Rod Stewart Was Criticized by Essex Highways For Repairing Road
via Rod Stewart / Youtube
Sir Rod Stewart was criticized by the Essex Highways about his video that showed him fixing potholes on a road near his home in Harlow, Essex.
Although, the rocker gained praises from fans when he uploaded the video on his Instagram with the caption: “Working for a living, filling holes is good for the soul!” The Essex Highways wasn’t impressed.
On the video, the 77-year-old singer was grabbing a shovel and helping to fill potholes on a damaged road. Stewart, who was dressed in the training gear of Scotland’s Celtic Football Club, said he was spurred to action because he couldn’t drive his Ferrari over the pothole-scarred road.
He complained that the local authorities had ignored the issue while huge amounts of money were being invested in a nearby motorway claiming:
“I’m repairing the street where I live because no one can bother to do it!”
He explained:
“This is the state of the road near where I live in Harlow and it’s been like this for ages.
“People are bashing their cars up. The other day, there was an ambulance with a burst tire. My Ferrari can’t go through here at all. So me and the boys thought we’d come and do it ourselves. So this is what we’re doing, filling in the holes, while millions and millions of pounds have been spent on the M11.”
Stewart’s action was brought to the attention of Lee Scott, the spokesperson for highways maintenance at Essex County Council. Scott has advised people not to try to repair potholes themselves after the singer was filmed doing it.
Scott told HuffPost:
“While we would like to prioritize repairs to every road, the scale of our network — over 5,000 miles — means this is impossible, and we have to focus on repairing defects likely to be most detrimental to the safety of our road users.
“While we appreciate Sir Rod’s commitment and community spirit, we discourage anyone from carrying out work on the roads themselves. Without proper traffic management and other specific safety measures, residents are putting themselves and others at risk.”
He added that he would be happy to arrange a meeting with Sir Rod to discuss the issue. Watch the video below.
