I covered my town’s potholed streets with hilarious signs - and now the council has agreed to fix them
Signs that appeared on the roadside included ‘Craig David called - can you fill me in!’ while another welcomed drivers to ‘Pot Hole City - twinned with Grand Canyon’
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Your support makes all the difference.An anonymous pothole campaiger whose tongue-in-cheek signs went viral has claimed victory after the council finally agreed to fix local roads.
Known only as Daventry Banksie, the local superhero began creating signs highlighting the Northamptonshire town’s “particularly bad” pothole problem in March.
Working under the cover of night to place the signs near roundabouts and verges, her work soon went viral and she was encouraged by the community to continue her campaign.
Since then, her mission has gained national attention as she went on to create 46 signs pleading with the authorities to fix the local streets.
“Daventry’s roads were particularly bad,” she told The Independent. “There was an underperforming expensive highways contract and no one was being held to account. We’d [Daventry] had basically become the underdog.”
Playing on popular songs and cheeky references, signs that appeared on the roadside included “Craig David called - can you fill me in!” and another welcomed drivers to “Pot Hole City - twinned with Grand Canyon”.
The campaigner said that her personal favourite sent a message to the council about the removal of the signs reading: “You can take our signs but you’ll never take our freedom!”
Now, after more than a month of action, Daventry Banksie has claimed victory as West Northamptonshire Council agreed to fill in potholes and even made their own sign in response to the campaign.
The council has begun to fill in potholes in the town this week after sharing a picture of a sign reading: “Dear Daventry Banksie,
“Thanks for giving the town recent ‘fame’... We know some roads are in ‘dire straits’ since this winter’s ‘ice ice baby’ and need a ‘hole lotta love’...
“Although we’re ‘under pressure’ with ‘money, money, money’, we won’t ‘shake it off’ or ‘let it be’ as we can ‘work it out’.
“Can we fix it? Yes we can.”
Speaking to The Independent about putting down her paintbrushes, Daventry Banksie said: “I feel I achieved what I set out to achieve.
“I couldn’t of done it without the support from everyone. So I feel really proud to be part of the town that held the council to account. And it’s really great to see other towns now doing the same, we set a trend.”
Over the weekend, she placed her 46th and final sign which simply read: “Thank you Daventry for all your support.”
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