WE may be in the middle of a federal election campaign, but don’t think for a moment that climate change, superannuation, Medicare or asylum seekers are the biggest talking points among the local community right now.
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Rather, most Bathurst residents are far more focused on issues closer to home – particularly potholes.
Few things are as certain to annoy our readers as the appearance of potholes after every drop of rain across the region.
They quickly take to social media to vent their frustrations and the same question keeps cropping up – why?
Why is it that our roads are so susceptible to potholes after relatively minor falls of rain?
And why do the same roads seem to crack up time and again, even after they’ve been repaired?
Why were drivers travelling along Eglinton Road last week subjected to long queues and even longer waits outside All Saints’ College while workers repaired a job that had been done poorly just weeks earlier – and is still a disgrace?
It’s hard to escape the conclusion that those in charge of spending the money we pay in taxes and rates are skimping when it comes to roads maintenance.
Perhaps the number crunchers are satisfied that it’s cheaper in the long run to save money on the construction of quality roads and then keep patching rather than splashing out big dollars in the first place.
Whatever the reason, things do not look like getting better in a hurry.
An NRMA report released last month painted a bleak picture of roads funding in the Bathurst Regional Council area, citing a $15.2 million backlog in council’s 2014-15 assessments.
If council has to find that much just to get local roads up to scratch, we can expect some scraped rims and dodgy wheel alignments for a few years yet.
