A farmer has been fined thousands of pounds for coating a road in thick mud and then failing to clean it up as directed by the local authority.
Wiltshire Police was alerted to the situation on the A3102 between Lyneham and Royal Wootton Bassett at around 3.45pm yesterday afternoon.
Police officers and Wiltshire Council staff attended the scene to discover excessive amounts of mud was found to be creating hazardous conditions across a mile-long stretch of road.
The firm responsible for causing the dangerous road surface were advised of the issue and asked to clear it. Wiltshire Council says it offered advice on a number of occasions, warning that a charge would be made payable if it needed to deploy its own team to undertake the work.
When the road was assessed later that day, at around 10pm, council contractors deemed it unsafe and began a clean-up operation. The road was closed intermittently by police whilst they worked at the scene – it reportedly took around five hours.
The firm’s charge for the work undertaken by the council is said to be around £5,000.
