Recently I was able to purchase a lovely, second-hand car for my family. We are still paying it off as it was a big purchase for us. The kids have been really proud of our new set of wheels.
In the last month, a trip to Whangarei saw great damage to our new car. Road works between Oakleigh and Whangarei forced us to ride over stones that had just been thrown on fresh tar. I was so disappointed! I have stone damage all over my car.
Besides the fact that these road works were done in the middle of Whangarei's tourist season, causing delays of two hours to get from Whangarei to Ruakaka, the stones sounded like heavy hail on the bottom of my vehicle. My heart sinks every time I hear a loud bang on my car, because I know it is another chip in my paint. Even my wiper blades are damaged.
Then a week ago, I had my windscreen cracked by a shooting stone. Thank goodness the glass repair people were inundated by windscreen repairs because of recent road works in the area, so I could only book in for repair in one month's time, because today I received my second stone chip on the same windscreen. My husband had to replace his windscreen three weeks ago.
Although our fantastic insurance company replaced his windscreen for us, we still had to take care of the rust before the glass company would replace the glass. This is such a needless expense for us, and for our economy.
What I would like to know is who should be held accountable for this? We are paying good tax money for people to take care of the roads, but they are not doing a very good job.
Contractors are skimping on the jobs, resulting in the fact that road repairs need to happen every time it rains. It is ridiculous. And dangerous. How many people have damaged their wheels going over pot holes? They are skimping so much, they can't even get a steam roller to go over the stones, and expect private vehicles to do their dirty work for them.
They don't mind, as they don't have to pay for the damage. They should have to sweep the roads with a road sweeper afterwards as well. I know that would cost more money, but surely they have a basic standard they have to keep to get the job? Who inspects this? Does anyone at council question how many times the road needs to be repaired?
Thanks very much for your attention. Just talking to friends around the area, I know we all feel the same.
Samantha Baird,
Ruakaka
What do you think? Comment below.