Lorries on pavement

[GB]

Lorries on pavement - they've just demolished a house in my road. Massive lorries were driven onto the site for the rubble. To avoid dust, the contractors sprayed the rubble with water (all weekend!), but this no doubt added to the weight. The pavement is now massively chewed up, and I saw the lorries doing this.

The contractors have now left this with an old wooden door over the hole.

I can contact my council to report the damage, so they will repair it (eventually), but really the demolition contractors ought to pay for it, surely? What is their responsibility, and how should I deal with this?

[Adrian]

Not significantly. A big pile of bricks is going to weigh about the same whether they're damp or dry.

And Building Control will have noted it, too.

So it is currently temporarily made safe?

Yes, they should. Or, rather, the council will fix it and send the contractors the bill. Which is what is almost certainly going to happen anyway, just... in council time.

[GB]

Hope so.

Not really. The door is panelled, and they've driven a truck over it, so it's now bent in the middle.

Council time. :)

I'll stick it on FixMyStreet and hope the council bill the contractors.

[ARW]

I would try asking your local council;-)

[harry]

Not only that, they break up drains etc below ground.

[charles]

and telephone cables, etc.

[fred]

Go out and trip on it. Sustain an imaginary back injury. Sue all round you. THey'll fix it p.d.q.

[Brian-Gaff]

I think you need to talk to highways at the council and give them the name and address of the contractor, if you have it. Normally they would have needed permission to do the demolition from the planning dept, so they should know ho to have a word with. They may ask the company to repair their damage, but its been my experience that this can take years to actually happen. EDF put in a new connection a site some three years ago, and the temporary repair is now subsiding and nothing has been done. The problem is as always, money and staffing levels for this chasing up of companies. Brian