Pothole party perfect way to voice protest
THIS week, frustrated residents in Gedling gathered at The Gedling Inn for their first ever Pothole Party.
Attendees – mostly from the Gedling Borough Potholes Facebook group (currently sporting over 1,700 members) – contributed to the party atmosphere by bringing romantic cards and baking pothole-themed cakes. I didn’t attend the party, but I share the experience of those who did. As a driver and frequent cyclist in the area, I’ve suffered wrecked wheels more than once courtesy of an unavoidably fat pothole in the middle of the road.
That said, I do wish I had gone along to the pub to join in. It’s hard to imagine a more delightfully English way of raising awareness of the blight of potholes on a local area. Without the need for any civil disruption, this was a playfully creative, attentiongrabbing way of showing residents’ care. It even made BBC News.
This column isn’t the place to add another voice to the chorus that is asking the local authority (and government nationally) to raise their pothole game – but it is a chance to offer a faith-based perspective on the residents’ initiative.
It’s been said that “love meets the beloved where they are, but doesn’t want to leave the beloved where they are”. In normal speak, we might say that these Gedling residents love Gedling for what it is, while at the same time, wanting it to be even better than it is. We want to see Gedling – and by extension, Nottingham and our local area – become a place where people that live there can flourish.
You might not hear a sermon about potholes at church on Sunday, but all this makes for a vibrant illustration of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah’s call to “seek the peace and prosperity of the city” his hearers found themselves residing in.
So as a Christian, a pothole party is the kind of initiative I love to see, and want to celebrate. It may be quaintly English, but it’s a kind of proactivity that (despite the irony) lacks cynicism, and brings people together around a common concern for the quality of the place that they live.
And the Gedling Borough Potholes group shows no signs of piping down any time soon. Brian Bailey (a group moderator), speaking to BBC News, said his next step was to begin development of a board game looking at a route of potholes around Gedling.
The prophet Jeremiah would be proud.
■■Tim Yearsley is an associate chaplain at the University of Nottingham