Anger over difficulty in trying to report hazardous posts in Waterlooville

Last Friday, when Jack Jarvis, 54, was driving home through Milton Road in Waterlooville, he noticed that two rusty metal posts were cut in half at a pelican crossing he crossed daily.

He said: ‘When I looked, I saw two rusty posts sticking out of the pavement. I thought to myself that it would be dangerous if someone fell into one of those and could leave blinded or invalid.’

Upon arriving at his house, Jack immediately contacted his local authority, Havant Borough Council, to report this hazard.

A few minutes after his phone call, he received an email from Havant council informing Mr Jarvis that from the image he sent, it appeared that work was done recently on the pavement, ‘leaving two rusty posts for the general public to injure themselves on.

‘If this is the case, then the person or persons responsible should be taken to task and dealt with with utmost severity.’

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Following that email, he received another one indicating that the footpath in question was a Hampshire County Highways footpath; therefore, he needed to contact the county council regarding this.

The borough council provided a phone number and an email but when Mr Jarvis tried to phone he found it was a ‘premium line’ costing him 79p per minute, which he found ‘disgusting’. After that, he used the email address to contact the county council.

Mrs Jarvis was worried that an email to the county council might not be checked before Monday, possibly resulting in harm over the weekend, making him feel ‘terrible’.

So he went over the internet and found a free number to call. Over the phone, the person asked him to email the county council with all the information and a picture.

He did this but has questioned why the councils do not have a better system to pass important information, such is this, to each other.

Mr Jarvis said: ‘Surely it wouldn’t take that long if the Havant council person that writes and responds to my email then forwards my picture to the correct department to Hampshire County Council. At the end of the day, they are public servants; why should I do the job for them?

‘I was really disgusted. They [Havant Borough Council] wash their hands by saying it is not our job; here is the information you need; you get on with it.’

‘It took me a good forty-five minutes to get the information and to get in contact.

‘If you give the public servant information that is a danger to the public, it is not correct they say, ‘No, this is not our job’. I think it is a very poor service.’

For this resident to say, ‘not my job or my responsibility or not my side of the road, is not good enough.’ He added, ‘It’s a public servant that has been paid to serve the community, and that is their attitude.’

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After contacting Hampshire County Council, it sent a patrol to fix the problem within an hour, which Mrs Jarvis was very impressed with.

‘They [Hampshire County Council] solved the problem within an hour, so obviously, there was a risk for people; otherwise, they wouldn’t have done that quickly.

‘I was impressed by the way they handled it. Once they were aware of the problem, they dealt with it very efficiently, and they removed the posts that evening; I was impressed.

Still, he said that he shouldn’t have ‘jump’ from council to council to get a problem resolved.

‘All they have to do is to type the right email address and forward it.

‘Councils should go above and beyond to help and solve problems. Not just pushing back. If I was not a persistent person, someone could have been hurt. I persisted because I was angry about it.’

Hampshire County Council has been contacted about why the posts were left on the pavement. An answer has yet to be received.

In response, Havant Borough Council said: ‘Our customer services team receive reports on a range of matters.

‘Issues relating to Havant Borough Council services are logged and given a reference number for residents to follow up on should they need to.

“To ensure we provide an effective and efficient service we advise residents, for services not provided by this council, to report it directly with the correct point of contact in order to pursue their matter and receive a response.”