I have always believed that speed cushions are an ineffective means of ‘kerbing’ speeding motorists although I agree the vast majority of careful drivers do comply by slowing down when traversing them. This belief is based on daily observations of the traffic flow on my road, where it is clear that the really dangerous drivers (usually, but not exclusively, youngsters) totally disregard the cushions and seem oblivious to the damage they can inflict on their tyres, suspension and steering mechanisms. However, the physical condition of speed cushions rapidly deteriorates and the local council do not maintain them properly as the attached photos show. What should be smooth convex edges have become concave hollowed-out craters. It is not hard to imagine the damage these jagged edges are inflicting on tyres (usually the inside edges, not easy to see). Consequently, the safety of even law abiding motorists is being put in jeopardy. I have complained to my local council about this, but only a token response was obtained, with only some of the cushions being repaired. As you can see, even these repairs were of a very slipshod standard with really amateurish attempts to plug holes and cracks, rather than re-build them to specification. Apart from posing the question of their legality, this seems to carry the message that councils just don’t care about our safety. This is what annoys me. Councils impose these cushions on us supposedly as a means of improving road safety, but then can’t be bothered to maintain them in the standard to which they were built. In short, speed cushions are at best ineffective, at worst dangerous and mainly serve to frustrate the and damage the cars of the vast majority of road users.