Pothole repaired by fed-up driver but council closes road as it wasn’t official

A hunt is on to find a phantom pothole filler who appears to be doing the council’s job for them.

The pothole in question was a rather large crater in Lostwithiel, Cornwall, that was so big the road had to be closed to drivers.

Cornwall Council has kept it shut since the beginning of April while its roads repair company Cormac deal with more pressing potholes.

But the mysterious do-gooder got fed up of waiting and unofficially opened the road after filling the hole themselves.

Town hall bosses took offence at the unsanctioned act and closed the road a second time.

It’s set to stay shut until June 9 when the council will hopefully have repaired it.

Councillor Colin Martin said the whole farce was a ‘perfect metaphor’ for the crumbling and underinvested public sector.

‘Over the past two years, the Conservatives running Cornwall council have cut the budget for road resurfacing and proactive maintenance,’ he said.

‘As a result of this short-sighted decision, potholes are now appearing across Cornwall faster than Cormac can fill them in.

‘The government has now provided extra funding to tackle the backlog, but there’s only so much work each person can do in a day, so bigger jobs like this one in Lostwithiel are being put onto an ever-growing waiting list.

‘The overall result is that taxes remain high, no real savings are made, and the state of our roads has never been worse.’

A manager with Cornwall Highways confirmed the ‘repair’ was not carried out by their teams.