Council half-fills potholes

Potholes along a West Midlands street have only been partially filled in by highways workers - because the council only owns half the land they stretch across.

Baffled traders watched in amazement as Walsall highways workers started filling in problem potholes outside their shops in Bloxwich, only to stop half way through the job.

Council chiefs said the small patch of land next to the pavement belongs to Walsall Housing Group (WHG) and that their maintenance workers are not allowed to carry out work on private land.



But business owners who have waited years for potholes in the street to be filled in have branded the partial repair of the craters, some measuring about two-foot wide, a "ridiculous waste of money".

Keith Clarke, who runs M&C butchers in the road, said: "I've never seen anything like it in my life. We've been asking for the potholes to be filled in for some time now.

"When they came to fix them, they drew white lines along the side of the pavement through the middle of some of the holes. Then they only filled in half the holes and when we asked, they said their department was not responsible for the other half. It's ridiculous."

There's a video here.