{"id":371243,"date":"2026-04-09T13:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/371243\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T13:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:21:13","slug":"far-north-pothole-sparks-calls-for-urgent-safety-fix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/371243\/","title":{"rendered":"Far North pothole sparks calls for urgent safety fix"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSomething has got to be done about this thing. <\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it\u2019s on a straight, everyone\u2019s doing 90 to 100km\/h. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a ramp \u2013 you go into it and it flicks you out.\u201d <\/p>\n

Trimble said he had phoned the Far North District Council<\/a> (FNDC) several times about the piece of road, and \u201cnothing had been done\u201d. <\/p>\n

After contacting the Northern Advocate, Trimble saw that council contractors had attended the site last Tuesday and filled it in. <\/p>\n

However, Trimble said the repair job was \u201ca weak attempt\u201d. <\/p>\n

FNDC corporate services group manager Charlie Billington said the council was aware of the need to repair a section of Waiare Rd in \u014ckaihau. <\/p>\n

A full repair has been scheduled for April, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTemporary levelling was completed on March 30, and extra warning signs installed. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe encourage the public to report any road defects so they can be addressed.\u201d <\/p>\n

Potholes are the bane of Northlanders\u2019 lives<\/a>, causing damage to vehicles, including tyres and rims, and the need for more frequent wheel alignments. <\/p>\n

Kerikeri resident John Baird even started the Facebook group, Northland Potholes<\/a>, in 2022 so motorists could highlight the locations of hazardous potholes for the safety of other road users. <\/p>\n

The group now has nearly 5000 members. <\/p>\n

Baird said he hadn\u2019t heard about the \u014ckaihau pothole.<\/p>\n

However, recent bouts of bad weather across the region had seen roads \u201chold up reasonably well\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Councils and the NZ Transport Agency were \u201cmore responsive now\u201d to damaged roads, and acted faster to make repairs, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s cumulative from here as we go through winter and get these storms coming through. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be potholes; assume a puddle will be a pothole and avoid it. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven when they\u2019re fixing them on the highways, you can still get caught out.\u201d <\/p>\n

Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cSomething has got to be done about this thing. \u201cBecause it\u2019s on a straight, everyone\u2019s doing 90 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1081,17094,9218,115,528,28164,3597,2082,302,10919,3302,11692,111,43,139,529,1067,69,2847,3111,194131,6302,1238,8207,194132,19554,684,2044,23857,25444],"class_list":{"0":"post-371243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-accident","9":"tag-avoid","10":"tag-before","11":"tag-calls","12":"tag-far","13":"tag-fears","14":"tag-fix","15":"tag-for","16":"tag-its","17":"tag-logging","18":"tag-matter","19":"tag-nearly","20":"tag-new-zealand","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-newzealand","23":"tag-north","24":"tag-northland","25":"tag-nz","26":"tag-only","27":"tag-out","28":"tag-pothole","29":"tag-safety","30":"tag-serious","31":"tag-sparks","32":"tag-swerving","33":"tag-taken","34":"tag-there","35":"tag-time","36":"tag-truck","37":"tag-urgent"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}