Grotton residents have finally seen repairs completed on a collapsed section of road on the junction of Thornley Park Road and Station Lane, after local resident David Sawford and councillor Sam Al-Hamdani got together to highlight how long the works had been ignored.
Three months after the works had been started, leaving a major hole in the road, nothing had happened, with United Utilities and Cadent Gas saying that the collapsed section of road had nothing to do with them, but no-one else picking up the baton.
Finally, after they went to the press with the issue, the Council did pick it up, and within days the works had been completed.
Local Liberal Democrat Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani said: “I’m glad that – finally – when the right person at the Council got hold of it, they managed to get the repairs sorted really quickly.
“There’s a real issue with all kinds of problems that seem to fall between different organisations or people, whether that is highways, the utilities companies, the Environment Agency or even individual landowners.
“Really all anyone wants is for the problem to be fixed, but all too often, works are getting stuck between people saying that it’s not their problem.
“In this case, the Council have got the work done – and if they can prove that the problem was caused by one of the utilities companies, then they will have to pick up the bill for that.
“It’s immensely frustrating that it took this long to get to that point. I think it’s crucial that everyone remembers that the most important thing is to fix people’s problems. The longer that organisations spend arguing over responsibility, the longer the annoyance for people. Let’s just get things done.”
