Contractors still unable to communicate effectively with Council after 2 years.
A Shropshire Councillor is challenging Shropshire’s roads contractor – Ringway – to get their act together two years after she highlighted a major problem in their communications.
I first brought this matter to their attention over two years ago, not long after the contract for road repairs in Shropshire was given to Ringway.
Examples include:
i) Residents are still waiting for new black and white chequered warning signs for Blackford Bridge near Chirbury where there have been a number of accidents.
ii) Gulleys (drains) are often sucked out but still the linking pipes are left blocked for a long time afterwards. Gulleys in the Brockton, Worthen and Aston Rodgers have all suffered from this.
iii) The amount of work being required on roads is often too great for the number of ‘hedge to hedge gangs’ (teams to deal with small repairs) we have in Shropshire and they are being spread thinly across too large an area. They are concentrating mainly on potholes but many items such as signs that need repairing or cleaning (such as in Stiperstones and Bentlont) are left undone.
Councillors have also expressed concerns about the fact that they have still not moved their base of operations to Craven Arms as promised and are still sending teams from considerable distances (from Cheltenham in one instance) to do work on a public contract.
Lastly they are making no effort to let Councillors know their programme of works which makes it very difficult for us to warn the public of any pending disruption.
Heather has already raised this with Chris Edwards, Shropshire’s Southern Area Director and is urging the Council’s Scrutiny Panel to review the contract thoroughly when they discuss Ringway’s performance shortly.
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