Cracking down on utility companies

Rogue utility companies are being held to account by Hammersmith & Fulham Council for unnecessarily prolonged or delayed road works. Last year firms were fined £220,000 for overrunning road works that equated to an incredible 1,008 days. H&F Council is also challenging utility companies to keep the time they spend carrying out works down to a minimum by disputing proposals where it is felt companies are overstating the time it will take.

Councillor Nicholas Botterill, H&F Cabinet Member for Environment, said: "We are doing everything we can to make utility companies responsible for their actions, and to hold them to account for their shortcomings.

Local residents suffer from a great deal of inconvenience when roads and pavements are dug up, and where we can identify road works overrunning as a result of a particular company's poor performance, we will act.

Does Waltham Forest do this, I wonder?

In the light of this dangerous contraflow cycle lane (where nothing has changed in the past fortnight) I was interested to read that

Last year Thames Water was summoned to a town hall summit to explain themselves to councillors, residents and amenity groups.