An Italian pensioner has pledged to fight against the “injustice” of being fined almost €900 for fixing a pothole.
Claudio Trenta was so frustrated by the local council’s failure to repair the 30cm pothole on a pedestrian crossing in Barlassina, a small town in Lombardy, that the 72-year-old decided to take action himself by filling it with cold bitumen.
This led to a fine of €882 (£767) – but has also triggered a debate about the potholes plaguing Italy’s roads.
In a post on Facebook, Trenta shared a photo of the letter he received from the police accusing him of violating the highway code. He was fined for carrying out a potentially dangerous job in a public space without permission or the competence to do so.
Trenta has been ordered to restore the hole to its original state. “If they think I’m an idiot, they are wrong,” he told Corriere della Sera. “They’ve provoked me, and so now I’m filing a countercomplaint against the council for negligence.”
Trenta, who says he reported the pothole to the local authority several times over three months, has received a wave of solidarity from across Italy. One commenter on Facebook wrote: “Today I sent a protest email to Barlassina town hall. I’m aware of the realities in Calabria and Sicily, where the streets have been reduced to sieves and if people don’t take action themselves, everything collapses.”
Another wrote: “The council ought to be reimbursing you for the money spent on a bag of bitumen.”
Vittorio Sgarbi, an undersecretary at the ministry of culture, joined the debate. “In addition to the highway code, there is common sense,” he said. “Common sense should have prompted the local police to thank this gentleman.”
The pothole debacle has provoked significant media interest, with Trenta being invited to appear on the Mediaset programme Le Iene on Tuesday night to shed more light on the case.
“I’m not used to all this publicity,” he told Monza Today. “I will fight to the bitter end to have this fine cancelled as, in my opinion, it’s an injustice. Why fine me instead of those who knew about the problem and failed to intervene?”
