Anyone visiting Moseley over the past six months could not fail to notice the loud clanging every few seconds as vehicles drive over a manhole cover in middle of the traffic light junction, Alcester Road at Salisbury Road.
It was first reported to the council as far back as April. In June some workmen turned up, examined the drain cover and went away again. In July Izzy found out that Severn Trent were the company responsible and sent them a video via Twitter which seems to be the best method of corresponding with most utility company’s these days.
Severn Trent duly supplied a job number and a promise to carry out a repair. In August Severn Trent’s contractors, Network Plus suddenly noticed due to patches in the tarmac that another unknown company had carried out a repair at the location on some unspecified date in the past. This they decided was a good reason to refer the job back to Birmingham City Council.
In the mean time a second manhole cover has become loose, so now we have double clanking. This second manhole cover has no signs of previous road repairs. Izzy duly made a further referral to Severn Trent with the request that if they have to go to all the trouble to close a junction to fix one manhole cover, two would not be such an extra burden. Unfortunately the computer says no department couldn’t see the logic of this at all.
Izzy has now written to the Principal Traffic Officer who has allocated the job to Kier Highways and sent a stern letter to Severn Trent.
Maybe the clanking will be fixed soon — watch this space!
Moseley Liberal Democrats 