BRIDGNORTH Town Council could be taken to court by one of its former members after equipment taking down Christmas street lighting damaged her historic Low Town home.
Kate Dixon claimed during the public session at Tuesday’s meeting that the council was at fault for not shutting the street. Contractors from the south of England, engaged by the council, were using a cherry picker last month in St John’s Street when the 16th century half-timbered listed building was damaged.
“It happened on a Saturday lunchtime, which was out of the contractual time and they were working on a pavement three metres wide,” she claimed. “The town council are at fault and were negligent in not closing the street,” she alleged.
“I am just thankful the damage was to property and not to people. There is a constant flow of traffic, which includes at least four buses every hour, and heavy goods vehicles.”
After the meeting Mrs Dixon’s husband, John, said that the house had been built in about 1560. He said the rendering and pavement had been damaged to the tune of about £750.
Mrs Dixon added: “With the opening of a doorway from Marks & Spencer on to St John’s Street, the post office, children walking to and from school, elderly residents walking to the bus stop at the junction of Mill Street and pedestrian traffic in general, it is also very busy with foot traffic. If the matter is not settled by the council’s insurers I will go to court.”
She questioned why the town council did not identify the “severe risk” to pedestrians, vehicles and property when the contract was drawn up. “I believe that the contractors who carried out the work were not local and therefore not familiar with the extent of movement, both vehicular and pedestrian, in St John’s Street, so I therefore consider that it should have been the responsibility of the town council to have advised them of the dangers of working at this location without closing the road,” she said.
Locum town clerk John Ward told the meeting that he would be answering Mrs Dixon’s questions as the claim for public liability was a matter for the council’s insurers.