North Otago had about half its annual rainfall over a couple of weeks which left many, mostly rural, roads in need of repairs.
That work was going to take time so Bill Pile, a farmer who happened to have a grader, spent several hours patching dozens of pot holes.
And did he get thanked?
No, he got this:
Council roading manager Michael Voss said he understood Mr Pile’s wish to see the road, which services his property, back in serviceable condition sooner than the council had planned.
However, Mr Pile’s actions could have caused problems, Mr Voss said.
If his actions had created “any incident” that had “the potential to endanger other road users”, the council would be in a difficult position, Mr Voss said.
And had the pot holes caused any incident with the potential to endanger other road users such as the school bus, milk tankers and other motorists wouldn’t the council also have been in a difficult position?
”For example, all works on the public road must be undertaken with a compliant and approved traffic management plan which lays out the operations and how works are to be undertaken. This is a legal requirement and for the safety of all road users, which Mr Pile contravened.”
Councils have to work to the rules and it’s not Mr Voss’s fault the reporter asked a question to which he was bound to give the bureaucrat’s answer.
But reading that response made me feel like I was swimming in treacle with gumboots on.
I sometimes wonder if the H&S laws of the country don’t apply to councils. The rest of us have to take “take all practicable steps…” to prevent harm. This includes making sure our workers get to and from work safety. Our responsibilities don’t start at the farm or workshop gate. They start from the time employees leave home on the way to work. So if the road there is unsafe, don’t employers have an obligation to do everything they can to fix it? I have tried a number of times to get a problem fixed on a council rural road because it is a safety hazard in accessing one of our properties. My requests are repeatedly ignored and/or not taken seriously. Last Friday an accident finally did occur. To prevent this (it was entirely preventable) should we have taken matters into our own hands and fixed the problem ourselves as Bill did? Maybe. But after having previously been threatened we are not willing to do this. So we sit by and wait for things to go wrong! Not good enough. Councils should be willing to help employers meet their obligations, not working against them.
Back in February 2004 i was farming in the Manawatu when we got hit by a huge storm that did a great deal of damage to roads as well as on farm tracks and bridges.
A neighbour had a digger on a farm that was not affected and wanted to take it to his hill country farm to fix tracks. He had to walk it along a road for about 6km to get to the farm as there were many slips on the road and couldn’t get his truck down the road. So he started to clear the slips on the road as he went and was stopped by the council contractor, Fulton hogan as it wasn’t his job to do this and would take work away from them. Needless to say he carried on and got the road opened up. The FH crew couldn’t cope anyway and there were many outside contractors bought in to help. But what is wrong with local people helping when they have the machinery and the knowledge to get things done?