Cornwall has a phantom pothole-filler

The council's looking into it

A phantom pothole filler, frustrated that work to repair a crater on a road in Cornwall has not been done by the council, has taken the law into their own hands and filled it with concrete. The “volunteer” in Lostwithiel decided to “repair” the road which has been closed since the beginning of April.

The top of Tanhouse Road / Bodmin Hill was temporarily opened unofficially after the mystery resident repaired the large hole last weekend. However, Cornwall Council’s roads repair company Cormac has now closed the road again and doesn’t intend properly repairing it until they’ve caught up with a backlog of pothole repairs across Cornwall.

Colin Martin, Cornwall councillor for Lostwithiel and Lanreath, visited the road – which is now due to remain closed until June 9 – and said this week: “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.

“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. The Government has now provided extra funding to tackle the backlog, but there’s only so much work each person can do in a day, so bigger jobs like this one in Lostwithiel are being put onto an ever-growing waiting list. The overall result is that taxes remain high, no real savings are made, and the state of our roads has never been worse.”

Cllr Martin added that the Lostwithiel pothole was “a perfect metaphor for the way that the entire public sector is crumbling due to underinvestment”.

In correspondence concerning the unofficial “repair”, a manager with Cornwall Highways said: “Any work carried over the weekend was not carried out by our team at Cornwall Highways, and therefore we assume that works carried out to the highway surface, and any removal of the road closure signs and associated temporary infrastructure was done so by persons unknown, without consent. If information regarding who carried out the works becomes known in the community, I would be grateful if details could be shared.

“The road closure signs have been put back in place since being made aware of the situation, and arrangements will be made for the rest of the traffic management to be put back in place. At the present time, we have a significant backlog of pothole defects across the network and our resource is allocated to this as a priority over other planned works. The work at Tanhouse Road will be scheduled when the situation eases.”

Speaking at a Cornwall Council cabinet meeting this week, Connor Donnithorne – portfolio holder for transport – said the council had received an additional £5m from the Government towards its “pothole fund” adding to a £12m spend on mending potholes and other road repairs in Cornwall each year. Fellow cabinet members commented how Cornwall’s roads compare favourably with other areas of the country.

A spokesperson for Cornwall Council said: “There is an ongoing issue with drainage at this site which has led to the deterioration of the road surface. These drainage issues have meant that any surface repairs during the winter have been temporary. As we are now moving into warmer and drier weather, Cormac can programme in the permanent drainage and surfacing repairs needed at this site. The road is now closed and will remain so until this work can be carried out.”