Just 28% satisfied with condition of Manx roads

[Beelzebub3 381]

7 hours ago, Non-Believer said:

A pothole-dedicated team of two DOI workers managed to fill in two holes in one day last week.

Subcontractors' workers working on DOI jobs at various points around the Island are regularly told to "slow down" by their DOI overseers, as their workrate embarrasses that of the DOI's own staff.

Both of the above accounts from one of those subbie workers in the past 3 days.

That is absolute bollocks! The lower  management at Ellerslie have been crying out to get subbies in to help with the backlog, The higher managers at DOI were paying £10,000 a week for consultants to tell them where they were going wrong! they already knew what was wrong, no fucking staff at the coalface was the problem, but a certain manager would not entertain that and said repeatedly that there was enough resource to carry out the maintenance, bearing in mind that the workforce has dropped from 290 to 62 and most of the staff were employed were given new roles to carry out without them having a clue how to carry out the roles, ie a person employed to cut grass/hedges etc was redeployed to carry out patching while it is not rocket science to carry out tarmacing you need to know what you are doing,  Roadmarking was another task that had a load of inexperienced resource fired at it, that is all well and good if the staff can can carry out the task, if not that is wasted resource as they will be getting paid for nothing as they are incapable of doing it correctly and safety. I could name a load of tasks that the staff were trained to do but that has now been outsourced to the Parish commissioners. The DOI has been destroyed by incompetent management and it is not only at the Sea Terminal.

[Non-Believer 12,489]

4 minutes ago, Beelzebub3 said:

That is absolute bollocks! The lower  management at Ellerslie have been crying out to get subbies in to help with the backlog, The higher managers at DOI were paying £10,000 a week for consultants to tell them where they were going wrong! they already knew what was wrong, no fucking staff at the coalface was the problem, but a certain manager would not entertain that and said repeatedly that there was enough resource to carry out the maintenance, bearing in mind that the workforce has dropped from 290 to 62 and most of the staff were employed were given new roles to carry out without them having a clue how to carry out the roles, ie a person employed to cut grass/hedges etc was redeployed to carry out patching while it is not rocket science to carry out tarmacing you need to know what you are doing,  Roadmarking was another task that had a load of inexperienced resource fired at it, that is all well and good if the staff can can carry out the task, if not that is wasted resource as they will be getting paid for nothing as they are incapable of doing it correctly and safety. I could name a load of tasks that the staff were trained to do but that has now been outsourced to the Parish commissioners. The DOI has been destroyed by incompetent management and it is not only at the Sea Terminal.

With respect, it's not bollocks. I was told this by one of the subbies seconded to this DOI pothole team. Two potholes slap-filled with road repair in a working day and the rest of that day spent parked up or aimlessly driving around. Contractor's men on other projects have been told to slow down. They were clearing jobs in two weeks that were taking DOI five and were told it was in their own interests to stretch the jobs out.

It boils down to weak management more interested in hiding in their offices than in engaging in what needs to be done.

[Beelzebub3 381]

18 minutes ago, Non-Believer said:

With respect, it's not bollocks. I was told this by one of the subbies seconded to this DOI pothole team. Two potholes slap-filled with road repair in a working day and the rest of that day spent parked up or aimlessly driving around. Contractor's men on other projects have been told to slow down. They were clearing jobs in two weeks that were taking DOI five and were told it was in their own interests to stretch the jobs out.

It boils down to weak management more interested in hiding in their offices than in engaging in what needs to be done.

I think I explained that was the problem, however, I would say that what you were told was untrue and the subbies would only be in contact with lower management and I cannot believe that they would encourage anyone to slow down, although a lot of subbies that are employed by Government are not in any rush to carry out a task and who would blame them if there is a unwillingness by management to let them do little or as much as they please. The DOI have a culture of not doing things very quickly, although I would imagine that will be about to change in the near future.

[asitis 5,495]

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/covid-disruption-may-have-led-to-drop-in-roads-satisfaction/

FFS

[ellanvannin2010 517]

1 hour ago, asitis said:

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/covid-disruption-may-have-led-to-drop-in-roads-satisfaction/

FFS

I filled one of these in and was one of the 72%. I think it was in June so Covid will have had SFA to do with their shit performance.

It was an appalling survey that is clearly designed for another country as it kept referring to my local council, they could not even be arsed to change the text for the IOM.

You got leading questions as usual of the type do you think the amount spent on cyclists is satisfactory, so if you put no there was no option to say the spend is too much or too little.

I am surprised they got 28% approval to be honest

 

[Happier diner 407]

I think the roads here are good. Sure no one likes a pothole, but to have non is just too expensive an aspiration. If I report one they usually get fixed. Some don't last long (Somerset rd) but I think that's because the road needs more serious attention.

[forestboy 692]

8 minutes ago, Happier diner said:

I think the roads here are good. Sure no one likes a pothole, but to have non is just too expensive an aspiration. If I report one they usually get fixed. Some don't last long (Somerset rd) but I think that's because the road needs more serious attention.

They had a wagon with machine on the Silverburn Estate a week or two ago working on potholes using some sort of bitumen and chippings.  Chippings have now all worked out and potholes returned.  Complete waste of money.  Even had a road sweeper clearing the chippings last week  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Roger Mexico 9,345]

6 hours ago, Non-Believer said:

Incidentally, has anybody ever been asked to participate in one of these surveys either on a household or business expenditure basis?

These ones have a fairly standard format and methodology, which their great advantage.  According to the local highlights report:

Isle of Man has taken part in the NHT Survey three times and is one of the 109 authorities across the UK to take part in the survey this year. The survey was sent to 3,300 households across the authority area and 624 members of the public responded, including 93 on-line. This represents an overall response rate of 18.9% compared with the national average of 23.8%.

They are also processed off Island and the reports produced there.  So at least it's not the usual 'Mark your own homework' situation that the civil service love.

It's also interesting to compare the Island with how local authorities in the UK do.  When you consider that they have been starved of resources for a very long time while the DoI has had endless money thrown at it for the same period, it's telling that the DoI don't do that much better (or often worse than average).

And the only measure that satisfaction on the Island increased this year on was Rights of Way.  By 1 percentage point.

[Kopek 2,093]

Tim missed the obvious response of the low turnout? The majority who did not respond are obviously 'Happy' with our roads!!!

[TheTeapot 9,779]

Pretty damning referendum on the Director of Highways. Sack the prick.

[ellanvannin2010 517]

29 minutes ago, Kopek said:

Tim missed the obvious response of the low turnout? The majority who did not respond are obviously 'Happy' with our roads!!!

At least he did not blame that pesky gas main on the prom

[Kopek 2,093]

Not really Teapot, most problems predate Timmy, also, these problems on the Prom were perfectly predictable, major project, major problems?

Tims excuse of lockdown is silly, during lockdown we were not allowed on the roads, how could we complain?

[TheTeapot 9,779]

1 minute ago, Kopek said:

Not really Teapot, most problems predate Timmy, also, these problems on the Prom were perfectly predictable, major project, major problems?

Tims excuse of lockdown is silly, during lockdown we were not allowed on the roads, how could we complain?

Tim Baker isn't the Director of Highways. That is Mr Jeff Robinson, and he is completely inept.

[Kopek 2,093]

Poss!

[the stinking enigma 11,144]

We'd be better off hiring Heath Robinson instead.