Highway officials searching for mystery motorist who filled huge pothole with concrete
Officials in Cornwall are hunting for a mystery motorist who took matters into their own hands and filled up a huge pothole that had left a road closed for weeks.
Brits will know our roads aren't always the smoothest, but locals had been forced to avoid the area at the top of Tanhouse Road and Bodmin Hill in Lostwithiel, Cornwall altogether due to a massive hole in the tarmac.
The road was officially closed at the start of April, with a spokesperson for Cornwall Council blaming an ongoing drainage issue for causing the road surface to deteriorate.
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After a month with no movement, one unidentified person got sick of the hole and decided to fill it with concrete themselves over the first weekend in May.
The DIY repair worked for a bit and the road was reopened temporarily, but Cornwall Council's roads repair company Cormac has now closed the road again because the work wasn't carried out 'officially' by their team.
Cornwall Highways chiefs are now on the hunt to find the person responsible, saying the work had been done by 'persons unknown', who had removed the road closure signs 'without consent'.
Cormac has said the road is set to remain closed until 9 June while it catches up with a backlog of pothole repairs.
A manager with Cornwall Highways added: “If information regarding who carried out the works becomes known in the community, I would be grateful if details could be shared.”
Colin Martin, Cornwall councillor for Lostwithiel and Lanreath, described the pothole as 'a perfect metaphor for the way that the entire public sector is crumbling due to underinvestment'.
“The latest is that the road has been closed again and will remain closed until it is 'properly' repaired by Cormac, but they say this could be weeks away as all available teams have been diverted to filling smaller potholes on roads which are still open,” he told Cornwall Live.
“Over the past two years, the Conservatives running Cornwall Council have cut the budget for road resurfacing and proactive maintenance. As a result of this short-sighted decision, potholes are now appearing across Cornwall faster than Cormac can fill them in."
A spokesperson for the council said that Cormac will be able to implement 'the permanent drainage and surfacing repairs needed' at the site now we are 'moving into warmer and drier weather'.
Emily Brown