sized hole in the tarmac on Station Road, west of Harmston village.
Pete says he is a qualified new roads and street works supervisor and has been for over 20 years, but declares this pothole as “the worst I’ve seen in all my years”.
He went to report the issue on Fix My Street through the Lincolnshire Highways portal, and noticed that the area had been flagged previously in December, but not much had been done in the way of repairs.
When he went to log it on Fix My Street, he saw it had previously been noted by the council, but as yet no repairs have taken place. | Photo: Pete Buckingham
Instead, a traffic cone had been placed at the side of it, which appears to have since blown away into a nearby hedge as a result of high winds from Storm Dudley.
Pete said: “The even more annoying issue is this is a council depot just off the A46, less that 3 miles away. This is a 60 mph road used by a lot of HGVs, if such a vehicle is heading west (from Harmston) and you are heading east, there is no option than to go through this crater.
“This could cause death or serious injury very easily. Help is required urgently!”
The pothole has been a cause for concern for a while now. | Photo: Pete Buckingham
It is estimated that over 100,000 potholes were reported to Lincolnshire County Council this year, with 15,314 reports coming through the council’s own portal or the Fix My Street service.
The issue has become more of a growing concern as the council prepares to face a massive gap in its road maintenance funds, due to government slashing funding by 25% last year.
The Lincolnite has contacted Lincolnshire County Council for a statement.
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Lincoln Central car park has enjoyed its busiest year ever as the town centre recovers from the pandemic.
More people used the 1,001-space multi-storey car park in the 12 months leading up to March 2022 than ever before.
The numbers even surpassed pre-COVID levels, showing people are keen to be out and about shopping and dining.
There were 505,463 parking sessions at Lincoln Central in that year, generating £1.6million, according to figures released through a Freedom of Information request.
That is nearly three times the revenue of the previous year, when repeated lockdowns often kept people at home.
Between April 2020 and March 2021, there were 271,081 visits, which generated £648,949.
Lincoln’s new multi-storey opened in 2017. | Photo: Steve Smailes
Since it opened in November 2017 as part of the Lincoln Transport Hub scheme, it has generated a total of around £5.4million in revenue.
However, enforcement officers have still had to issue fines to people parking in the multi-storey’s disabled spaces without a blue badge.
A total of 156 PCNs (penalty charge notices) were issued in the year up to March 2022, with a value of £5,460.
The £30million Transport Hub project also created a state-of-the-art bus station, improvements to the city’s railway station forecourt, a new access for vehicles into the railway station car park and pedestrian plaza linking Sincil Street and High Street to the railway station.
More than eight million of the lowest income households in the UK will receive a one-off £650 payment to tackle the cost of living crisis, the government has announced.
A previously announced £200 off energy bills to be given to all households in October has also been doubled to £400 and will no longer have to be repaid.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak was giving a speech in the House of Commons today when he also announced a further eight million pensioner households would receive an extra £300 in winter fuel payments, while six million disabled people will receive a further £150.
In his statement, he said that from next year a review of benefits would see them upgraded by this September’s CPI (Consumer Price Inflation). The Household Support Fund will also be extended by half a billion pounds.
He also announced a windfall tax on oil and gas firms – which had previously been resisted by the government – would raise about £7bn.
However, the government called it a “targeted energy profits levy”. It will be charged on profits of oil and gas companies at a rate of 25%.
The measures announced today would cost in total £15billion, said Mr Sunak, bringing the total support to £37 billion.
Additional help was also announced including increases in the winter fuel allowance, a further cut in council tax and a VAT cut.
Making the announcement, Mr Sunak said the government would “never stop trying to help people”.
“This government will not sit idly by while there is a risk in this country that some could be set so far back they will never recover,” he said.
“I want to reassure everyone – we will get through this.
“We will make sure the most vulnerable and least well off get the support they need.”
However, he said fiscal support needed to be “timely, temporary and targeted” and that the government would “not allow short term inflationary pressures to lead people to expect high inflation will continue over the long term”.
He said the oil and gas sector was “making extraordinary profits” and that he was “sympathetic to the argument to tax those profits fairly”.
“But as ever, there is a sensible middle ground. We should not be ideological about this we should be pragmatic,” he said.
“It is possible to both tax extraordinary profits fairly and incentivise investment.”
Mr Sunak said the measures would help a third of all UK households with a cost of living support worth £9 billion.
A windfall tax is a one-off levy on a company which benefits from something it is not responsible for. In this instance, oil and gas firms are getting more money than last year with companies such as BP and Shell reporting big profit increases due to the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The UK’s energy regulator Ofgem said earlier this week that the typical household energy bill was set to rise by £800 in October.
It would mean the typical household bill would be £2,800 a year and Ofgem warned 12 million households could be placed into fuel poverty.
A £150 rebate on tax bills has already started to go out to residents in council tax bands A-D.
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