To my added surprise, it was sweeping up all the loose gravel chippings that a team of council workmen put down last week. (The council's idea of fixing a decaying road is to spray it with liquid bitumen and dump shovel loads of chippings on it.)
When the sweeper came back down the hill, the driver stopped to have a cigarette so I took the opportunity to ask him what was going on.
Well, it turns out that someone had complained about the state of the road, which was why the chippings were put down.
Then, someone complained that the loose chippings were, well, loose and therefore dangerous. So the council sent the sweeper out to brush them all up again.
When I told the drive that was daft, he just grinned and said "Aye, but it keeps me in work."
Mad.
