Cobbles

EAGLE-EAYED Coronation Street fans think they’ve worked out another link to the cobbles for DI Costello (played by Daon Broni).

ITV viewers have previously expressed their suspicions about the detective inspector, thinking he is hiding his role in the death of his colleague DS Lisa Swain’s late wife Becky.

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After Friday’s episode of the soap, fans now think Costello has a connection to another character as the gripping storyline continues.

Dee Dee Bailey’s new love-interest Ollie appeared to take an interest in Lisa and viewers have flocked to Reddit to share their theories about his connection to Costello.

Somebody wrote: “So I’ve a new theory about Ollie and I’ve a feeling it’ll soon become popular. I think that he’s either related or connected to Costello.

“If you think about it, they came in around the same time and came to the forefront about the same time. Are both around the copshop alot lately. Both are inquisitive to people lately making sus comments.

“Who’s to say that it’s not a big corruption involving Costello, Ollie, the Radcliffes and Becky along with the infamous Tia Wardley.”

Another fan expressed: “Costello has been in it for over a year since the Joel case. But you could be onto something alright.”

Someone else responded: “I think there might be a twist that Ollie might be related to Costello and there’s a twist that he’s Costello’s son.”

The name Tia Wardley has been hanging over Lisa and her girlfriend Carla Connor for months, in connection to Becky.

In Friday’s bombshell episode, Tia finally arrived on the cobbles to explain herself – just in time for the women’s engagement party.

In the instalment, DI Costello was seen desperately trying to cover his tracks and hiding what he really knows about the mysterious Tia Wardley.

Tia turned up at the Bistro and told Lisa and Carla all about her connection to Becky.

She claimed to have been involved with the Radcliffe brothers and revealed that Becky had helped her escape her troubled life out of the goodness of her heart.

Lisa seemed genuinely touched that the truth meant that Becky had been a good cop – and had helped the woman escape a bad situation.

But after leaving the Bistro, the woman met up with Costello – and the truth soon emerged. The woman was not the real Tia Wardley.

She told Costello: “I gave them the full Meryl Streep. Really milked it. Looked like the blonde one was going to cry.”

And when the potentially dodgy cop questioned whether she actually managed to trick Lisa, the faker added: “They didn’t have a clue what the real Tia Wardley looked like, so yes…”

In addition to the on-screen confession, the credits also named her as “Fake Tia Wardley” confirming that she is definitely not the real woman Lisa and Carla were looking for.

But as Lisa and Carla made their way home from the celebrations, Lisa suddenly felt a chill.

It was then revealed that someone had been watching the couple, leaving the detective feeling completely unnerved.

Coronation Street fans will have to continue watching to find out who was following the pair and to who the real Tia Wardley is.

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RESIDENTS in a historic city have been left fuming after a granite cobbled street was ripped up and repaired with a blob of tarmac.

Emergency repair work to fix a water leak in Canterbury, Kent, resulted in the ripping up of granite setts, locals say.

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One section in Burgate Street has now been replaced with black asphalt – which has been described as a mess by disgruntled residents.

Clive Bowley, 73, from the Canterbury Society says he heard about the unappealing repairs last week after complaints from other locals.

The resident, who works as an architect restoring historic buildings, says it is becoming a pattern in the town with other traditional streets also seeing tarmac patches.

He said: “It was brought to our attention by people complaining. I just thought ‘oh not again.’ It was depressing.

“The problem is that service engineers have to go in to do necessary work and they don’t reinstate the ground properly afterwards.

“There is just a great big patch replaced by tarmac. It is a bit of a mess really. They have done a botched job.”

Photos show several repairs across the city centre, which has UNESCO World Heritage Site status.

Clive, who has lived in Canterbury for over 40 years, says that if these streets aren’t restored soon then the historic feel will be ruined.

Clive said: “It is all about civic pride really. If things are botched up then it looks a mess and seems like people don’t care. It gradually will look more and more scruffy as time goes on.

“Burgate is one of the streets that leads down into the heart of a historic area. So, all that end of town is a conservation area and is of special heritage interest.

“If they are not put right in due course the town will gradually become a pit of all sorts of patches.”

Clive claims that he has complained to Kent County Council about the tarmac, and that they have claimed it will be fixed soon.

However, he says that many locals believe the unique road materials are now in landfill- and they feel that repairs will be impossible.

He said: “The council said that they would press the water company to do it properly. But similar things have happened around the town that were never fixed- so we are a little skeptical.

“The other concern is that they have dug up all these specialist materials and we don’t know what has happened to them. If the granite setts are thrown away, then we won’t be able to get more because they are unique.

“Every material used is unique, so you can’t just go to the builders’ merchants and buy more. My skeptical nature suggests that they probably dumped them.”

The water mains repairs were completed by South East Water, who insist that this quick fix is only temporary, and say that they will begin restoration next week.

Nick Bell, of South East Water, said: “We’re sorry to customers in the Canterbury area who have been left upset at the current appearance of the interim surface laid following urgent repairs to the burst water main in Burgate.

“This is not the finished reinstatement, but our priority was to backfill the excavation quickly to allow the road to be reopened, rather than prolonging the road closure.

“We have ordered the necessary materials to complete the permanent reinstatement, which involves re-setting the granite cobbles to their original condition.

“We will be carrying out this work from Thursday, 28 August, and we’ll work as quickly as possible to minimise the impact locally and restore the road to its original condition.”

A spokesman for Kent County Council said that the emergency works were to fix a leak, with the need to reopen the road as quickly as possible.

But the authority says the company is obliged to reinstate the road to its original surface within six months.

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