Workmen painting white lines on a road left a gap for a dead badger because they said it was not their responsibility to move it.

The animal had been killed about a week before on the A338 near Downton, on the Hampshire-Wiltshire border.

Hampshire County Council said the workers did what they thought "was best" because it is the district council's job to remove carcasses.

The badger has now been removed and the painting will be completed on Friday.

The county council said there would be no extra cost to taxpayers because the company was being paid a fixed rate for the job.
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I drove home to see his body between the lines - they had painted the road, but left a gap where he lay”

End Quote Businessman Kevin Maul

Businessman Kevin Maul was on his way home from work when he noticed the break in the lines.

He said: "I couldn't quite believe my eyes when I saw this poor old badger who had been there over a week.

"I'd seen him every day as I went by and wondered if he was going to be picked up.

"Then on Friday I drove home to see his body between the lines - they had painted the road, but left a gap where he lay."

Hampshire County Council is responsible for the line painting but New Forest District Council is responsible for clearing road kill.

The two failed to arrange the clearance before line painting began.
'Not trained'

Mel Kendal, county council environment chief, said: "We would usually liaise with our colleagues at the district council who dispose of animal carcasses on the highways to ensure the badger was removed before the white line painting crew did this stretch of road.

"This appears not to have happened in this case and the white line painting crew did what they thought was best until arrangements could be made to dispose of the carcass.

"These arrangements have now been made and the gap in the white lines will be filled in, at no extra cost to the council tax payer."

Council contractor Amey said the staff from sub-contractor Bellstan were not "licensed or trained" to remove road kill.

I guess its way too much effort to scoop it with a shovel and pitch it to the side of the road...

they are not qualified, nor do they have the training for such as this...

That is pathetisad right there.

That is Union labor for you right there!

Why do I hate unions so much? Well, make a delivery to a union shop on break some time! Or better yet try to get them to do anything menial!

It's not that they were lazy or anything. It's about who gets paid for what. They were only getting paid to paint the lines. County gets paid to remove dead animals.

At my old job one of the lines I ran had lost a suction cup on the grabber. It fell off and was easy to just put back on. They made me fill out a maintenance slip anyway. It wasn't a big deal and I could have fixed it myself in two seconds. That wasn't a union shop either.

i disagree... thats why things don't get done in this country, and why things can get expensive for us. all they had to do is kick it aside, and finish what they were doing... not that hard, and doesn't take a lot of brains. now they have to go back and fix what they didn't do and they will waste about a half a day doing that. it makes me sick to see this kind of stupidity running rampant in our country. i would have fired the whole lot of that crew, and put someone in with some brains to do it right.

Perhaps paint doesn't stick to Badger juice.

lol maybe