Woman's anger at repair delay (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Woman's anger at repair delay

A RESIDENT of Little Compton has accused the highways authority of failing to act quickly enough to repair a collapsed manhole on the busy A44.

Louise Gill, whose house is alongside the road which runs between Chipping Norton and Moreton, contacted Warwickshire County Council when she returned home from work on Friday, February 6.

"I warned them that the drain had been clonking and all the road around it was caving in. You could see it was really dangerous," said Mrs Gill, who works at Shipston High School.

She said she was told her message would be passed on and someone would come out as soon as possible.

However, when she returned from work on Monday - 72 hours later - nothing had been done about the drain, which by then was in an even more dangerous state.

"I was worried about it. The drain was dropping in. The hole was about 2ft square and about 6ft deep. If a motorbike had hit it then I dread to think what would have happened," said Mrs Gill.

Her husband, Andy, eventually had to go and stop the traffic, while she called the police.

The police put signs around the hole and summoned an emergency team from the council.

"I'm not very impressed with the council's response. I did say to the woman who answered the phone that it could be very dangerous," said Mrs Gill.

Warwickshire County Council area superintendent Fred Yarwood said the problem was a collapsed sewer manhole lid.

"It's the responsibility of Thames Water in Reading and they have come out and fixed it," said Mr Yarwood, who acknowledged that the hole was dangerous.

"We don't work Saturday but we do have an emergency call out system. I didn't know anything about it until Monday morning," he added.