Britain’s most notorious pothole, which was so bad it got filled in with concrete by a ‘hero vigilante’ has finally been repaired three months after council bosses closed it.
The 10ft-wide crater in Lostwithiel, Cornwall, caused months of chaos and road closures before the unnamed man did his own DIY repairs on it during the Coronation in May.
But instead of thanking him, furious bosses from Cornwall Highways said the work had been done ‘without consent’ and launched a manhunt for him, urging the local community to identify him.
Now they have finally fixed the pothole and reopened the road almost a month earlier than planned, to the relief of locals.
And the mystery pothole vigilante joked: ‘They should have asked me to cut a ribbon to reopen the road’.
A ‘hero vigilante’ fixed Britain’s biggest pothole without council bosses permission
The vigilante filled in the notorous during the Coronation in May
READ MORE: Man fills pothole himself after becoming fed up while waiting for the council to do it
The council had blamed the delay on the need to install drainage to solve an ongoing flooding problem, but when workers arrived last week they discovered drains were already present but were just blocked – meaning repairs could have been carried out much quicker.
Counsellor Colin Martin said: ‘I am extremely frustrated to hear from the workers that all the underground drainage pipes required to prevent further damage were in fact already in place but were not working correctly because the gully a few metres away had been so badly neglected that the entire system had become clogged.
‘I will be asking the Council to declare how many thousands of pounds of taxpayer’s money has been spent on repeatedly resurfacing this road, and how much was saved by not regularly cleaning the gullies and jetting the pipes.’
The vigilante spent £1,000 hiring diggers and mixers and buying materials to fill the hole and worked for seven hours on May 6 to carry out the repairs.
Speaking to MailOnline, he said: ‘It’s sad we had to embarrass the council into fixing it quicker than they were going to. Why did we have to wait three months for a simple road repair?
Council bosses were furious over the vigilante’s decision to fill the pothole without consent
The ‘vigilante hero’ filled Britain’s most biggest pothole (pictured) on his own initiative
‘I don’t understand why they needed to close the road again after we fixed the pothole. I think the council should learn a lesson from this.
‘A couple of people seem to be claiming credit but I think people know it was me – I’ve had people come up to me and say ‘well done’ or ‘thank you’.
‘I use this lane all the time – lots of people around here do – and this road saves a four or five mile detour so reopening it will have definitely helped the environment too.
‘But I wouldn’t do it again in the same scenario – it opened up a can of works for me. I wasn’t worried about the council, I was more concerned locals wouldn’t be happy with it.’
The pothole was discovered in late March and the road closed since early April. It was finally reopened on Friday.
Locals blasted council chiefs for the three-month delay, which forced traffic onto smaller single lane roads.
Jan Williams, 75, who lives on a tiny lane nearby and said she was nearly run over by a van as the closure sent a tenfold increase in traffic past her house said: ‘We finally have our peace and quiet back, it was like a race track up here.
‘They nearly hit my 95-year-old dad when he was cutting the grass by the gate. On another occasion I was standing in the lane picking weeds and I felt the wing mirror of a van brush past my head, it’s a miracle somebody wasn’t killed or seriously injured.
The foot wide crater caused months of chaos in Lostwithiel, Cornwall
The huge pothole was fixed by a vigilante in May before being reopened by the council
‘Good on the man who fixed it, if I’d known he was doing it I’d have gone up and helped him. It is disgusting how we have been left at risk for three months, we pay £279 per month in council tax and what do we get for it? Nothing.’
Richard Williams, 49, added: ‘Whoever did it wants a bloody big pat on the back. What a legend. I’m pleased somebody pulled their finger out but it’s sad it had to come to this.
‘I think the council is a waste of space. It’s ridiculous for that tiny patch that could’ve been done in a week to take three months. And they are asking us to turn in the only person who is helping locals.
‘The road wasn’t supposed to reopen until the end of June but the council has been shamed into acting sooner.’