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true to the heart of midlothian

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Living through this technological 'revolution' sometimes I feel left behind and struggling with 'technophobia' now and again...but everything has advanced so quickly with almost everything at the touch of a button these days which is wonderful but lets not lose our face to face interactions.

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A dedicated day to potholes...

P. Smith
Jan 15, 2024
2 min read

Surely there is enough going on in the depths of the winter season for today's drivers? Keeping the car maintained with ready supplies of de-icer is effort enough without the potential to be confronted with a pothole.

Caused by cold and harsh winter conditions it has become a real problem in Scotland where the work is done afterwards as there is not much in the way of prevention. Just last week after a day out in the Borders, the car I was a passenger in met a rather nasty pothole and this was my first experience of this resulting in an immediate burst tyre and being stuck on the road in the darkness. Thanks to a local who was more than savvy with changing a tyre which needed a great amount of strength to remove, the job was eventually done but the potential fears were how long would we have waited for a recovery service.

So the national pothole day is the 15th of January but what can we do? Raise awareness after having or hearing about an experience on a particular road. Is road safety simply having a spare tyre in the boot?

The positive news in Midlothian is that the target for pothole repairs has been outdone, significantly: with more than double the expectation being reached through a service which has been bought with a three in one solution to tackling the repairs required through potholes. The previous methods meant an entire half day to repair one as opposed to now where it takes half an hour!

It has still been described as a challenge but one that has improved with this technology and speedy repair work. The local council is where potholes should be reported and as for making a claim, this will depend on the individual, the damage and insurance whether it is worthwhile.

So sharing road information locally, being familiar with your car and driving carefully is all great but we just need that extra awareness to add to our road safety repertoire.

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