Norbreck resident "sees no issue" with modified red public footway

Colin Harris, 77, of Evesham Close, Norbreck had a dropped kerb installed by Blackpool Council in July, but now he must replace their work after he decided to implement some "improvements" of his own.

Mr Harris- the brother of late ventriloquist Keith Harris, famous for his partnership with Orville the green duck- said the combination of recent hot weather and cars driving over it had damaged the tarmac on the dropped kerb, and he did not feel any extra costs should be incurred after he used cement and red driveway sealer over it.

He said: "The council have told me I've got to take it all up and redo it. But every time we got a bit of decent weather and cars drove over it, they made holes in it.

"So I thought I'll just try to strengthen it. I put a bit of cement and some sealer on it. I feel like the council are wasting both their time and mine, it's hardly anything.

"It's a lot better now than before, because now cars aren't making holes in it. The council told me to go out and put water on it when the weather is hot, but I didn't."

Now the council have informed Mr Harris that the public footway he has modified is in an unacceptable colour, after he changed the tarmac from black to red.

He said he would have been happy to keep the original black pavement, if it hadn't been melting- and if anything he has improved the footpath.

Kathleen Harris, 65, said she didn't think charging her husband for the replacement work was fair.

She said: "We just wanted the pavement to be the same colour as the driveway. We wouldn't have done it if we had known it wasn't allowed. We were just trying to protect it from the sun, it's more annoying that we have to pay for it it again when it's just a bit of paint."

Mr Harris said he was annoyed that he was expected to "waste" more time and money when he felt the pavement had been improved by his intervention, and that other cars using his driveway as a turning point on the cul-de-sac were responsible for the damage.

A spokesman for Blackpool Council said: “We have recently installed a dropped kerb for Mr Harris at his request and cost. At no point were we aware that he was unhappy with the finished product as he didn’t make a complaint.

“If he had contacted us we would have sent an inspector to check the quality of the finish.

“It has since come to our attention that Mr Harris has used his own materials on the footpath.

“As it stands the public footway is now in an unacceptable condition and colour. We will be formally writing to Mr Harris to ask him to pay for to be repaired.”