A BUILDER was so fed up with a council not fixing a traffic hazard he decided to do the job himself.

Pete Smith fears a trench at the side of Nottington Lane in Weymouth will cause an accident.

After seeing no action taken, he has made a temporary fix and started to fill the gap with material to make it safer.

He hopes this will prompt highways authority Dorset County Council, which is working on a road scheme nearby, to take notice and finish the job.

Former pub landlord Mr Smith, who now works in property maintenance, is currently living in Nottington Lane. He reckons the trench has been created from traffic going up the lane towards Dorchester Road having to steer wide due to oncoming traffic not observing the right of way at the traffic calming chicane.

Mr Smith estimates the trench to be 13 metres long, about a foot wide and six inches deep.

He said: “I had to get the tracking done on my wheels after going into it in my van.

“There’s a serious fault there and it should be repaired before someone has an accident. My theory is it’s from vehicles coming down the lane not stopping where they’re supposed to at the traffic calming, forcing oncoming vehicles to go wide, causing erosion of the verge.”

He added: “I reported it to a foreman who was working on the road scheme near the Wey Valley School in Dorchester Road but nothing happened so I reported it to the highways department but still nothing. It seems crazy the council has guys working a few hundred yards away but they’re ignoring it.”

Frustrated by the lack of action, Mr Smith grabbed his shovel and started to fill in the trench himself, using material from the grass bank.

“I hope it will make someone sit up and take notice,” he said.

Highways manager at Dorset County Council Martin Hill said: “We encourage members of the public to report road defects through the web or by phone to help us keep our highways in good working order.

“Mr Smith’s defect report was passed to our inspection team who have assessed the damage, which is a verge overrun probably caused by a large vehicle driving over the edge of the carriageway, and we will need to top it back up with suitable material in the near future.

“This work will be put into our routine maintenance programme, which is prioritised according to type of road, urgency of repair and whether it is on a public transport route.”