Homeowners fed up with council's refusal to repair road outside their houses order ton of tarmac and fill in the potholes themselves. Daily Mail

  Fed up residents forced to fix their own potholes after a year long dispute

  The 100 metre stretch of road had 100 potholes, some were 6ft wide 

  Homeowners, some in their 90s, said the potholes were 'dangerous'

  The pensioners, with an average age of 75, filled the holes themselves 

  Council refused to mend potholes due to a wrangle over road ownership 

Homeowners were fed up with their council's refusal to fix potholes outside their houses - so they ordered the tarmac and did it themselves.  

After a year long fight to fix 100 potholes on a 100 metre stretch of road, six pensioners, of Pudsey, Leeds, took matters into their own hands and repaired them themselves.

The men refused to take no for an answer when Leeds City Council highways bosses declined to carry out the work on the basis it is a private unadopted road.

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A hero for our time: Inspired by the man who built his own toll road? He's one of countless Britons rising up to solve problems the State's too useless to fix Daily Mail

Businessman sets up private toll road just 340 yards long charging motorists £2 a time to bypass closed section of main road. Daily Mail.

A hero for our time: Inspired by the man who built his own toll road? He's one of countless Britons rising up to solve problems the State's too useless to fix Daily Mail

1.      Businessman Mike Watts spent £150,000 of his own money to build toll

2.    It was after part of the A431 in Kelston, Somerset collapsed and closed

3.     He took matters in own hands to solve chaos caused by 14-mile diversion

4.    Mr Watts has shown up council 'jobsworths' who say road can't be fixed

The businessman who has built his own toll road around a road closure in Somerset should be knighted in the next honours’ list. He is an inspiration.

By taking matters into his own hands to solve the chaos caused by a 14-mile diversion on a busy commuter route, Mike Watts has set a shining example to anyone who has ever moaned about public services.

Faced with months of roadworks and upheaval, and the loss of business at the party supplies shop he runs with his wife Wendy in Bath, the pioneering  52-year-old didn’t just complain.

He put his money and his effort where his mouth is, rented a nearby field and built an alternative road to allow traffic to bypass the closure, charging drivers £2 each way.

He spent £150,000 on the gravel track next to the A431 in Kelston and says he will probably spend that again to maintain it. He says he only wants to break even before December when the council is due to re-open the proper road, which was closed after a landslip.

Of course, the council has been quick to question his efforts, citing that mealy-mouthed old staple — health and safety. 

Rather than thanking him, they’ve subjected Mr Watts to all sorts of snooty checks and inspections. Well, they must be furious. They have been utterly humiliated by him.

Mike Watts, British Hero

Businessman sets up private toll road just 340 yards long charging motorists £2 a time to bypass closed section of main road.