Kent Highways' major new visitor attraction for Sandgate - Opening Soon?
The following email is one I would have sent to Kent Highways today, except that they do not give out an email address on which you can contact them, and prefer instead that you use an online form. As the below makes clear, I have used the online form before with no success in this instance. Hence, my email is below, and I'll alert Kent Highways to it via Twitter, online forms and any other route I can think of...
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Dear Kent Highways,
On the 1st January, I reported some fairly deep and large potholes to you on the A259, Sandgate High Street.
This wasn't a new problem - as you can see from from Google Streetview in October 2015 the potholes were developing then. This may be when the problem was first reported (by someone else), but as there had been no action and the potholes were getting deeper, I reported it again at the start of this year. Helpfully, your own system displays the details of my report then:
Enquiry number: 186525
Fault category: Potholes
Fault type: Pothole On The Road
Street name: SANDGATE HIGH STREET
Town name: FOLKESTONE
Status: Enquiry attended - more work required
Logged date/time: 01/01/2016 17:12:50
12 days after this report, I received an email from our area's then Highways Steward, who told me by email on 12 January that:
"This job is already on the system and I have highlighted this to my engineer to get this programmed as soon as possible."
Today is the 15th February, 6 weeks since my original report, and 4 weeks since I was told that this needed to be programmed as soon as possible.
I would like the repairs to be undertaken urgently, as I believe that the potholes could now certainly cause damage to vehicles (especially bikes and motorbikes) and given the number of reports you have had, you would certainly be liable for a claim for damages due to your inaction.
I have today taken this new photo of the potholes, which, as you can see, seems to be forming into the entrance to a major new visitor attraction, the Sandgate Caves. If this carriageway repair is not going to be completed in the next few days, please could you let me know the planned openning times and ticket prices for the Caves, and whether you will be offering guided tours?
Yours,
Tim