Dirt, Dust and Speedbumps!

When we moved here nearly eleven years ago......... (I have to actually count on my fingers to make sure that I have got it right as I just cannot believe that we have been here that long), there were 11 houses in our road. Most of them were behind us as it were, and so there was very little traffic passing us. That was wonderful, as the well mannered, careful, and (mainly) considerate drivers meant that the dust from the sand road was kept to a minimum. We loved the fact that our village was as a village should be, and we were happy that the roads were not tarred.

Yes, well time has passed and we now have 29 houses in our road!

For the last five years or so, we have had non-stop building down the road, and the attitude of the drivers has changed as quickly as the scenery. Speeding drivers, delivery trucks, builders, plumbers and brick lorries, plus sand road and wind, equals buckets of dust blowing over us and the garden, the cats and the plants, and the bird baths quickly end up looking like an exotic mud-bath at the beauty parlour! At the other end of the scale, when it rains we have a quagmire that makes it impossible to walk without sliding sideways!

A couple of years ago, the Chairman of the Ratepayers Association managed to organise some speedbumps at strategic places and we begged to have one built outside our house! That worked well until learner-grader-drivers (and an irate husband who arrived with a shovel because his wife was unable to slow down and take the bump at a decent speed), flattened it to a mere pimple.

So a few weeks ago we were at breaking point. Rob phoned our local Councillor and invited him to come and see what the conditions were like on a normal day when the wind was blowing and the dust was swirling. Our neighbours had written letters  as well, so Rob was able to hand over several pleas for the road to be tarred. He argued that although we pay rates and taxes, we get absolutely nothing in return. We are like a 'Lost City' (village really), no sewage, no tar roads, no kerbs to walk on etc and really, this was not on!


And the result?

Our row of workers!

A few days later a team of  twelve workers, two engineers and three trucks arrived at our gate!
The men sat along the wall like a row of birds until the truck delivering the special bump-making material arrived.

Let the work begin!

Then some of them set to work. A spade wielder, a wheelbarrow wheeler, a sweeper with a heavy duty broom and a licensed driver of a compactor got busy while the rest of them gave advice, lent on spades, checked their phones, had tea and a smoke break.

Almost there!

And a few hours later all was loaded up, the tea was packed away and......voila!

One chap who regularly speeds, stopped and had a moan at the the engineer who explained very nicely that if it wasn't for people who speed, the bumps would not be necessary. Apart from that, it seems to have done the job.

The builders have now gone on holiday as it is the end of the building year, but they have been replaced by holiday-makers, so we still have the dust. What is the solution?

And to quote the Nobel Prize Winner himself (Bob Dylan for those who didn't know);

'The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind..................'