More direct action

I was chatting to someone in Newent's historic Market Square when someone walked past with a traffic cone he had "borrowed" from nearby. "You're the council chap" he said: "OK if I borrow this? there's a hole in the pavement in Church Street".

As it wasn't my cone I said to go ahead, but walked round with him to check what was up. Sure enough, the lid from an underground stop valve was missing. I went home, reported it to Highways, and did the obligatory Facebook post. Someone saw the post and suggested that the lid might have been stolen, as there had been a spate of ironwork thefts nearby. So to eliminate theft as an explanation I went back looked down the hole to check for the broken lid. It was there, but intact, so I fished it out and replaced it. Job done: call to Highways cancelled