“Nowhere is holier than the streets of Southmead”
06:00, 06 May 2026
Some fearless investigative photography of a pot hole(Image: Bristol Post)
Both my intellect and my bones have been much exercised recently by the shocking state of the local roads. And, by the way, should you live in some pleasant leafy suburb you might think that you’ve got more and worse pot-holes than anywhere else, but I can promise you that nowhere I’ve tried to take the Latimer Limousine of late is holier than some of the residential streets of Southmead.
Now we can prose on about the causes of the problem. As with the parlous state of our armed forces, 14 years of Tory incompetence and neglect does it for me, but you might prefer to blame the pandemic or that nice Mr Sir Keir Starmer. Whatever.
What is also true is that vehicles are getting bigger. If you’re one of those blokey blokes who likes to sneer at other people’s driving, you can get yourself hours of free entertainment hanging out in the car park of Henleaze Waitrose any day of the week.
Here you will see assorted People Who Are More Important Than You And Whose Time Is Extremely Valuable trying to manoeuvre their Chelsea Tractors into parking spaces originally designed for Ford Cortinas and Morris 1100s. Certainly nothing bigger than a dodgy 1970s estate agent’s Rover 2000.
As cars grow bigger, so they wax more weighty. Personally I know nothing about electric cars but any fool can see that a vehicle that requires 40,000 AAA batteries* to get from here to Keynsham is going to be way harder on the road surface than your Gran’s Hillman Imp.
So the obvious answer is to slap an additional tax on any electric conveyance heavier than a milk float to pay for the holes to be fixed. Likewise with any 4×4 weighing more than 28 ounces.
But I’ve got a better suggestion.
See, I’m looking to do a piece soon about how the ruffty-tuffty people of Kingswood objected to turnpike roads back in the 18th century (no, this’ll be more fun than it sounds! Lots of sex and violence. Well, violence. No sex actually.) and it seems that in the olden days before proper roads, farmers and poor country folk were obliged by ancient law to repair and maintain the roads in their parishes, each putting in six days work per year.
Seems like a perfectly good idea to me. Look, if you live in Bristol and have enough money to drive, tax, insure and fuel a car, be it with unleaded or the special electric petrol that modern cars require, then you can certainly afford to spend six days each year fixing the damage you’ve caused.
Though I myself will have to apply for a medical exemption as I’ve got a bad back caused by driving over too many potholes.
*I asked the internet how many AAAs you’d need to run a Tesla, and artificial intelligence instantly informed me that it’d have to be 40,000-50,000. Truly, we live in an age of wonders.
Clevedon rail memories
A letter from Bristol Times reader Mr John Merritt of Clevedon in response to our piece (Bristol Times, April 7) about the town’s little railway attraction:
“I was very pleased to learn that the Clevedon Rio Grande has a new operator and will be up and running soon.
“I moved to Clevedon in 1965 and around that time or maybe later the miniature railway was operated by Mr Chivers. It was a steam locomotive. The track was straight, running from the existing loco shed up the miniature golf. The ride was up and reverse down twice. Mr Chivers ran the train in the summer and had a paraffin delivery round in the winter. The track was later extended around the Salthouse Field. Mr Chivers retired and I believe he emigrated.”
Mr Merrit kindly sent us scans of a couple of old postcards of the Clevedon railway, those 1960s/70s ones with the exaggerated colours. Presumably that’s Mr Chivers driving it, though his face is obscured by the smoke(Image: Douglas Merritt)
Don’t forget …
Fresh air. Marvellous stuff. Won’t hear a word against it. Exercise? Marvellous also. I suppose.
Don’t forget that the very wonderful Bristol Walkfest is on for the whole of May, offering a vast range of two-legged adventures, whether seriously strenuous or more gentle, and with loads of guided walks looking at local nature, and history and architecture and such.
Plan your adventures at www.bristolwalkfest.com
Also in the fresh air is the very wonderful May Fair at Arnos Vale Cemetery, what with live entertainment, food and loads of stalls. And all in a very good cause.
It’s this coming Sunday, May 3 from 10am to 3pm. More information at arnosvale.org.uk
Cheers then!