I came home one evening to find the road through Chirbury shut. No-one had been consulted not the community, public transport companies or myself. Granted two leaks had been detected but no thought or effort had been taken to alert key road users such as the school bus people or the community at large.
Fortunately I managed to get hold of some key people before they went home for the weekend and get the job done relatively quickly by Sunday night. Left to their own devices who knows how long they would have left the roads closed.
There is also a major inconsistency between the attitudes of various teams and contractors used to do this work. Severn Trent’s contractors responsible for planned repairs in my area work well with communities but their emergency teams are hopeless. In other areas Councillor colleagues have had problems across the board with both.
Heather and Richard have written to Liv Garfield CEO of Severn Trent demanding an urgent review of their current policy on consulting with communities.
Note: Agencies who now close roads without notification to the Council are now liable to be fined.