Posted on 08/04/2014 1:31:38 AM PDT by Olog-hai
An entrepreneur has gambled his home on building a toll road after becoming frustrated at council delays in clearing a commuter route blocked by a landslip.
Mike Watts is charging motorists £2 per journey to use his bypass made from rolled chippings and avoid the closed section of the A431 between Bath and Bristol.
A landslip in February forced the closure of Kelston Road and, while Bath and North East Somerset Council said it has begun repairs costing £1.5 million, the road is not due to reopen until Christmas.
Mr. Watts, aged 62 years, said his road, which runs through farmer John Dinham’s field, will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, despite not having planning permission or safety certificates. …
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I’ve got one word for this gentleman: AWESOME.
Can you say “Cease and desist order"?
I can say that he’s living proof that centralized public works road construction/maintenance is exposed for the sham it is. While the county council dithers and says that the repairs won’t be done until December, this man’s got a bypass for cars and trucks with gross weight of 3.5 tonnes or lighter in operation.
If for no other reason than he is embarrassing the government.
Safety will be the excuse.
That’s certain.
Even worse, he’s proving that it can be a moneymaker, and that there’s no excuse for the preponderance of taxes extorted from the public over infrastructure.
So did he get a business license for his new endeavor?
The article says something about the powers that be not knowing if he was insured. If you don’t have business license you probably can’t get insured.
I would guess his worries about losing his house if he doesn’t make a profit from the road are unfounded.
He will probably lose his house paying off the fines for building the road without permits and inspections and not having license for the business. Then there are probably rule stating he is required to be bonded so there is another fine.
Government is very jealous of their power to stop you from doing pretty much anything without their getting their cut and their making sure you do it their way.
They will probably spend more money and time shutting him down than it would take to fix the road.
...and then they'll temporarily seize his property to use the exact same way he is.
And we just won’t mention the thousands of people per day that will drive 15 kilometers out of their way wasting thousands of hours of their lives and spending thousands of dollars for fuel they would not have used nor shall we mention the businesses that will have lost thousands of pounds of revenue because people did not want to drive those extra kilometers to patronize their business.
No it is better for all concerned that this man’s road go unused. It would send a bad message to the public if this man was able to circumvent the rules that we all have to live by so that civilization will endure.
These self-important Bureaucrats need to get a life.
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