The A431 Bristol (East) to Bath road was closed in February due to subsidence.
Repair work only started last week, the road is expected to be closed until the end of this year.
Locals have pleaded with the council to create a work around solution to avoid the 14 mile diversion that can take 1 and a quarter hours during peak times. The council have said nothing could be done..............................a frustrated local has therefore rented the adjacent field and built the first toll road (in 10 days) for more than 100 years .
story here:
tinyurl.com/mz87ko7
J
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Rather a French thing to do. A fine example in fact of British neo-Poujadism. I used to know that road quite well... Kelston Tump which it passes can be seen from the A4.
I hope the cat breaks even at least.
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He has to have about 1,000 cars a day to break even.
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>> He has to have about 1,000 cars a day to break even.
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Another newspaper is quoting him as stating:
"We have really got to get 1,250 vehicles passing each day. Department for Transport figures for the last 10 years suggest in excess of 7,000 cars used the road each day."
I used to live near there and used the road several times a week - it is a very busy road.
The alternative A4 route into Bath (the diversion) is even busier.
I think he'll be ok unless the council find a way to stop people using the road.
Last edited by: Jacks on Mon 4 Aug 14 at 15:35
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What odds on the council now pulling their finger out and leaving him with a loss?
I wish him well.
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I note that there has been a complete U turn by the local council from any excuse (legal or not) to shut it down, to help with the planning application and signage.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Mon 4 Aug 14 at 15:32
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Non-Faily Wail link for those who prefer to avoid it:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-28610943
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Typical British bureaucratic response to any initiative - try and find an excuse to stop it.
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His road. 310 metres. £150000. £483 per metre.
Edison Bell link road in Huntingdon. 500 metres. Ten million pounds. £20000 per metre.
Shows the difference when you just have an empty field to start with I guess. And perhaps his isn't built for 40 tonners for the next 100 years. Even so, his is very much cheaper.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Mon 4 Aug 14 at 22:00
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>> His road. 310 metres. £150000. £483 per metre.
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>> Edison Bell link road in Huntingdon. 500 metres. Ten million pounds. £20000 per metre.
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>> Shows the difference when you just have an empty field to start with I guess.
>> And perhaps his isn't built for 40 tonners for the next 100 years. Even so,
>> his is very much cheaper.
Yeah, its weight limited, no drainage, no lights, no street furniture, no skid resistance, no cats eyes, and temporary. I think I could lay a wide concrete driveway for less than 500 quid a linear metre.
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>>Yeah, its weight limited, no drainage, no lights, no street furniture, no skid resistance, no cats eyes,
No TAR/Asphalt - rolled / compressed roadstone ONLY
But you have to hand it to the guy - he has shown courage in mortgaging his home in this highly risky venture.
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Would your car insurance cover you for driving on an unapproved road? Private must be okay because there are other privately owned toll roads.
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>> Would your car insurance cover you for driving on an unapproved road? Private must be
>> okay because there are other privately owned toll roads.
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I can't see it being a problem, there are many private roads and parking scam infested private car parks. The Road Traffic Act and other traffic laws apply on private land with public access, try drink driving in a supermarket car park.
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"Private property to which the public have access".Anyway in this instance,he is charging for access.
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Generally a car's insurance covers it anywhere - except that some insurers don't cover track days, and the Nürburgring. Competitive use is excluded by all normal policies, although you can buy cover.
As for toll roads, there's one in Dulwich, one at Porlock (bypasses the famed very steep hill) and many others.
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The wife's sister's street is about 300m and was an unmade road. A real shocker, I personally wouldn't have bought that house for that reason. You would have needed a Land Rover at some points and don't bother ever washing the car - deep water, deep ruts, gravel, stones & dust and being thrown from side to side even just crawling along. Water could be the full width of the street and it was also impossible to walk along. It got to the point that I refused to drive along it. Prams and buggies? Forget it.
The houses were big (luxurious) with a lot of land and her house is number K so the 11th house and it was the last big one. After that, there are a few more little terraced jobs, so maybe another 10 houses. And the property is only along one side, nothing on the other side, just scrubland. In fact, everyone used to walk over the scrubland to the next road, that's how bad it was.
Just like my road, and hundreds of others in Warsaw, it was all was just farmland, sold to developers who build property and construct roads from paving blocks. They are not genuine roads, covered by the councils. We maintain them and we had lighting erected. (Very pretty). But at her sister's place they had big problems, it wasn't a developer, it was the farmer/landowner himself who built everything but wasn't prepared to pave block it. So last year, the house owners were so peed off, they just got together and got it flattened and tarmacced. It took a weekend and I have to say it looks fantastic - you could play marbles on it. I know she paid about £2k and I imagine all the other big properties paid the same. Perhaps the smaller houses paid slightly less. And the big house next to the sister's is a nursery school and he paid more as clients were threatened to find a different school. There's now a space for about 6 cars opposite the nursery.
All in all it must have been in the £40k region for 300m of the proper black stuff. So regarding the OP, I wonder why it cost so much...
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I see this guy's temp road has attracted a degree of legitimacy... Google maps now show it.
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"Businessman who built his own toll road rakes in £200,000 in just two months after 100,000th car pays to use it" (according to DM)
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2785095/Businessman-built-toll-road-set-make-profit-month-100-000th-car-pays-use-it.html
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(so he's only got to make another £100,000 to break even)
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New toll road built by frustrated resident - Armel Coussine
