Walls, councils etc. part 3

Way back when, or October 5th. 2009 to be precise, I posted an entry about how the progress of the demolished garden wall was going. Various attempts to chivvy Oxfordshire Highways about lack of progress have produced little action, until finally they passed me off to the actual company that did the work. 'Phoning them got me through to their claims department who acknowledged that they had received the paperwork from Oxfordshire Highways (which in itslf is staggering progress), had spoken to their experts and then tried to deny everything. "It was a weak wall" is the stock excuse.

After much argument someone finally called me back and arranged to see the wall with me. at 11am today., Friday 12th. March. The man arrived at 09.40 instead and declared the whole wall to be in danger of collapse and that they could not be responsible for such an obviously dangerous structure. I didn't question at the time why they hadn't spotted it before they started work and allerted me or the council to the likely collapse. Neither did he spot the marks on the wall where the work gang had hit the wall. So, if he's their wall expert I must be an Olympic standard synchronised swimmer.

Fortunately, there is a local walling specialist who is a member of the Dry Stone Wall association, and he is coming tomorrow morning to give me a quotation on the repair., and hopefully give me some further information on who is most likely responsible for the damage. Watch this space.