Access to the cottage is via a Byway open to all traffic, but nobody could get up it for 3 months of the year because the deep wet chalky ruts made it impossible, although not for a tractor! Even in our 4WD I was scraping the axle along the middle of the rut. The slippery nature of wet chalk and the camber of the slope meant you'd slide right over to one side and there was nothing you could do to stop yourself...take a look, don't be deceived, this is fine in summer, but one shower of rain and you can barely walk up this track for fear of slipping over! :
This pic below is me standing on the rut edge, it's up to my knee and what would happen in the wet is the vehicle would slip to this left side of the track up against this bank and you'd stay there scraping away at this bank for the next 700m until the bottom of the track, no directional control at all...the passenger wouldn't be able to get their car door open!
So we spoke to the council, the track belongs to them...no help! They don't see what the problem is and had no money anyway! With no hope of an ambulance or fire engine ever getting to our house, let alone our friends and relatives, we said we'd pay in the end! They said fine BUT it had to be done to a minimum specification...of course it did, especially seeing as they weren't paying for it!
