A huge hole that was in the middle of the tarmac at the top of Tanhouse Road and Bodmin Hill in Lostwithiel gave the citizens of Cornwall a hard time. They tried to the avoid the area at all cost until one day someone decided to fill it with concrete.

According to the officials of the Cornwall Council, the road’s surface had deteriorated because of an ongoing kerfuffle with drainage. As a result, the road was closed at the beginning of April, 2023.

The issue went on, and even after a month of not doing anything for the huge hole and the inaccessibility of the road, an anonymous motorist decided to take matters into his own hands and filled it in with concrete during a weekend in May.

Thanks to this person the road reopened but it didn’t last long because the Cornwall Council’s road repair company, Cormac, decided to close the road again with an explanation that it wasn’t their team that did the repairs officially.

The chiefs of Cornwall Highways are trying to track down the person who fixed the road because he took off the signs and filled the hole with concrete without consent.

Officials informed the public that the road would be closed in the month that followed, or until they catch up with the backlog of pothole repairs.

“If information regarding who carried out the works becomes known in the community, I would be grateful if details could be shared.” The Cornwall councilor for Lanreath and Lostwithiel, Colin Martin, said and added that this pothole was the “perfect metaphor for the way that the entire public sector is crumbling due to under-investment.”

Further, Mr. Martin stated, “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.”

This isn’t the first time ordinary citizens to take matters into their own hands when the councils are not able to provide for the community.

Back in 2017, a citizen from Toronto built a new set of park stairs for the community garden and spent $550 for the entire project after the city council informed the public that such a project would cost about $65,000 to $150,000.