Health and safety

A couple of months back I had a problem with my stopcock inside the house and the plumber discovered that my external stopcock didn't appear to exist: I had a nice hole with a lid for it, but he dug out the soil etc as far as he could reach and his stopcock-turning tool still couldn't connect with anything. Luckily he managed to fix the problem without having to turn the outside water off, but it could have been a big problem.

He advised me to contact the water people, who sent a man out in a couple days who dug even further down and eventually found the stopcock over 4 feet down: an old design which needed a tool which no plumber would have had anyway. And he couldn't turn it even with the right tool, so said he'd request a replacement.

Time went by, and I was on the brink of cracking and ringing up when I can home to find this! The note they'd put through the letterbox said the job was basically done and the water back on, and they'd be back to fill in the hole within a week.

The hole was about 2 feet square, but it looked like they'd decided that they'd use every sign, bollard and barrier they had in the van :-) There was even a roadworks sign at the end of the street! To be fair, they'd actually diverted the footpath, but they'd even put in a ramp up the kerb at the end which doesn't normally have one.

Anyway, it looks very colourful, if hilarious. And doubtless did the job.

The next day they filled the hole with hardcore and the day after finished it off with tarmac.