“The road repairs fairy doesn’t exist”

Bucks County Council cabinet member Lin Hazell said she was appalled by the abuse given out by drivers to workmen as they patch up the roads.

Speaking at the cabinet meeting on Monday, she said: “People need to understand there is going to be inconvenience. I witnessed the other day this poor guy standing there just monitoring traffic and this driver hurling abuse at him. He is a guy doing a job – he is not paid to have that happen. When I shouted across and said, ‘do you want the road fixed or not?’ he said, ‘well, yeah’ and I said ‘you have got to expect some inconvenience’.

“It seems some people are just expecting this road repairs fairy to fly in overnight and it all to be done with no inconvenience. People need to watch what they say to the employees because they are there to do a job and not there to be abused.”

Council leader Martin Tett added: “What’s interesting from my own mail bag is when I took over four years ago virtually every email was a complaint about potholes. I actually receive relatively few now. That’s not being complacent, we have got a lot to do still. But it’s interesting I get more complaints now about the disruption caused by road repairs than I do about potholes – which is actually in some ways a good change.”