Footways

Reader Shaun Hodge has contacted us with a story of bureaucratic confusion and departmental inefficiency. It would be laughable if there weren't a real threat here to pedestrian safety. And, as the author concludes, it raises serious questions about accountability, inefficiency, and how public concerns are handled.

Hodge's admirable persistence is worth chronicling in full. His campaign unfolds below, told in his own words and images. Council officers' names have been obscured by us in line with Spurtle policy.

Chirk, Conway, Denbigh, Kenilworth, Ludlow, Raglan, Rhuddlan, Stirling, and Warwick. What’s the connection?

If you answered ‘Towns with a medieval castle mostly in North Wales’ then you’re wrong.

They are in fact the product names for a range of Group 2 access covers produced in the UK for nearly 40 years.

Earlier today, the Spurtle editor tripped over this example at the corner of Frederick and George Streets, twisting a knee in the process but also becoming intrigued by the name and its peculiar details.