gil
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cut off by landslipAt the start of December, in the heavy rain, a serious landslip closed the road from our scattered rural community to the nearest town. Diversions round the small back roads (some single track) were put in place, either longer in distance, or in terms of time. The road is closed officially for a minimum of 6months, though it is apparently likely to be at least a year till sorted, and no work will start till next April at the earliest.
The back roads (and I mean back roads) are treacherous - I went off the road in fog last night, and someone else rolled their car last week. Deliveries of feed, oil, etc are a problem, as is getting livestock to the mart. Post is disrupted, so is school bus.
Although less than 10 miles from town, we feel cut off.
How long till we can complain, and who to ?
Any other communities found themselves in a similar situation ?
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Snowball
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Sorry to hear of your prediament gil.
I would have thought that your local council have a duty of care to at least keep you safe.
I would start complaining now.
Try your local councillor or the Chief executive of the council.
Please go very carefully.
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gil
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Thanks, Snowball. I think the first thing we need to do is to get the council to agree to amend their road gritting policy to cope with the changed routes. At least the (closed) B-road was gritted fairly quickly. C and U roads (all we have left at present) are never gritted. This needs to be amended NOW before winter really sets in.
I'll tackle our local councillor on that one.
The council are trying, but the farmer who owns land across the road from the landslip has refused to sell them a strip of land that would enable them to move a new road over a bit away from the gully the existing road has fallen into.
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mrutty
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| Snowball wrote: | | I would have thought that your local council have a duty of care to at least keep you safe. |
You're 100% right.
We had a fight because the brook at the bottom of the road keeps flooding due to all the new houses pushing their rain water into it (it's had the effect of making next doors house a flood plain  ). The council (if they are like ours) will fight you because you're going to cost them money but they do have a legal duty of care. In our case they were so bad at it (bad in Swindon  No there's a suprise) that the Enviromental Agency removed a large number of waterways from their control under some emergency power thing. I assume the same will be of roads (but that it would be the Roads Agency that would do it).
Also worth nagging any local parish councils and any council that is impacted by the route change.
Good luck with the fight.
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Leonie
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drive carefully in this foggy weather gil, doesn't sound like much fun the predicament you're in.
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MarkS
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probably county council highways dept. who are responsible. Problem is that many of them now outsource too much so tenders/consultation/ tea drinking for ages before anything gets done.
I would be strongly making the point that there have been several accidents.
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Behemoth
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Local Councillor.
Council Chief Exec.
Departmental Head.
Local MP.
Local Media.
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Mrs Fiddlesticks
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Is there a local bus company or other local businesses that can also lobby ( loss of trade etc) that sort of thing makes good local headlines and can embarrass councils in to action.
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boisdevie1
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Use the media. It's amazing how fast the powers that be can move once their incompetence is highlighted by the media. Once upon a time I wanted to see a report on sea pollution and the county council said no. So I said OK I'll tell the media about this and guess what happened next - I got a copy of the report.
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Silas
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Just where are the anti 4x4 brigade now..................
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doctoral
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 There are now 166 mentions of 'Swindon' on the Downsizer site, but Oldham is only mentioned 8 times - surely this has to mean something ???
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dpack
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ay up hope you get sorted ,id put the media at the top of the list 
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mrutty
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| doctoral wrote: | | There are now 166 mentions of 'Swindon' on the Downsizer site, but Oldham is only mentioned 8 times - surely this has to mean something ??? |
I think you'll find Swindon is covered a few more times than that 
Swindon Swindon Swindon Swindon Swindon Swindon Swindon Swindon Swindon Swindon Swindon Swindon Swindon Swindon
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gil
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re gritting : the Council seem to have got their act together, and have mobilised a mini-gritter to cope with the two back routes that are official diversions. It has to be a mini-gritter as there are pack-horse-type bridges with 7.5t weight restrictions and sharp bends on both roads. And they've been using it !
S'pose we're getting used to it  . Does make one think before making any journeys.
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RichardW
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| gil wrote: |
The council are trying, but the farmer who owns land across the road from the landslip has refused to sell them a strip of land that would enable them to move a new road over a bit away from the gully the existing road has fallen into. |
They can force him to sell at a price THEY like.
Justme
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gil
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They didn't force a land sale, so major works started in May. Gully area had to be clear-felled first, then excavated, then a badger sett was found so conservation work was done. Burn has been piped; gully not yet filled in.
A few weeks ago, milk tanker collided with a car on the low road diversion : accident waiting to happen.
I am totally fed up of this. Adds miles and time to any journey. Wet weather has not helped Council get the job done. It has also tended to stop folk from outside the area coming to events at the parish hall.
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Bebo
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Local Authorities can only acquire land for road by going through the Compulsory Purchase procedure. From past experience dealing with the Highways Agency this takes a minimum of two years as it involves a Public Inquiry and there has to be proper justification of the need for the land.
Even though they are taking their time at the moment the way they are doing it is still likely to be quicker.
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gil
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The road finally reopened last weekend. What a difference to journey times and distances ! But I found some good foraging spots on the diversion back roads while it was closed, so some positive outcomes.
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marigold
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That must be a relief, but good news about the new foraging sites. Every cloud blah blah 
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Treacodactyl
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Good news. Have they done a good job or is it likely to cause more problems in future?
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dpack
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sorting rural transport is important im glad you are reconnected to the outside
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gil
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| Treacodactyl wrote: | | Good news. Have they done a good job or is it likely to cause more problems in future? |
Depends on the volume / nature of future traffic. If there are, as was previously the case, large numbers of double-sized timber wagons and quarry tippers, I have no idea how long the new road will last. They were a significant contributory factor to the landslip. One would hope that the Council had factored this into the new design, but might suspect not because of the usual pressure to make short-term cost-savings. The carriageway itself does not appear significantly wider, and the edge is now even closer to the sheer drop into the gully (which has not been filled in - no idea whether this is still planned), albeit with crash barriers.
This was a very quiet road until recently when it became a main route for timber extraction traffic (trees planted in 70s now ready for harvest), and since FMD in 2001, when the quarry expanded. Once the timber is out, there will be no need for a road to cope with the wagons for a further 30 years. Once the quarry is exhausted, that's it too.
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