They seem to be saying there was a major power failure at Three Bridges, which broke everything.
Sussex/Kent did get absolutely battered by wind and rain last night, so they may well be related!
See, it was a mistake upgrading to this new fangled electric signals. Bring back mechanical signals and men in signal boxes I say!
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The local county council have confirmed that they’re raising council tax by the maximum they can without a vote: 5%
Meanwhile I’ve just paid over £400 to repair pothole damage to my car caused on a busy road that’s been neglected for years because (seemingly) no councillor lives on it.
Claim the money back. Just start quoting “section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 requires them to maintain the highway network to a standard which is available and safe for their customers”. Most councils have a specific page, albeit hard to find, to make claims against them for pothole damage.
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Had it been reported? I use the Cambs on-line reporting tool regularly - some 8 out of 12 potholes that I reported about 4 - 5 weeks ago have been repaired, awaiting the last few to be actioned (they have been highlighted with paint spray).
EDIT - Cambs claim information.
There’s now a ‘national’ reporting system called Fix My Street. Actually a very good system, and links into the various local authorities. I prefer to use that over reporting direct as it creates a publicly available map of all the things that have been reported.
Some local authorities are moving over to Fix My Street fully, and removing their own reporting tool is favour of that app/website.
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Multiple times, but it’s a good 3-4 mile section that requires complete rebuilding, not just the temporary patches that are put on here.
I’ve been trying to reclaim it, but getting blood out of a stone is easier.
“If I don’t get a formal response within 20 working days I will be making a claim in small claims court against you based on the fact you have failed to meet your legal obligations under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980.”
Something like that? If it’s been reported, they have no defence. The normal defence is under section 58 “which provides a special defence if it can be proved that the highway authority took such care as in all the circumstances was reasonably required to secure that the part of the highway in question was not dangerous to traffic.”
So if it’s been reported and they’ve failed to fix it, then there is no defence.
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Yep, but sadly, Cambs Council don’t accept 3rd party reporting sites. 
That’s ridiculous. Probably want to make it as hard as possible to make a report so they can get away with claims more often…
I didn’t actually know that was a thing tbh. I assumed that site would work for all councils. The more you know!
Well, their on-line system seems to work OK, same functionality for showing what has been reported, etc. I’ll message their Highways Dept & see what they say about FixMyStreet.
I’ve had to go back to them several times where they have said the problem is “not bad” enough to warrant a repair such as faded road lines but for potholes, I normally use phrases such as “very hazardous to 2-wheeled road users” & “significantly high risk of damage to vehicle wheels / tyres.” They normally accept them without a problem.
Might help someone else for a claim!
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I generally like to use their own policy against them. Most Highways departments will have some sort of ‘highways asset assessment/management document’ that describes in tedious detail what needs to be fixed and when. Using Cambs as an example, that would be this document.
You’ll be amazed what should be fixed within 2 hours, or within 36 hours based on their own policy…
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Yep, know the enemy! 
At this point local councils are a more viable threat than Putin’s Russia. Does that mean motorists should receive military aid?
This may explain why I’ve seen a string of Bailey Bridges over some of our local potholes.
That’s pretty much exactly what I used to get on Now Broadband all the time.
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They replied:
We used to accept reports from FixMyStreet, but the process isn’t as streamlined as using our own online reporting tool.
FixMyStreet reports come through to us as an email, which then we report through to the highways officer in exactly the same way that a member of the public would, which just means the reporting process takes up to 5 working days longer.
The best way is to use our reporting tool (Report a highways fault - Cambridgeshire County Council) as this integrates the report directly to the correct officer for the area.
This sounds very much like a ‘them problem’ rather than FMS.
I’ve reported stuff on FMS that has been fixed the same day. Quite why they think it adds 5 days I don’t know…
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I would suggest that’s how regularly they check their inbox.
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