Public-spirited pensioner faces fine for filling in potholes

PA

A pensioner is in trouble with council officials and faces fly-tipping charges for helping children by filling in dangerous potholes.

67-year-old scout leader Roy Farnham began to fill in the craters that include one that's 5ft wide and 18ins deep on a hazardous lane when he became worried that children might hurt themselves on dark evenings.

Town hall officials arrived at the First Lilliput Sea Scouts in Poole, Dorset and warned Farnham against fly-tipping for using gravel and told him that he could be sued if someone fell over the repairs he'd made.

'I'm worried about the safety of the children who use it. A couple of weeks ago a lad on a bike headbutted the wall when his wheel went in one trench,' he told the Daily Express.

'Two men from the council came down and spoke to me. They said: "You put one brick in one hole, we're going to do you for fly-tipping."'

A Highways officer said that repairing the surface would cost 'ridiculous money' in the region of £150,000 and Poole Council insisted it was only liable to maintain the lane as a bridleway.

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