Just discovered that our road is going to be closed for three weeks to allow a private company to lay fibre optic cable.
During this time there will be no access permitted for anyone except the contractor and the only parking is a pay-and-display car park about half a mile away.
It's not exactly the end of the world to walk this distance and I can shop locally, but there will be no post / parcel deliveries / bin collection / fire engine or ambulance access etc etc for the whole period.
Highways department response is "meh, not our problem". I'd be understanding if it was electricity or gas or something, but this is disruption caused by a private company putting in a for-profit scheme. It's not as if we haven't got full speed FTTC or Virgin Media already.
During this time there will be no access permitted for anyone except the contractor
Seems unlikely
there will be no post / parcel deliveries / bin collection / fire engine or ambulance access etc etc for the whole period.
Seems even more unlikely
There'll be a requirement for the contractor to maintain local access for residents and essential services.
Email the contractor and ask them exactly what provisions they have made for these things. They should be able to pull an answer straight out of their Risk Assessments / Method Statements
It’s not exactly the end of the world to walk this distance
I would be more than a bit upset if I was expected to walk half a mile with all the shopping for our family of 5. (Especially given current guidelines of shop alone!). And what of people with less mobility? Emergency vehicles?
It's already started unfortunately. It's single lane and now has a dirty great trench down it. Fortunately I was able to get my car out *before* the work began.
The contractor argues that the road has access from the other end, which is technically correct if you're riding a bike.
Local MP?
Is there really nowhere to park in a half mile radius from your house? Where on earth do you live?
I don’t understand when you say ‘if you’re riding a bike’. Does it or doesn’t it have access. If pedestrian access only then surely that’s a no and they have to compensate for the inconvenience..
There absolutely has to be access for emergency services and contractors sometimes have to go to some effort to ensure there is.
Agree with others that to say there is no access for anybody for three weeks seems exceptionally unlikely to be within the law. It may be what the contractors are trying to fob you off with so they do not have to sort out the contingencies however that does not mean it is legal.
If it's a formal closure, there'll be a legal closure Order made by the Council, and they should have consulted on it. I'd argue that putting notices on the lampposts isn't adequate during a lockdown. I think TABU.
Well they are breaking the law. On a residential street the emergency services have to have access 24/7.
Which road, can we look at it on google?
Seriously, the residents rolled over and accepted this??
Surprised someone hadn't considered blocking the contractors access to start the work as a form of protest! 😉
@flaperon You must be very Zen! I'd be livid if a contractor tried to pull a stunt like that
No you aren't being unreasonable. It sounds awful.
Are you going to have to pay for 24/7 pay and display parking for 3 weeks? And the first thing you knew about it was once they'd started?
Very much sounds like you aren't the unreasonable one to me! I'd get in touch with your local Councillor in the first instance and get them to sort out whoever should have dealt it properly.
Burn them. Burn them all!
They can’t stop access for emergency vehicles or residents.
OP’s disappeared - or his phone’s flat and he can’t get home to charge it 😀
Sh!t in their trench.
Still here. Not actually at home, but found out this morning when DPD driver called my mobile to say that the road was closed and would I mind collecting my parcel from his van.
To be fair I did get notified that work was taking place via a leaflet that was mixed in with the junk mail. It actually says that work is "taking place this week" but my neighbours have spoken to the contractors and they've said three weeks.
Have seen cable laying before and it's easy if it's on the pavement, not so easy if on the road. Someone says that they did actually manage to get down the road this evening but if you time it wrong you're going neither in nor out.
Also slightly annoyed that the fibre goes right past my house and I won't be able to get it thanks to a strip of cobbles between me and the road.
Yeah I'd be livid at that, no chance I'd be allowing contractors to mobilise. I'd have parked at the top of the street and blocked then until a method of working was agreed that still permitted access!
What if someone has a house fire and the truck has to park half a mile away?
Absolutely not acceptable.
Update: they're now attempting to prevent pedestrians using the road while they're working.
Probably a good thing I'm away from home because if they tried that with me I'd spend the day strolling up and down the road.
Local rag and practice your best compo face.
Update: they’re now attempting to prevent pedestrians using the road while they’re working.
If that is true, and there is genuinely no other alternative pedestrian or vehicle entry, then why are you writing on here instead of speaking to the council, the utility company and possibly even the non-emergency police number if escalation is required?
What you are describing is so far away from what is acceptable, I struggle to believe that a competent contractor would even agree to work on it.
Update 2: after speaking to the county council it turns out the contractors haven't applied for permission. Oops.
At this point I'm quite disappointed not to be around when the highways team descend on them Minority-report-style in high vis and clipboards.
Just occurred to me that Network Rail would probably want to know about someone digging up the road below one of their bridges too.
Funny thread this one. Complete reversal of the normal STW where someone has a rant and everyone tells him to STFU as it's not that bad... All the responders are frothing at the horror of it all and the OP is Mr Equinamity.
C'mon OP. Summon up some bile.
At this point I’m quite disappointed not to be around when the highways team descend on them Minority-report-style in high vis and clipboards.
Pathetic. We need video. Go home immediately.
Can you live stream this? Will make an interesting finish to the week for me!
Please let us know the outcome
Please let us know the outcome
56k dialup
Like others have said, I'd be absolutely livid and quite possibly going out of my way to find ways to be inconvenienced by this. Along with blocking their access and possibly sabotaging any plant/works left unattended overnight.
+1 for the livestream.
Update 2: after speaking to the county council it turns out the contractors haven’t applied for permission. Oops.
They should jump on it as up where I live contractors get fined £2k a day if a consent to work in the road goes over the permitted time allowed
It sounds more Oceans 11 to me than simply laying fibre optic cable.
Any bank vaults nearby they could be trying to tunnel into?
TTIUWP. Sort it out.
Somwhere in the council building there's a leopard, idly smoking a fag, while leaning against a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory who is yet to realise that he's about to be in a lot of trouble.
If you don't get free broadband for life out of this you've been short-changed.
Hire a back hoe loader and fill their trenches in over the week end and every night. Then find out who the CEO of the contractors is and bum his dog with frozen sausages whilst his wife watches on his front lawn.
Hire a back hoe loader and fill their trenches in over the week end and every night. Then find out who the CEO of the contractors is and bum his dog with frozen sausages whilst his wife watches on his front lawn.
...whilst owning him with a pair of bombers?
Goes without saying, natch!
Really this sounds like a nightmare situation - by the time the council decide to act the works will be well underway, so they may not do anything as it would result in more disruption. Maybe the contractors have form and this is what they are relying on.
Wee in their trench , that will learn them
Ring Fire Brigade , they will be really impressed if they cant get up the road , Alternatively
some rags , used engine oil, a few tyres , some old fence panels and a fire lighter
Get onto that chap from Combat Dealers and have him source you a German WW2 bomb and plant it in the trench. See how quickly they allow access to the emergency services then 🙂
Sounds like Trooli to me.
If it is, be thankful for the cobbles.
56k dialup
We already have Virgin broadband and 80mb from Openreach on the road...
BruceWee
Free MemberIt sounds more Oceans 11 to me than simply laying fibre optic cable.
Any bank vaults nearby they could be trying to tunnel into?
I visited a museum in France years ago where the owner said that the Tiger tank he had on display had been under a nearby road. He knew that if he asked permission to dig it out he would never get it, so he just showed up with a digger and some hiviz and borrowed "Route Barrée" signs, and dug it out over a weekend.
... he just showed up with a digger and some hiviz and borrowed “Route Barrée” signs...
And a galic shrug. That would have been an important tool at his disposal. 😁
Somwhere in the council building there’s a leopard, idly smoking a fag, while leaning against a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory who is yet to realise that he’s about to be in a lot of trouble.
This deserved far more recognition than it got.
Clearly the OP had missed a trick by not lying down in his dressing gown in the mud by the digger before one of us was able to persuade the works foreman to take his place while we slip out to the pub.
See, I knew that was a joke, and something about it was uncanny, but there was only a faint disturbance of the air as it passed over my head.
This deserved far more recognition than it got.
It raised a Dent in my consciousness.
The road is definitely highway, not private land?
I'd expect HW works to be shown on this website - https://one.network - I know you've discovered they didn't have permission, but it's a useful site.
"permission" for utilities companies can be un-straightforward, because they have to react quick to emergencies and they often use this fact to ignore rules, however a lot of companies that consider themselves utilities don't have the same rights as the big companies.
Also, walk away if they start with the poetry.
It raised a Dent in my consciousness.
Prefect
Re: the rail bridge, just walk down and look at the plaque on the wall, phone the number give the bridge reference and say there's work underneath and you're concerned. They'll probably have engineers there within a couple of hours.
I’m looking forward to an update on this. Did the contractors get their arses handed to them on a plate, did Highways turn up en masse with packs of frozen sausages and vans full of Bombers. Did they spike their builders tea with Picolax?
“permission” for utilities companies can be un-straightforward, because they have to react quick to emergencies and they often use this fact to ignore rules, however a lot of companies that consider themselves utilities don’t have the same rights as the big companies.
Yes, this. A couple of years ago Three (IIRC) did some "emergency" work on the main road into town, causing huge miles-long delays all day. The council fined them when it was discovered that this was routine maintenance they just didn't file the paperwork for, but I do wonder if they just factored the fine into the costings..
Quick update now that I'm home: parking now less of a headache, the council officer I'd been talking to emailed a temporary permit for their car park. Looks like the work is going to continue since they've already cut a long trench.
Their barriers have a permit number written on but it's for a different town.
Everything else still annoying. I managed to intercept our DPD driver by waiting on the main road at the time they said they were going to deliver the parcel. Three weeks without bin collection is going to be interesting.
Does the council think that this is acceptable or are they going to throw the book at whoever this is?
I assume the nice contractors have dug some refuse collection trenches for non identifiable refuse only to be filled overnight, no?
Would the residents have a civil claim against the contractor? They are clearly being put to a lot of inconvenience and some risk by the unauthorised closure.
Who is the contractor working for? Contact the client organisation direct and inform them of the unauthorised highway closure and criminal damage. (Send a pic of the permit number for the wrong town).
Don't forget photos or video of the ensuing carnage.
Angry People in Local Newspapers?
the works foreman
Mr Prosser.
Would the residents have a civil claim against the contractor?
No. They'd have a discussion with whomsoever manages the road, depending on the terms of their rights of access.
Get onto that chap from Combat Dealers and have him source you a German WW2 bomb and plant it in the trench. See how quickly they allow access to the emergency services then 🙂
This isn’t Exeter by any chance is it ? 😂
3 weeks?
Road through the next valley has been closed for about 15 months so far.
3 weeks is the gap between our bin collections too.
I assume the nice contractors have dug some refuse collection trenches for non identifiable refuse only to be filled overnight, no?
Be a shame if it spontaneously combusted...
Mr Prosser.
I am tempted to go full Arthur Dent tomorrow.
I am tempted to go full Arthur Dent tomorrow.
This thread ended on such a cliff hanger...
Is the OP now down the pub? Off round the galaxy with their towel ? Or just waiting for their bins to be collected...
If he's in the pub, it will feel like being drunk.
Only an hour of Thursday left.
Streetworks Act violation.
Based on the elapsed time I believe he is staring at the seafront in Southend but the buildings are going up and down while the sea is perfectly still.
Maybe he had the peanuts and three pints but failed to give the sandwich to the small dog.
Forgot to update the thread. 😕
I don't know what's actually going on but in Monday all the workers buggered off, leaving a trench in the road and the barriers in place.
Good news is that with some creative adjustment (ahem) the barriers can still safely block the trench but make the road accessible to delivery drivers / bin collections etc.
Tune in for next week's exciting installment...
Only an hour of Thursday left.
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.