Each week, Ben Hopkinson looks back at a serious, crazy, and happy news story from the past week.
Serious News
The backlog to repairing roads in the south east of the country is set to cost a staggering £2.5billion.
Almost half of the road network (more than 13,000 miles) has less than 15 years of structural life left according to the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance survey.
The highway chief for Kent County Council has called for a change on the law for roadworks permits and asking for “significantly more” funds for maintenance.
The survey also discovered that, on average, roads were only resurfaced once every 188 years within the region.
KCC councillor, Neil Baker, says: “What we need is significantly more funds for ongoing road maintenance, over multiple years, so we can plan ahead. Roads have been underfunded for decades. It will take much more than a quick fix if residents are able to drive on surfaces they want and deserve”.
Crazy News
A Bulgarian football team have had to apologise to a former player after they mistakenly thinking he had died.
Arda Kardzhali play in the top division, and had held a minute’s silence in honour of Petko Ganchev before their match against Levski Sofia.
It was only during the game that they were told they made a mistake and put out a statement saying: “The management of PFC Arda would like to express a huge apology to the former Arda player Petko Ganchev and his relatives after the club received wrong information about his death. We wish Petko Ganchev many more years of good health and to enjoy the success of Arda”.
Happy News
Last weekend saw the Big Channel Islands Beach Clean.
Taking place across Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney and Sark – the event is in its seventh year and this time extends to includes the Isle of Man.
Volunteers throughout the British Crown Dependencies will be doing their bit to tackle pollution.
Bill Dale, the founder of Beach Buddies on the Isle of Man, says: “Islands understand the problem of beach pollution more than anyone else because they have to live with it every day. We are all in this together and they have got similar problems to what we have. We all have to take collective responsibility”.
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