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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Tim Hanlon

Ingenious way dad shames council over huge pothole - using his giant six-foot son

A dad angry at the size of a pothole tried to shame the council into taking action by snapping his six feet tall son standing inside it.

While many Brits are complaining about the number of potholes damaging their cars, one road stands out with the hole six feet deep.

People have fired off letters to complain to councils while others have illegally filled in potholes themselves.

But Aron Cross, 52, was so annoyed by the local authority failing to mend the hole for a whole year that Lewis, 27, stood in it to prove how deep it was.

The glamping boss said he reported the hole in Wycoller, near Pendle, Lancashire, to Lancashire County Council's highways team a year before but no action was taken.

Mr Cross said that the hole is six feet deep (Aron Cross / SWNS.COM)

Council chiefs in 2020 claimed the road is a "country track bordered by a ditch which people who drive in rural areas will be familiar with", reported the Manchester Evening News.

But Mr Cross refuted the claim at the time saying it is an adopted road that was wide enough for a single vehicle and he is amazed it had not been spotted during a recent inspection.

He said: "I think it's important to understand that the county council claim to have inspected this adopted highway, only a couple of weeks ago.

"If someone is walking with a pushchair, they've got no chance because they won't see the hole. A child could easily be killed if they fall down it.

"It is a big hole. My son is about six foot tall. He had to stand on a rock so he could see above it. They still haven't put any physical barriers around it, which I find shocking.

"Obviously, this brings the competence and validity of the inspection in to question and if they failed to see that hole, it is little wonder they missed everything else."

Mr Cross said he was considering legal action over the issue as he and his partner's cars have been damaged by the uneven road surface as well as a protruding tree on the road.

"The hole was reported to the council a year ago and many times since. It is disgraceful," he said. "The duty of care and responsibility remains the same regardless of whatever you decide to call an adopted highway."

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: "This is a country track bordered by a ditch which people who drive in rural areas will be familiar with.

"We maintain it to a safe level, and couldn't find any large holes at the side when it was inspected recently. We will ask Mr Cross for the precise location where the photo was taken so that we can carry out further checks and take action if needed."

In March, the Government announced an extra £200 million of funding for highways maintenance for the financial year 2023-2024, to help address the UK’s pothole problem. This extra funding is in addition to the existing highways maintenance budget.

In a recent list of local authorities with the worst potholes based on allocation of additional funding to repair them, Lancashire comes in at number 10 with Devon first. Lancashire gets an additional £5,122,000 compared to the £9,390,800 that goes to Devon

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