Although annoying, it's cost effective and does actually work to prevent the road degrading further. However I agree, when it's freshly done and the dressing stones are bedding in, it's a complete nightmare. I tend to make a mental note of roads which have it done, and try to avoid them for as long as I can. Seems like it can take months before it's fully bedded in sometimes.
That said, when it has bedded in, it does seem to leave a fairly decent surface for rural roads and prevents the complete break up of the pavement. So there is that I guess.
I pay a tax which allows me to use my vehicle on the road, doesn't really matter what it's called
It kind of does when you're using it to imply that paying/not paying that tax somehow gives someone more or less right to use the road, or more or less right to complain about their upkeep.
Calling it "road tax" might make basic sense when you consider that it's a tax to take a vehicle on the road, and I don't really have a problem calling it that colloquially. But using that to assert that anyone who doesn't pay "road tax" specifically, doesn't have the right to complain road road upkeep is absurd when, as has been pointed out, they do pay by the virtue of paying council tax. It's a similar attitude which leads to moronic observations in every motorist vs. cyclist debate where people try to use the fact that paying "road tax" somehow gives them more "right" or priority to use the road over anyone else. It doesn't, and it's a bit of a dangerous attitude in my opinion.
