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That is correct.

You can actually sometimes tell when you drive out of a London borough with good maintenance (Richmond) into one that is crap (Hounslow for example) without even looking at the signs...

It's similar for Scotland's rural routes. Some councils don't have the funding to maintaining their roads properly, so they focus on the important roads. It can be quite jarring crossing from one area to another.

Roads are split I think in terms of this with larger roads centrally managed, And I think paid for.

In England and Wales the Highways Agency manage and maintain what they term the "strategic road network" - basically the motorways and main A roads (map [1]) - and this is funded by central government. Other roads are the responsibility of local government. I don't know how it works in Scotland.

[1] http://www.highways.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Highwa...

the problem is the idea that one is special for some reason, and one is entitled to more of something because of that reason.