Lion & Lamb Entrance dilemma!

As a resident of Farnham or if you have visited, you no doubt seen the problems they are having with the wooden block pathway at the main entrance of the Lion & Lamb. See the link below to my pic I took this morning:



Anyway for a few months it was replaced with this god awful plywood & then was recently repaired & did look very good. That was until this morning!

Now I aint no expert, but even I can see where they are probably going wrong. The blocks are softwood with a treated surface on top. Now if I remember correctly, softwood swells when wet which is why we have to varnish or water protect it in some way. Now these blocks don’t look like they have been treated in any way at all.

So why don’t they use hardwood which is better suited for this or treat the blocks before laying if softwood? Yes it means it will cost more in the initial work carried out. But how much is it costing each time it gets relayed with new softwood version.

Who ends up paying the costs? Landlord of the site, who then adds the cost to the shops & the shops then add it to the cost of the goods which we pay for?

Also is a waste of a natural resource, all those trees wasted just coz they cant do it right! If wood wont work for them, why not go for the cobbles to match the rest of the site?