The coroner said the council's position, which it maintained throughout, defied all reasonable logic - being met with laughter in the court
There was "audible laughter" in a coroner's court as a council claimed that a six-inch-deep crack in a road that caused the death of a cyclist could have closed up and then reopened by itself. Both the coroner and a leading expert rubbished the claims from council workers.
On Friday an inquest was held into his death. It heard that the crack was visible as early as March 2009 when the road was photographed for Google Street View. More than a decade later, in September 2022, the chairman of Winmarleigh Parish Council arranged for pictures to be taken of the defect and then sent to a highways boss at Lancashire County Council .
In what was described as a 'puzzling' twist during the first day of proceedings, Mr Treen was asked how he could have missed the large crack, to which he said "I didn't miss it, it must have been repaired" before suggesting the crack must have "closed up on its own". "I can only say that that puzzles me," he said. "I am not aware of any mechanism that would likely have caused that crack to be there on September 9, then to not be there on September 15, but then return on January 2."
Geotechnical investigations carried out after Harry's death found that the fault in the road stretched for a distance of 87 metres. As the ground under the road was peat, as was known by the council, it was more likely for such faults to develop. The coroner also found that the inspection by the four highways workers on September 15, along with Mr Treen's inspection the following week, had been "insufficient and of an unacceptable standard". She added: "The council's position defies all reasonable logic... and Mr Colledge's family are well within their rights to be outraged... the council's position, maintained to the bitter end, was met by audible laughter in this court.
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