Tar very much... Free road treatment row resurfaces, this time with councillor

It SEEMS like a case of deja-vu – but weeks after a Conservative MP sparked a storm of protest by having the road outside his house resurfaced free of charge, a fellow Tory in the same borough has done the same.

Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart insisted he had done nothing wrong when council contractors resurfaced the private road to his house at the request of his wife Anne.

But the same contractors came back to dig it up a fortnight later after complaints from neighbours and constituents.

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And now the pickaxe could be hanging over the drive of East Riding councillor Charles Bayram, after a different firm of contractors relaid a 40-metre stretch of the road leading to his farm in North Cave.

Both companies said the asphalt was what was left over from official jobs nearby.

Asked if he thought he had made an error of judgment, Councillor Bayram said: “No. They were looking for somewhere to put it and I said you can stick it on my drive if you want.

“I don’t feel I’ve done anything wrong. Had I been a farmer, just a normal farmer, nothing would have been said.

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“The problem is in the future it’s going to make it more difficult for sub-contractors to dispose of because people are going to be wary of accepting it because of all this fuss.”

However, the days of free resurfacing jobs may be over after the sub-contractors in the latest case said spare Tarmac would in future be brought back and recycled, “where possible”.

Richard Kirwin, regional manager for Tarmac National Contracting, said: “We were very concerned to hear about this, because Tarmac is an absolutely professional and ethical company. As I understand it, there was a small amount of material left over from the work we’re doing on the B1230. A member of the public asked if it was going spare, and whether he could use it to fill in a couple of potholes on a track – our guys thought they were just helping someone out and making a goodwill gesture.

“...We didn’t know the man was a councillor and I must stress that absolutely no money changed hands and that the client and taxpayers are not out of pocket. We’re deeply sorry if this has upset anyone; we’ll be investigating thoroughly and reiterating to our teams that any excess loads should be brought back to site and recycled, where possible.”