Residents might well have seen the sink holes that appeared after the rain last Monday – one on Hampstead Lane and one on Highgate Hill.
This blog asks you to let us know of any other major damage to the highways so that we can let the Council and councillors know – and hopefully get swift resolution, restoring safety.
Responsibility for roads, gullies and drains is confused and that has probably made it easier for councils to ignore long-standing problems.
It is a statutory requirement for councils to unblock gullies and drains and in the case of Highgate Hill and many other areas of Haringey, residents have been failed.
The two roads with sink holes are boundary roads between Haringey and Camden and this might have added to confusion about responsibilities. Residents have no idea which is responsible for what. We wonder if the councils know.
Haringey’s web page is, by omission, not clear. It says a lot about private drains and public sewers but little about the council’s responsibilities.
The page does say: “Defects that are hazardous or serious will be prioritised. Hazardous defects will be repaired within 24 hours. Serious defects will be repaired within 7 days.” but it’s not clear if that includes these sink holes.
The highways repairs page offers a similar promise of repair:
“Defects that are risk assessed as hazardous or serious will be prioritised. Hazardous defects will be made safe within 24 hours of being inspected, with a permanent repair following. Serious defects will be repaired within 7 days of being inspected.”
But no repairs have started nearly a week after the rain.
Haringey published a Highways maintenance Plan in 2018:
and these two holes will be a good test of how that works.
The good news is that the rain unblocked many of the previously blocked gullies – so when the repairs are made, we will probably be in a better position.
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