Hi i'm in the stockport area, and i'm having the same problems. After phoning up ntl several times, we(me and some guys at ntl) decided my area is on an overloaded upstream(or something).
So one of the senior people told me how the network system works.
When capacity reaches 80% it is flagged up as a problem on their system, once this happens a few times the people on the network side of ntl put a plan together to resolve the issue. He told me theres 2 things they do:
1. Just split the cable in the area so it can cope with capacity.
(takes about 2 weeks)
2. Put a new switch in or something which could affect all of britains network.
(takes about 2 months, if they decide thats a good idea which they would hesitate to do)
But at the end of the day mines been like this for over a month, i'm on spc1-asht1-3-0-cust51.bagu.broadband.ntl.com. I've phoned up 4 times, aparently they did 'maintenance' in my area but i notice a half decent ping for 1 day and it went back up.
Also i've been told mines been flagged up a few times on their system but i think the guy on the phone was lying because he was a cock.
So its just a matter of waiting
Also, the lag is only meant to be at peak times, ie when people are at home but mines just all the time now, its a bit of a joke.
Pinging
www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.224.82] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 212.58.224.82: bytes=32 time=109ms TTL=245
Reply from 212.58.224.82: bytes=32 time=72ms TTL=245
Reply from 212.58.224.82: bytes=32 time=32ms TTL=245
Reply from 212.58.224.82: bytes=32 time=106ms TTL=245
Ping statistics for 212.58.224.82:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 32ms, Maximum = 109ms, Average = 79ms