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A peeling solution to pothole has split the community... Yeah, they stuck a banana tree in it

It's ripe up your street

In the UK, there are a number of things you can do about potholes: a) report it to the council; b) call the local newspaper, which will photograph you squatting angrily by the hole while you squawk "it's an accident waiting to happen!"; or c) nothing.

Honestly, for most of us, c) wins out in spite of ruined suspension, buckled wheels and a disturbing annual service bill.

We typically wait until someone else more sensible gets their arse in gear then – lo! – perhaps one day a man in a high-viz jacket comes along and paints some lines around it so it's "more visible".

two people 'appreciating' art in a gallery... look a bit pretentious doing so.

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That's if some vigilante crater crusader hasn't already daubed massive yellow knobs around them, like Cambridge's "Wanksy".

The luminous laggards won't fix it, though. No, that has to be rigorously planned, budgeted for and approved by a chain of sub-subcommittees. And then five years later, maybe, just maybe, workmen dig up the entire road, adding 20 minutes to our drive home every day for the next six months.

It seems that our cousins over the pond have similar frustrations, but a couple of neighbours from Hernando in northern Mississippi had a particularly creative answer to the trench bothering their street.

One BJ Alford told Fox 13 telly news: "My neighbour got tired of the pothole, so he put a banana tree in it."

Alford himself then added Christmas lights to it – handy for not driving over it in the dark. "Nobody was doing anything about it, so we decided to give it a use," he said.

The plucky little tree stood proudly in the middle of the road from Saturday night until Sunday evening when fun police from the homeowners association – remember those draconian lunatics? – took it away.

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Though Alford now thinks they might be facing a fine, he has no regrets. "If it gets fixed it's worth it," he said.

Indeed, the mayor told Fox 13 that "there are improvements planned for the street", which is reassuring.

Alford said daisies are next if nothing happens – a sweet touch compared to the bespectacled bald man who fell into the portal to Hell that opened up in York earlier this year. ®

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