RG5

Woodley, on its own

One town to a postcode. Woodley is a straightforward district and the work in it is steady rather than dramatic.

This is a place built mostly in one stretch of the last century, and it shows in the road layout — long straight avenues, wide grass verges and cars parked half on them. Parking on a verge is where the trouble starts: a soft edge, a hidden drain cover, and a rim that comes back with a flat spot. The precinct car parks turn over all day and produce the usual returning-shopper flat. On the older estates a lot of tyres are old rather than worn, and perished sidewalls crack from the inside where nobody looks.

Tyre older than six years with cracks in the sidewall? We will say if it is unsafe rather than patch it and leave.