PhilipWhile it is unfortunate, it is not a farce. When the Borough proposes to resurface a road, it issues a section 58 notice to all statutory utilities, giving them an opportunity to undertake maintenance or replacement of their buried services (gas, water, telecoms etc) before the road is resurfaced, and prohibiting them from undertaking such maintenance or replacement for two years after the resurfacing takes place (one year for footways). In parallel with this process, the Borough is in touch with the major utilities and works with them cooperatively to allow them to undertake their major programmes. For example, although we had the funds to resurface High Street Brentford (east of Ealing Road) and Kew Bridge Road in 2006/07, we knew that Thames Water intended to progress its Victorian water mains replacement programme along this stretch in 2007/08, so we resurfaced only as far as Pottery Road and held off on the rest until this work was finished. We then integrated our cycling, local road safety and resurfacing schemes and implemented these at the end of the Thames Water works, even to the extent of working with Thames Water to ensure that when they trenched the carriageway under the kerb line past Regatta Point we would reinstate the kerb a little further back to achieve the proposed on-carriageway cycle lane instead of doing this separately. The end result is a very high quality section of carriageway, with cyclists almost unilaterally appreciative of the new facilities - the sole detractor has been yourself.The recent works at the Musical Museum and Jet Service Station are emergency gas repairs. This is frustrating but, unfortunately, the Borough has no power to demand a complete replacement of the gas mains prior to the resurfacing, and there has evidently been a subsequent failure, which of course needs to be fixed. At the conclusion of the works, the Borough will ensure that the utility’s contractor has left us with a good quality carriageway surface at this location.
Chris Calvi-Freeman ● 6275d