In Cornwall, England, where potholes seem to multiply overnight, one anonymous hero (or perhaps a rogue vigilante?) decided they had enough of swerving and dodging craters on their commute. Picture this: a giant pothole on Tanhouse Road and Bodmin Hill in Lostwithiel, becoming a gaping maw that threatened to swallow your tires whole. But fear not!
Our mystery motorist, armed with sheer willpower and a can-do attitude, took concrete action—quite literally. They filled the pothole with cement and temporarily transformed the treacherous hazard into a smooth, navigable surface. Sounds like a win, right? Well, not so fast…
This admirable, though technically unauthorized, DIY endeavor set off a chain reaction of events, leading to a showdown with the local authorities. Enter Cornwall Council and the road repair company Cormac. The scene: A road officially closed since the beginning of April due to drainage woes. Government response? Crickets. But come early May, the bold motorist had reopened the road, only for it to be promptly shut down again by Cormac, who declared their professional touch was necessary for the repairs.
Now, Cornwall Highways are on the case, hunting for the elusive road repair renegade. The call is out to the community to provide any intel on our unofficial road fixer. Meanwhile, Colin Martin, the Cornwall councilor for Lanreath and Lostwithiel, chimes in, using the pothole fiasco as a metaphor for the broader neglect in public infrastructure, thanks to underinvestment.
Mr. Martin explains that the road closure will persist until Cormac rolls up their sleeves and gets to work, which might not happen anytime soon. Why? Because Cormac’s team is currently tied up tackling smaller potholes peppered across Cornwall’s open roads—think Whac-A-Mole but less fun.
He didn’t pull any punches, laying the blame for the shoddy state of the roads at the feet of the Conservatives running Cornwall Council, citing budget cuts that have left the county pockmarked like a lunar surface. More potholes? More problems!
And if this tale of civic duty gone rogue sounds familiar, you’re onto something. It harkens back to 2017 in Toronto, where a local resident famously built a set of stairs for a community garden at a fraction of the city’s sky-high cost estimate. Spoiler alert: The city’s reaction was less than enthusiastic—find out the juicy details in the next part.
So, what’s the moral of our pothole drama? There’s a fine line between doing good and going rogue. While our incognito pothole hero might have won some applause from fellow drivers, they also stirred up a storm with the authorities, sparking debates over public service efficacy and the proper channels for change. Should more citizens rise to the challenge, or is this a unique case of impromptu heroism better left in the hands of professionals?
Whatever side of the road you land on, this saga is a nod to the lengths people will go when patience runs thin, and wheels start spinning. Maybe, just maybe, it’s also a reminder to keep a cement mixer handy—you never know when you might encounter a pothole in need of a hero.
