Guy Comes Up With Inventive Way to Get City to Repair Potholes

Residents of Middlesbrough in the United Kingdom recently came up with an inventive way to force their local government to fix potholes that they'd left unattended. Brad Nicholson, a local, told the BBC that the potholes had been in the road for more than a year when they decided to act by drawing phallic symbols around them. 

A local Facebook page, Teeside Connected, posted photos of the graffiti online. "It looks like some residents of Acklam have had enough of reporting these potholes to the council," the page writes. 

And sure enough, it seems to have worked. "The power of the willy," the Facebook page wrote just a few days later. "Repaired this morning 25-04-2019. Only been there a year, well done Middlesbrough Council."

Middlesbrough Council told BBC that a road-mending team that was already in the Acklam area acted to fix the phallus-adorned potholes once it was made aware of them.

Nicholson, who shared the photos online, said they appeared two years ago but only became a problem about a year ago.  He did not know who painted the penises, but added: "It's about time something was done about all the potholes in Middlesbrough."   

A spokesman for Middlesbrough Council said: "Middlesbrough, like all local authority areas in the country, has issues with potholes and repairs are carried out on a priority basis determined by the risk they pose to highway users.

"Currently, however, we are carrying out pre-planned works in the Acklam area and staff were able to visit the nearby site on Fane Grove when the matter was reported to us and have patched over the hole."

Commenters were impressed by the idea. One wrote:

"This is genius. By doing this the council literally have to cover them up."

While another added: "Great work if they fix it i will know why i'm paying road tax."