Plastic duck protest over two-month-old hole in road

A fed-up resident has floated plastic ducks in a flooded hole in a Leicestershire road to protest over how long it has taken to fix it.

National Grid dug up the junction of Main Street and High Street in Fleckney at the start of March to fix a cable fault but said it found an unrelated leaking watermain.

Exasperated villagers said they were still waiting for the hole to be fixed and hope their duck prank will speed up repairs.

The task was left with Severn Trent which has apologised for the inconvenience.

Nick Plews, who posted pictures of the plastic pair of the village's community Facebook group, said he knew the person resposible but wished to remain anonymous.

However he said the prank was intended to highlight how long the hole had been left unfilled.

In a post on the Facebook page, Alan Kyle said: "They’ll have a family by the time they have repaired it."

A National Grid spoksperson said: "Our work to fix a fault was completed before Easter.

"During the course of the underground repairs, engineers found a water main was leaking. Traffic lights remain until the leak is fixed by the water company."

A Severn Trent spokesperson said: “For the safety of the public and our teams, this work will require a full road closure.

"To avoid causing disruption, it wasn’t scheduled for during Easter and half term.

"We’re working as quickly as possible with local highways to get the works scheduled and the road put back to normal, and we’re sorry for any inconvenience caused.”

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